Redology

A page from the 1759 "Jimao manuscript" of the novel.[1]
A collection of commentaries on the Dream of the Red Chamber by Gao Yuetan

Redology (simplified Chinese: 红学; traditional Chinese: 紅學; pinyin: hóng xué) is the academic study of Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber,[2] one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China. There are numerous researchers in this field; most can be divided into four general groups: the first group are the commentators, such as Zhou Chun, Xu Fengyi, Chen Yupi, and others; the second group is the index group, which includes Wang Mengruan and Cai Yuanpei; the third group are the textual critics, including Hu Shih and Yu Pingbo; the final group are the literary critics, including Zhou Ruchang and Li Xifan.

  1. ^ Yu, Anthony C. (2001). Rereading the Stone: Desire and the Making of Fiction in Dream of the Red Chamber. Princeton University Press. p. 9. ISBN 0691015619.
  2. ^ Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York: Norton, 1990), 106–110. ISBN 0-393-30780-8.