I like your analysis, but I think there's quite a bit that you're still missing. My guess is that it's because you've read one (or both) of the major English translations instead of really engaging with the Chinese original.
The "background" in Chapter 1 is not just a cosmic background, nor is it some sort of attempt to connect the story to Chinese myths or legends. Actually, Cao Xueqin creates a lot of foreshadowing in the first chapter — and it's not just limited to the obvious eventual fate of Lin Daiyu, the "fairy grass" (絳珠仙草) who is fated to repay the "divine servant" (神瑛侍者) with her tears (把我一生所有的眼淚還他). Cao Xueqin is actually making a comment on the fatalism of the Confucian thought of his time. The great irony here is that Lin Daiyu is really not fated to die; she makes the conscious decision to do the things that she does. In fact, her eventual death is caused by Jia Baoyu's indifference, not by some sort of divine foreordination. I could go on.
One thing that most people fail to grasp from the first chapter is the nature of the names of the story. This is largely because David Hawkes completely neglected to translate the first paragraph of the book. The name Zhen Shiyin (甄士隱) is a homophone with the phrase "將真事隱去," and refers to "hiding things that are real." Similarly, the name Jia Yucun (賈雨村) is a homophone with the phrase "假語村言" (or "fake language and unpolished words"). The family names 甄 and 假 form a dichotomy between "truth" (真) and "falsehood" (假) that exists throughout the course of the novel — and that you really have to keep in mind to understand the social criticism Cao Xueqin is engaging in.
Anyway, I could go on, but this would turn into a long essay. Hawkes knew about the dichotomy but did a poor job of showing it in his translation. The Yangs also knew about the dichotomy and tried to explain it through their footnotes, but, in the end, were far more interested in making a neo-Marxist / Maoist political statement than in actually treating the book for what it was. You can see this from their introduction, where they go on and on about how Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu were proto-revolutionaries fighting against the upper classes and tradition and so on and so forth.
Thanks for the comment! I'm keenly interested in your analysis of the novel, and I will be following your new translation closely. It's true that my analysis is entirely based on the Yangs' English translation, along with some very elementary knowledge of some of the Chinese language background. There's definitely a ton that I've missed due to not having access to the original, nor any Chinese commentaries. My goal with the series (if you're interested, the full text is now hosted at https://balckwell.neocities.org/Literature/RedMansions) was primarily to evangelize the novel, and offer insights to other English-speaking readers from the perspective of someone mostly familiar with the Western literary canon. So your blog is super exciting to me, offering a glimpse into a side of the novel that remained hidden to me during my readings.
I always thought of the Yangs' foreword as a means of placating the political powers-at-be; their attempt to connect the novel to Mao and Communist China seemed somewhat forced. However, since it's the only version I've read, it would be hard for me to see how that affects the translation of the text itself, aside from the introduction. I'd be interested if you plan on discussing this as part of your blog.
Anyway, it's great to see another person on the English part of the web delving so deeply and passionately into this amazing novel. I will do my best to direct more readers toward your blog.
Wow - this is awesome! I'm going to have to take some time to go slowly through what you've written.
Dream of the Red Chamber never ceases to surprise me. Cao Xueqin does an incredible job of subverting his audience's expectations at every stop — something that I didn't really realize the first time I went through this book.
I originally read the Chinese version alongside both the Hawkes and Yang translations. The Yangs' translation is closer to the original, though I've noticed as I've slowed down and read it much more critically that they tend to skip past things that are hard to translate. There also seem to be a few Marxist additions, though it's possible that they were heavily influenced by whatever Chinese intellectual thought there was around this book at the time.
Actually, the story of the Yangs is even more interesting. They were deeply harmed during the Cultural Revolution, and spend quite a bit of time in prison. The fact that they came out with anything at all is really quite remarkable.
The Hawkes translation tends to get a lot of support from the academic community, of course, although I've found a few instances where his mistranslations indicate that he really didn't understand the original text. Hawkes was good at translating poetry, though there are times when I'm really turned off by his translation. He insisted on spending a lot of time fiddling around with rhythm and rhyme in his English poems, which I think is pretty unnecessary, all in all.
But the biggest problem, in my mind, is that Hawkes is way too wordy. Reading him is like reading a Dickens novel, except with a ton of random Sanskrit words thrown in. He's got this really annoying habit of combining Sanskrit adjectives with proper names with Latin roots, and then throws in untranslated Chinese words every once in a while. And that doesn't even count the French and Italian terms he uses for no real reason, or the part where he translates sections of the Confucian classics into Latin, lol.
My feeling is that most people who try the Hawkes translation wind up giving up early on. You need a dictionary to get through it — at which point you might as well just learn Chinese and get through the original.
Anyway, it's great to meet you virtually and talk about this book! I'm absolutely obsessed with Dream of the Red Chamber, and am learning every day that it's a really good doorway into the greater world of Chinese literature and poetry.
