FOREWORDHave a slight knowledge of A Dream in Red Mansions as I did before entering university, I hardly kept a clear idea about its main contents .It was the time when I was a freshman in university that I began to read this well–known book. At first, too many various living characters made me confused. Hardly did I catch the relationships among them .Then, complicated plots and the lack of information about the backgrounds completely put me get nowhere. Recently, I looked up several reference books introducing the author himself and the time he lived, in which I got a relatively better understanding of A Dream in Red Mansions .There is a book on the relationships amongst the main characters, a book on the characteristics of different people, a book on a simple introduction of the plots, and a most important book on the analysis of A Dream in Red Mansions. After finishing these books, I got a clear image about this famous book. Now, I will show my reporting to you with the assistance of these useful and meaningful reference books. I hope my lack of good knowledge and experience will not bother you too much.The brief introduction of contentsA legend goes that NV WA , an amiable goddess who created human beings in the accordance with her figure ,sewed a crack in the sky out of colored stone . When the process of sewing the crack finished, only one stone left. The stone became animate, which had the ability to control its size and go anywhere. It held a gloomy feeling for not being chosen to sew the crack of the sky .Monk Mang Many and Taoist priest Miao Miao found it cute, sending it to earth full of lives .So many years later, Taoist priest Kong Kong happened to pass there, knowing its background curved on it, which interested him to make a copy from the beginning to the end .He gave it to Cao Xueqin, hoping him to divide it into several chapters. The following contents are from the stone.There was a Cucurbit Temple standing outside the Gusu Door. An official, Zhen Shiyin lived near it .A poor man, called Jia yucun who lived into the temple, sending him some money for an exam .On the Eve night ,the daughter of Zhen was abducted .Later ,the Cucurbit Temple was on fire .What is more , the house of Zhen was destroyed so that he set out to his father--in-law’s home with his wife . Due to the contempt from family, he became a monk.Jia yucun passed the exam and was titled as the head of a county, but he was dismissed for corruption .He had no choice but to tutor the daughter of Lin ruhai.The authority made a decision to employ people who had been dismissed. Jia yucun asked Mr. Lin to give him a hand due to his father-in–law was powerful. The mother –in-law of Mr. Lin wanted her granddaughter Lin Daiyu to stay with her for Daiyu’s mother died. Mr.Lin asked Jia yucun to escort Daiyu to the capital. Jia yucun got connection with Rong Guo Mansion and with the help of a sworn brother of Mr.Lin ,Jia zheng, Jia yucun got a job as an official.Daiyu visited her grandmother, as well as her aunt Xing,Jia S he’s wife. Aunt Wang, Jia zheng’s wife, and the niece of Mrs.Wang: the wife of Jia lian who was the son of Jia she; also Ying chun, Tan chun ,Xi chu, Jia baoyu born with a jade in mouth. When Daiyu entered RG Mansion, she and Baoyu had a feeling that they were acquaintances; though it was the first time for them .When knowing his beautiful cousin no jade, Baoyu sulkily threw his jade away, which caused much trouble. When Jia yucun was worked as an officer with low rank, Yinglian wasabducted. The buyer was Xue pan, the nephew of Madam Wang. Xue pan murdered the original purchaser for purchasing Ying lian , but Jia yucun unjustly administered, letting him leave. Xue pan dwelled in Rong Guo Mansion with his mother and sister. Plum blossoms were flouring in Ning Guo Massion. Jia zheng’s invited Duchess Jia to watch .Jia baoyu had napped at the bedroom of Qinkeqin who was the daughter-in-law of Jia zhengand wandered in the Illusory Land of Great Void, appreciating majestic pictures and sweet music .The descendent of the authories WangGuo had became a huabandman in countryside. Due to the connection with Madam Wang and Mrs.Feng, he asked Madam Liu to Rong Guo Mansion for help. On meeting her, Wang Xifeng sent her some money.Once Xue baochai was given a gold lock to cure diseases by a monk. Since then, she had been always wearing it .Daiyuhad no interest in gold and jade so that she always jeered Bao chai and warned Baoyu to watch out.The father of Jia zheng resigned his bureaucratic job in the hoping of becoming immortal. On his birthday, Jia zheng held a royal party