Approaches to Teaching the Story of the Stone

by Andrew Schonebaum (Editor)

The Story of the Stone (or Dream of the Red Chamber ), a Chinese novel by Cao Xueqin and continued by Gao E, tells of an amazing garden, of a young man's choice between two beautiful women, of his journey toward enlightenment, and of the moral and financial decline of a powerful family. Published in 1792, it depicts virtually every facet of life in eighteenth-century China―and has influenced culture in China ever since. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," provides information and resources that will help teachers and students begin and pursue their study of Stone . The essays that constitute part 2, "Approaches," introduce major topics to be covered in the Chinese religion, medicine, history, traditions of poetry, material culture, sexual mores, servants; Stone in film and on television; and the formidable challenges of translation into English that were faced by David Hawkes and then by John Minford.

Genres: Nonfiction

515 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Andrew Schonebaum is associate professor of Chinese literature at the University of Maryland.

Reviews

[Timothy Hallinan · Rating 5 out of 5]

While it's probably mainly for scholars and "Stone" junkies, this is a masterful approach to the primary themes and characters of the greatest of all Chinese novels.

THE STORY OF THE STONE (also called THE DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER) runs five (thick) volumes in length, has literally hundreds of characters, takes place in a very specific historical era, and mirrors both the religious and social practices of the time and also the broader political landscape in which the story takes place. I managed to love it the first time I read it even though I knew almost nothing about any of that, but successive readings have given me hundreds of questions, and this book has helped me find many answers.

I'm not a scholar, so what matters to me is that this book, tough sledding though it can be at times, actually increaseD my enjoyment of one of my three or four favorite novels in the world.

[miri]

it's a nice collection of essays! i feel a couple of them could have been a bit deeper and there are quite a few essays here which, like other english language stone essays, will say something along the lines of "Of course there are many things foreshadowed in the first 80 chapters which do not come to fruition in the later 40 which have been discussed extensively elsewhere so we shall not discuss again here" which is frustrating. the hawkes essay was very nice and i have now set out to try and find a copy of "a translator's notebooks" which i had not heard of previously. as of my writing this review, the only copy for sale online is $3200. So!

[Mighty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended, I wish more works of literature had such useful companion volumes.