A Dream of Red Mansions is the first of China's four classical novels, and it is a novel written by Cao Xueqin in Qing Dynasty. It is also called The Story of the Stone and Jinyuyuan.
This book is divided into two editions: 120 Cheng Ben and 80 Fat Ben. The first eighty chapters of the new edition of Tongshu were collected according to Fat Book, and the last forty chapters were collected according to Cheng Shu, with the signature "Cao Xueqin, Anonymous, Cheng Weiyuan, Finishing".
Because Cao Xueqin's original works handed down in this world are only the first 80 chapters, and the last 40 chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions circulating in the market 120 are all continued by later generations, the ending explained is quite different from the ending implied by the first 80 chapters of the original works, and the descriptions and thoughts and behaviors of the characters are deviated, so it is impossible to generalize, so the stories of the last 40 chapters cannot represent the original works of A Dream of Red Mansions.
The author of A Dream of Red Mansions has a preliminary democratic thought. He profoundly criticized the real society, including the darkness of the court and officialdom, the decay of feudal nobles and their families, the feudal imperial examination system, the marriage system, the handmaiden system and the hierarchical system, and the corresponding social ruling thoughts, namely, Confucianism and social morality of Confucius and Mencius, and put forward vague ideals and propositions with preliminary democratic nature. These ideals and concepts are the tortuous reflection of the budding factors of the growing capitalist economy at that time.