for him. Because of the disease of Lin ruhai, Dai yureturned Gusu with Jialian.His cousin Jia rui played trickson Mrs.Feng, but in turn, was played by Mrs.Feng.Qin keqing died of illness .Jia zheng tried to mourn her in luxury, not only choosing stuff in good qualities but spending a lot of money for the burial. On the burial, Mrs.Feng made two lovers aparted for the desire to get money, which generated the suicide of the young lovers.After the death of Lin ruhai,Dai yu had to live in Rong Guo Mansion all her lifes .He had a dismal feeling of a pall of living under another’s roof , often having tears, which made her more feeble and weaker.The eldest daughter of Jia zheng, Yuanchun was confered as a concubine of the empire. The empire permited her to meet her family. In order to celebrate this grand ceremony, they built an extravagant Showplace and employed some female dancers. On the Eve night, Yuan chun stayed with her family for a while, and then asked her cousins to compose poems. Daiyu wanted to show off in this aspect, but failed for she was asked to compose only one piece of poem.Baoyu said that he would not let Xi ren leave, which made her catch a chance to persuade Bao yu to read books .Baoyu and Daiyu were innocent playmakers ,bringing a love betweenthem .Trifles bothered them, but made their affections much deeper.To celebrate Bao chai’s birthday, an opera play was held. “One of them looked like Dai yu,” Shi Xiangyu said .Fearing that Dai yu would be irritated, Bao yu tried to prevent. As a result, both of them were fed up with him.Yuan Chun invited her cousins to resided inShowplace. After entering, Bao yu was getting together with his cousins all day. A servant brought<<Xi Xiang>> for Bao yu and Dai yu.Jia huan,the son of Mrs. Zhao. Who was the concubine of Jia zheng, was jealous of Bao yu.He pulled down a candle on purpose hoping make to Bao yu burnt when they were copying Xi Xiang book.Madam Wang angrily abused Mrs. Zhao wiped out. The streak of Dai yu was gloomy; she would grieve for the fallen flowers at the time of late Spring, and always buried these flowers and wrote down a poem on burying flowers .The servant of Bao yu ,Qing wen broke a fan .She was against when BaoYu scolded her, which made Bao yu angry and felt like driving her off .At night, Bao yu told Qing wen to tear a fan to make her smile when she relaxed at a cool place. Once, Shi xiang yun persuaded Bao yu into meeting officals, talking about career, but fell through. Bao yu said that Dai yu never spoke such thing .At the specifymoment Dai Yu happened to hear and was pleased with what he said.A maiden of Madam Wang made jokes with Bao yu, which doomed her to death. Bao yu had feelings for an actress who was loved by a royal Highness. As a result, he asked someone to bring trouble to Bao yu.Jia zheng was so furious that he heavily beat BaoYu. Madam Wang asked Xi Ren to tell her something about the suffering of Bao yu and promised her to marry Bao yu as a concubine.There was nothing in the Showplace, Tan chun advocated to organize a team for composing poems. Bao chai won the prize when they appreciated cherry tree, but the second time, Dai yu came to top for chrysanthemum.The second entering to Rong Guo Mansion, Madam Liu was asked to stay there by Jia zheng’s mother. They made a feast, joking her. She was complicated enough to be willing to this role. Madam Jia showed her around in the showplace.Everyone in the mansion offered money to hold a party for Sister Feng’s birthday. Sister Feng was going to rest for too much alcohol, happening to catch Jia lian commiting adultery with a maiden. Sieter Feng cried a lot. At last, the maiden hadno choice but to hang herself. Puchess Jia asked Jia lian to apologize to her.Xi ren returned home when her mother was ill.Qing wen caught a cold at night. Bao yu attended the birthday party of his uncle. Madam Jia sent him beautiful clothes, but was burnt carelessly.Qing wen tried to mend it at night without caring her disease.When the New Year was approaching, Ning Guo Mansion got too much rent, but Jia zheng still thought it was not enough. Sister Feng had a desire to the heavy burden, but she was too weak to handle with problems. So, Tan chun and Bao yu came to give her assistance.The servant of Dai yu, Zi juan probed Bao yu if he was crazy about Dai yu. She pretend to say Dai yu would go back to Gusu. Bao yu was convinced and came down with illness. From this, Dai yu knew Bao yu’s affection to her.The crowed also considered that they would have a happy marriage.Dai yu regarded the mother of Xue as her adopted mother. Just then, the