Dream of the Red Chamber, also called The Story of the Stone, composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It was written sometime in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. Long considered a masterpiece of Chinese literature, the novel is generally acknowledged to be the pinnacle of Chinese fiction. "Redology" is the field of study devoted exclusively to this work.
The title has also been translated as Red Chamber Dream and A Dream of Red Mansions. The novel circulated in manuscript copies with various titles until its print publication, in 1791. While the first 80 chapters were written by Cao Xueqin, Gao E, who prepared the first and second printed editions with his partner Cheng Weiyuan in 1791–1792, added 40 additional chapters to complete the novel.
Red Chamber is believed to be semi-autobiographical, mirroring the rise and decline of author Cao Xueqin's own family and, by extension, of the Qing Dynasty. As the author details in the first chapter, it is intended to be a memorial to the damsels he knew in his youth: friends, relatives and servants. The novel is remarkable not only for its huge cast of characters and psychological scope, but also for its precise and detailed observation of the life and social structures typical of 18th-century Chinese society.
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红楼梦，最早叫石头记，是中国四大古典名著之一。它是由曹雪芹在清朝中期乾隆年间的某个时候写的，长期以来被认为是中国古典文学的最杰作代表和中国古典小说的巅峰之作。而“红学”则是专门致力于研究红楼梦这本书以及其产生背景和隐含内容的一项研究领域。
当曹雪芹写完前80回后，他就去世了。之后一段时间里，这部小说以各种名字，比如石头记，金陵十二钗，红楼梦等等，在私人和朋友间以手抄本的形式传阅，并形成了数种略有差异的不同版本。1791－1792年间，另一位作家高鹗与他的合作伙伴程伟元合作，在其中某一个版本的基础上，增加了额外的40回故事，补齐了人物的归宿，形成了完整的故事格局，并且进行了印刷出版，使这本小说得以以完整的模式流传至今。
红楼梦被认为是一部半自传体的小说，它反映了作者曹雪芹自己的家庭兴衰，同时细致地描写了清朝贵族家庭生活的奢靡。在第一章中，有非常细腻而尖刻的细节描述，据说是为了纪念作者年轻时认识的朋友、亲戚、仆人和女佣。这部小说不仅具有宏伟的人物形象和心理活动范围描写，而且对第十八世纪初中期中国社会的生活和社会结构进行了细致入微的观察。
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