| dc.description.abstract | The Dream of the Red Chamber starts by two legends, Nue Wo Stone on Ch′ing Keng Peak and the Oath between Wood and Stone, leading to the writing of “Story on Stone” introducing the theme of “qing”.
Drawing on the discourses and concepts associated with Chinese gardens, as well as the archaeology of the Wood and Stone, this novel excels in innovation instead of inheriting the old tradition. Overall, the novel’s reflections on the Wood and Stone is inspired by the cultural biography of things, employing as the preliminary example the famous Taihu Rock, originated in various gardens of the 9th century, then classified in the Stone Catalogue of Cloudy Forest in the 12th century. The ugly shape of objects was integrated as part of the Elegance culture of Literati, further obtained high monetary value in Luxury culture, and finally became the signature symbol of writings on Chinese gardens.
Then, the literary expressions in different times and genres are discussed to reveal the unique process of social life it experiences and how it occupies certain cultural space. Since the Ming, and Qing Dynasty, the Taihu Rock often appeared in romantic literary texts, formularizing a style of garden writings. In terms of the Dream of the Red Chamber issued in the 18th century, Cao Xueqin chose to focus on the Stone of Ch′ing Keng peak, demonstrating a refreshing aspect of spiritual revelations from objects, which bear the function of witnessing and recording events as valid facts. Via a stone of spiritual connotations, dreams, fantasies and reverie fate in the Dream of the Red Chamber have become thematically coherent with the Oath between Wood and Stone explored in the Peony Pavilion, creating a new writing style on Chinese gardens.
The Grand View Garden is a Flower/ Wood Mound, and hence the Story on Stone refers to tomb inscriptions making the voice of unmarried women heard and recorded. Engaging the legend of Flora Faith to interpret young girls getting together in garden, the Grand View Garden turns to be a paradise for youth, refusing to grow up. The Flower Festival in spring is transformed to the Party of Flower Preserves, the Grain in Ear Festival and the Prophecy of Flower Poetry, forecasting the withering flowers as well as the appearances of ko–niu and Flower Fairies to suggest the liberation for girls of premature death.
The creation of the novel itself can be explained as a combination of wood and stone as the carved characters on the stone became stone inscription, then turned into transcriptions by one Taoist monk, that were finally turned into the form of wooden letterpress. The abandoned stone comes in perfect square shape, providing index to the publishing contribution by Cao′s family. Cao’s grandfather received the imperial decree to print the Entire Tang Poems, grandson and grandfather regarded printing books as honorable family business conducive to the preservation of both classic scriptures and private memories.
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