relationship between Chai and Dai harmonized.There were numerous contradictions in Rong Guo Mansion.Jia huan found some medicine in the room of Bao yu and wanted some. However, the servant of Bao yu, Fang guangave the other kind to him. Then Mrs. Zhao severely created a disturbance. All the events left a great imbalance. When they held to a party for Bao yu on his birthday, Jia jing took some toxic medicine and died.When Baoyu got elder, Jia zheng forced him tostudy .Yingchun got married and Baochai was stuck with trifles so that the showplace seemed to be desolate .Daiyu was badly ill for her thinking too much...Puchess Jia had an idea that Baoyu would marry Baochai , which make Daiyu lack of apptite .When hearing the marriage was in vain , she completely recovered .In October, Baoyu lost his jade , causing some problems in his mind. Misfortunes never come singly. Yuanchun died right now. Madam Jia gave an order that Baoyu would marry Baochai. In order to avoid the opposition, they told Baoyu that his wife would be Daiyu. When Daiyu got to know the truth, she died lonely. On knowing that the groom was Baochai, Baoyu became much sillier.Tanchun finished her marriage, leaving the showplace, which made the mansion full of loneness. The leaders of Ning and Rong mansions annoyed the king, resulting in the loss of power. Madam Jia died of disease. Wang xifeng was in charge of the funeral, but she failed for too much pressure, also bringing herdeath. Some bandits robbed RongGuo Mansion. Baoyu , at last , became a monk when he passed the exam. Although Baochai was pregnant, he decided not to deal with anything.Jia yucun was dismissed for corruption. When returning back, he met Zhen shiyin who has been immortal. Zhen shiyin made a detailed interpretation to him. That is the end of the story.Discussion on main charactersBefore I start to analyze the main characters of A Dream in Red Mansions, I would like to introduce its author, Cao xueqing.He was an eminent novelist in Qing Dynasty. He had an extensive interest, including poetry, painting, weaving, food, traditional Chinese medicine, etc. He was born in a noble family, which he enjoyed a high level of life. In the early years of Yongzheng , his family was deprived of power due to the turbulence within the authorities .Since then, he went to Beijing with his family , which decided the fall of his family . He had a deep understanding of how corruptive the Dynasty was， which stimulated him to compose a book.In this masterpiece, Baoyu was invented as a main character like himself. He witnessed the fall of the Dynasty. At first, Baoyu lived a life without caring his clothes and food. He was envied of and surrounded by many servants. We can say he was just like a prince in his family. In appearance, we may feel that he was a loafing person, but that is not what he really was. He enjoyed his mental life as a spiritual aristocracy. As we know, Mr. Cao was extremely knowledgeable for his family was powerful in the past . He had a good chance to read various books, which made him keep high in mind, although he suffered a lot in material when his family fell.The character of Baoyu was also an outbreak for his writing. In feudal society, women lived in the lowest social position. They hardly enjoyed rights, even no dignity. There was a code called Principle of feudal moral conduct for women: obeying father before marriage, obeying husband after marriage, and obeying sons after the death of husband. To our surprise, Mr. Cao dared to completely break out this conventional writing method, putting women in a higher social position. From the reaction of Baoyu, we can get it. He said “young ladies have a body of water, but men , of mud. When I met young ladies, I feel happy and pleasant, but men, disgusting.”“Young ladiesare two words full of nobility and purity；one must wash his mouth before speaking them out, or will be surrounded by misfortune.”Baoyu was also brave enough to challenge the conventional principles that passing the exam would be titled as an official. He was forced to learn from classical books, which was beyond his interest. This generated the gap between himself and the whole family. Fortunately, there was one person who had the same idea on this matter with him so that their relationship was much better than that. She was Lin Daiyu .In the RongGuo Mansion, there were so many capable and knowledgeable women with the relatively same age as Daiyu. Baoyu loved them, but never had the idea to get marriage with them. One of the most important reasons was that they did the same thing as his father did , that is , asked him to read The Four Books in order to work as an official. However, that was the least thing he liked to do. Fortunately, Daiyu shared his opinion, so they got well on with each other and wanted to get married. Jia Baoyu, in this masterpiece, played another important role, which cannot be ignored. It is known to us all that in feudal society, the marriage had no freedom. There was only one principle to pass: the order of parents, the words ofmatchmakers. However, Mr. Cao tried his best to show a different marriage. He thought that there must be a free marriage. Baoyu and Daiyu were the representatives of the free marriage. They fell in love with each other. They shared the same idea. They wanted to get married. They tried to pursue their true love and maintained it at any cost. As we know , Daiyu died when she knew that Baoyu had a marriage with Baochai; also, Baoyu went crazy when he realized that his wife was Baochai whom he did not want to marry So he became a monk , abandoning Baochai with pregnant. We can see that Baoyu and Daiyu were victims of the ancient marriage principle. Mr. Cao expressed his anticipation to a free marriage in his book. We can feel that his thought was in a quite high level, though he lived in the middle of Qing Dynasty..Next, I would like to describe Xue Baochai, who was a beautiful and intelligent lady. As I just mentioned that in feudal society, women had a very low social position. Mr. Cao invented this character in order to show that women can alsolive a relatively better life as long as they were respected. Unfortunately, she was a victim of feudal society. She was so young that she had a strong desire to pursue true love. Under the pressure of society, she had no choice but to hide her truefeeling. Although she was capable of dealing with domestic affairs and smart in handling the relationships among people from different walks, she still cannot escape the persecution from the feudal society. At the end of the story, we can say ,she was the most miserable lady. She married Baoyu and got pregnant but Baoyu left her, which doomed her tragic life.When Mrs.Cao tried to make women have an opposite figure to people, he composed this woman, but at last, her miserable destiny told us that the power of the feudal society was too strong to change. It was still an outbreak from shackles of the feudal society.Daiyu, as far as we know, was feeble and weak lady in appearance, she always behaved very flabbily, but she had a quite strong heart, she dared to challenge their principles of the feudal society. Although the marriage in the time was determined by parents, she tried to pursue the free love at any cost. From the story, we got that she did in order to maintain her love. She was extremely knowledgeable. An old proverb goes “Ignorance is the virtue of women. Not onl y did she have a good knowledge of composing poets, but had good knowledge of something that was considered to be ridiculous to the traditional people, which made her have something in common with Baoyu.This was one of the most important reasons for the foundationof the love. Unfortunately, the power of the feudal society as too strong for them to oppose. As a result, she also became a victim of that society. Mr.Cao had very good vision about the future life. Although he lived an extremely miserable life when he was old, he still had hopes, escaping from the principle, pursuing the freedom of marriage, respecting women’s rights.Cao Xueqing, as I mentioned above, was born in a noble family and had an extraordinary knowledge of several respects, but suffered so much when he was at an old age.He bore a lot of grudge to the feudal society. He intended to write A Dream in Red Mansions on the purpose of persuading the king to handle with official affairs. However, the king was muddle-headed and the foundation of the country was corruptive. All he did had no a slightest effect on the king, which made him have a better understanding of the true country.Due to his ample knowledge and diligent, he spent more than ten years on his masterpiece, A Dream in Red Mansions. In this book, he brought his best shot to express his true feelings. He achieved in at least four aspects.First, he was born in a special environment, a country where the feudal principle has lasted for two thousand years over. ADream in Red Mansions is not only a judgment to the feudal society, but also an encyclopedia about the whole process of that era, which is beyond any kind of book in the world. In the feudal society, the systems were well-established. No country in the world can