I like your analysis, but I think there's quite a bit that you're still missing. My guess is that it's because you've read one (or both) of the major English translations instead of really engaging with the Chinese original.
The "background" in Chapter 1 is not just a cosmic background, nor is it some sort of attempt to connect the story to Chinese myths or legends. Actually, Cao Xueqin creates a lot of foreshadowing in the first chapter — and it's not just limited to the obvious eventual fate of Lin Daiyu, the "fairy grass" (絳珠仙草) who is fated to repay the "divine servant" (神瑛侍者) with her tears (把我一生所有的眼淚還他). Cao Xueqin is actually making a comment on the fatalism of the Confucian thought of his time. The great irony here is that Lin Daiyu is really not fated to die; she makes the conscious decision to do the things that she does. In fact, her eventual death is caused by Jia Baoyu's indifference, not by some sort of divine foreordination. I could go on.
One thing that most people fail to grasp from the first chapter is the nature of the names of the story. This is largely because David Hawkes completely neglected to translate the first paragraph of the book. The name Zhen Shiyin (甄士隱) is a homophone with the phrase "將真事隱去," and refers to "hiding things that are real." Similarly, the name Jia Yucun (賈雨村) is a homophone with the phrase "假語村言" (or "fake language and unpolished words"). The family names 甄 and 假 form a dichotomy between "truth" (真) and "falsehood" (假) that exists throughout the course of the novel — and that you really have to keep in mind to understand the social criticism Cao Xueqin is engaging in.
Anyway, I could go on, but this would turn into a long essay. Hawkes knew about the dichotomy but did a poor job of showing it in his translation. The Yangs also knew about the dichotomy and tried to explain it through their footnotes, but, in the end, were far more interested in making a neo-Marxist / Maoist political statement than in actually treating the book for what it was. You can see this from their introduction, where they go on and on about how Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu were proto-revolutionaries fighting against the upper classes and tradition and so on and so forth.
That's why I've started a new translation. Come check it out: https://redchamber.blog
Thanks for the comment! I'm keenly interested in your analysis of the novel, and I will be following your new translation closely. It's true that my analysis is entirely based on the Yangs' English translation, along with some very elementary knowledge of some of the Chinese language background. There's definitely a ton that I've missed due to not having access to the original, nor any Chinese commentaries. My goal with the series (if you're interested, the full text is now hosted at https://balckwell.neocities.org/Literature/RedMansions) was primarily to evangelize the novel, and offer insights to other English-speaking readers from the perspective of someone mostly familiar with the Western literary canon. So your blog is super exciting to me, offering a glimpse into a side of the novel that remained hidden to me during my readings.
I always thought of the Yangs' foreword as a means of placating the political powers-at-be; their attempt to connect the novel to Mao and Communist China seemed somewhat forced. However, since it's the only version I've read, it would be hard for me to see how that affects the translation of the text itself, aside from the introduction. I'd be interested if you plan on discussing this as part of your blog.
Anyway, it's great to see another person on the English part of the web delving so deeply and passionately into this amazing novel. I will do my best to direct more readers toward your blog.
Wow - this is awesome! I'm going to have to take some time to go slowly through what you've written.
Dream of the Red Chamber never ceases to surprise me. Cao Xueqin does an incredible job of subverting his audience's expectations at every stop — something that I didn't really realize the first time I went through this book.
I originally read the Chinese version alongside both the Hawkes and Yang translations. The Yangs' translation is closer to the original, though I've noticed as I've slowed down and read it much more critically that they tend to skip past things that are hard to translate. There also seem to be a few Marxist additions, though it's possible that they were heavily influenced by whatever Chinese intellectual thought there was around this book at the time.
Actually, the story of the Yangs is even more interesting. They were deeply harmed during the Cultural Revolution, and spend quite a bit of time in prison. The fact that they came out with anything at all is really quite remarkable.
The Hawkes translation tends to get a lot of support from the academic community, of course, although I've found a few instances where his mistranslations indicate that he really didn't understand the original text. Hawkes was good at translating poetry, though there are times when I'm really turned off by his translation. He insisted on spending a lot of time fiddling around with rhythm and rhyme in his English poems, which I think is pretty unnecessary, all in all.
But the biggest problem, in my mind, is that Hawkes is way too wordy. Reading him is like reading a Dickens novel, except with a ton of random Sanskrit words thrown in. He's got this really annoying habit of combining Sanskrit adjectives with proper names with Latin roots, and then throws in untranslated Chinese words every once in a while. And that doesn't even count the French and Italian terms he uses for no real reason, or the part where he translates sections of the Confucian classics into Latin, lol.
My feeling is that most people who try the Hawkes translation wind up giving up early on. You need a dictionary to get through it — at which point you might as well just learn Chinese and get through the original.
Anyway, it's great to meet you virtually and talk about this book! I'm absolutely obsessed with Dream of the Red Chamber, and am learning every day that it's a really good doorway into the greater world of Chinese literature and poetry.