Essay - The Dream of the Red Chamber Among the Diverse Themes...

The Dream of the Red Chamber

Among ***** diverse themes of this novel are the meaning of jade, of stone, of love, and the imagery that ***** and stone offer, based on the authors' view of Chinese religion (Confucianism, Buddhism, ***** Daoism), Chinese society and culture. And one of the early and main themes, ***** certainly a central theme of The Dream of the Red *****, is virtue, goodness, and being able to lead people to learn true facts so *****y can better be prep*****d for their lives. In fact, in the first five chapters, ***** authors (there are two authors but only ***** at any time) create a ********** in the story of questions about value and morality, and what is just *****ing presented in literature as merely *****ly for the sake of being pretty. That *****, he criticizes ***** writers who write entertaining and lovely stories, the "beauty-*****-talented-scholar" kind ***** writing, and the "breeze-and-moonlight" kind of writing.

***** theme ***** comes through during the reading of ***** novel is played out through the feuding ***** central characters, which is the authors' way ***** illustrating, through literature, ***** decline of the feudal *****. The sub-*****me might be, on a big-picture level, *****-fold: the story of power, we*****lth and, typically Asian, honor and nobility, and *****ciety's seeming self-defeating fall from grace; and a big picture theme also is, in the end, the regeneration of a seeming degenerate character in ***** person ***** Pao Yu, ***** yet the tragedy of his misfortunes.

One of the main protagonists - and like***** *****s - is Black Jade. Two o*****r main characters are Chen Shih-yin (who ***** in ***** at the *****ginning) ***** Chia *****-tsun, ***** has been building up a reput*****ion based on currying fav***** with higher-ups, all in the name of ***** ga*****ing power personally. ***** is a wealthy intellectual / scholar, who is married to Lady Feng, has a h*****ppy life, and a three ye*****r old daughter *****d Ying-lien (Lotus). They live near the Temple of the gourd in Kusu. They pretty much set ***** stage for the action to come later.

***** important part of th***** *****, setting up the authors' values as far as Confucianism and Chinese spiritual *****, is when Chen has a dream in ***** he meets a Buddhist monk and a Daoist priest; *****y show him a very lovely ***** expensive piece of jade, called "The Precious ***** of Spiritual Understanding." Later, he sees them again, and they tell ***** a sad fate awaits his daughter, Lotus. ***** authors' philosophical views of life are launched through the characters, and continue to come out through several ***** the *****, as is the case with m***** novels; but in th***** instance, since ***** is ***** for *****e reader to learn ***** China in the 18th Century, it ***** both instructive and entertaining to learn about *****, *****, and ***** culture of that ti*****e period.

And so, to analyze the ***** *****s, main characters, the plots ***** ***** morality