match with it in this aspect. Mr. Cao invented many typical characters to demonstrate the reality of the feudal society, one of whom is Jia baoyu, who held the same destiny as the author did. By describing what Baoyu did in his daily life to show the courteousness in the high society.Second, Mr. Cao’s family and the time he lived are beyond the reach of any other authors.Mr. Cao was born in a noble family. His grandfather, father and uncles were officials. His family was powerful for many years, which made him behave nobly and rich in mind. However, the era he lived was at the middle of the feudal society. He witnessed the fall of the country with his own eyes so that he had a clear idea that the feudal society would never come to top again. His family was also at the fall in Yong zheng Dynasty, bringing his poor life at last.Third, national culture, literature and art are in a high level.China has a history of 5000 years, which accumulated profound knowledge. Cao xueqing lived in a noble family,which gave him a good chance to read extensively. He was extremely familiar with the traditional culture. Thus, he was capable to compose such a masterpiece. No other authors in the world can live in a better situation that he did.Last, the intelligence and diligence of Mr. Cao gave a great help for his achievement.Mr. Cao had the ability to compose poetry and articles, play lyre, cook, paint, play swords and he can also dress himself to play as an actor. He was so miscellaneous, which offered him an advantage for his writing. Also, he had great diligence. Although he lived a miserable life when he was old, he still had the persistence to compose his work.The four aspects I mentioned above are the main reasons that made Mr. Cao compose his masterpiece.COMMENTSA Dream in Red Mansions was composed in the middle of Qing Dynasty, by Cao xueqing. Mr. Cao suffered the loss of power and the entertainment of his luxurious life, but still enjoyed himself in mind. He was typical mental nobility. Thisbook has been popular since its outcome at home and abroad, ignoring the degree of popularity.In that time, so many people were fascinated about A Dream in Red Mansions. People focused on talking about it. There was a line of poem going “without talking of A Dream in Red Mansio ns, there is no use reading so many books” Sometimes, people argued, even fought with each other when they disagreed on the matters of A Dream in Red Mansions. The main reason why people in that period of time were crazy about it was that the author encouraged them to oppose the traditional chains, pursue a new thought. No wonder the rulers at that time thought it a book full of reactionary and forbad its publishing.In modern time, so many literature learners are also crazy about it. They even organized a team to study its contents. Besides, TV series are played nearly every year with several editions, which shows the importance and popularity of A Dream in Red Mansions.EPILOGUEAfter the finish of comments for A Dream in Red Mansions, I had a better understanding of this book. Its main contents clearly came to me. I have realized the real purpose of the author. He tried to express his grudge for the feudal society and his hope that people should be brave to pursue what they need most.At that moment, the power of the feudal society was too strong to oppose. The authority only belonged to the king. People hardly had rights. People lived a miserable life. He witnessed the fall of his family, which was powerful in the past, so that he understood that the feudal system would fall, denoting the freedom of people. One of the most significant aspects was to praise women, put them in a higher social position. As we all know, women in ancient China had no rights. Men in a family dominated everything. Mr. Cao composed his masterpiece in a way against conventions, making women show their abilities as long as they were respected.In this book, we also should know that knowledge, especially profound knowledge can give people an enjoyment in mind, being a mental nobleman. As a mental nobleman, your mind is free, your mind is satisfied, even though your physicallife is in a mess. That has no slightest effect on your enjoying your mental life.From my point of view, this is the highest level in life. Only when you live a mental noble life can you escape disturbing things from material life.NOTES1. Cao xueqing, born in 1715, died in 1763, a novelist in Qing Dynasty.2. Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), lasting 267 years.3. Yong zheng , a king in Qing Dynasty, (1678-1735),1722-1735 being a king.。