Mimpi Kamar Merah

	Jika anda ingin membantu, sumbangan anda dialu-alukan.
	Rencana ini diusahakan oleh Ahli Kesusahteraan dan memerlukan bantuan.

"Cerita tentang Batu" dialihkan ke sini. Untuk kegunaan lain, sila lihat Cerita tentang Batu (nyahkekaburan).

Mimpi Rumah Agam Merah

Umum
Pengarang	Cáo Xuěqín
Tajuk asal	紅樓夢
Negara	China
Bahasa	Bahasa Cina
Genre	Novel
Tarikh penerbitan	Abad ke-18
Jenis media	Cetak (kulit tebal)

Mimpi Rumah Agam Merah  (Cina Tradisional: 紅樓夢; Cina Mudah: 红楼梦; pinyin: Hónglóu mèng), juga dikenali sebagai Mimpi Kamar Merah, Cerita tentang Batu, atau Babad tentang Batu (Cina Tradisional: 石頭記; Cina Mudah: 石头记; pinyin: Shítóu jì) ialah salah satu daripada Empat Novel Klasik Agung dalam kesusasteraan Cina. Antara mahakarya-mahakarya ini, Mimpi Rumah Agam Merah seringnya dianggap sebagai puncak fiksyen klasik Cina.

Novel itu telah diterjemahkan ke dalam 20 buah bahasa, baik dalam versi ringkas, seperti bahasa Jerman, Itali, Greek dan Hungary, atau dalam versi lengkap, seperti bahasa Jepun, Korea, Inggeris, Perancis, Sepanyol dan Rusia.

Ditulis pada pertengahan abad ke-18 semasa Dinasti Qing, pengarangnya dikatakan Cáo Xuěqín (Cao Zhan). Ketulenan 40 bab terakhir dalam novel itu telah dipersoalkan. Cao Xueqin menulis 80 buah bab yang pertama, tetapi meninggal dunia sebelum 40 buah bab yang terakhir dapat disiapkan. Penerbitnya kemudian menyiapkan novel itu melalui penyemakan ke atas apa yang dituntut sebagai draf teks Cao Xueqin yang lebih awal.

Terdapat dua buah kawah di asteroid 433 Eros yang dinamai sempena Jia Baoyu dan Lin Daiyu, watak utama novel ini.

Jalan cerita

Templat:Spoiler It is believed that the novel is semi-autobiographical, mirroring the fortunes of Cao Xueqin's own family. It was intended to be a memorial to the women Cao knew in his youth: friends, relatives, and servants, as the author details in the first chapter.

The novel itself is a detailed, episodic record of the lives of the extended Jia Clan, made up of two branches, the Ning-guo and Rong-guo houses, which occupies two large adjacent family compounds in the Qing capital, [Beijing]. Their ancestors were made Dukes, and at the novel's start the two houses were still one of the most illustrious families in the capital. Originally extremely wealthy and influential, with a female member made an Imperial Concubine, the family eventually fell into disfavour with the Emperor, and had their mansions raided and confiscated. The novel is a charting of their fall from the height of their prestige centering around some 20 main characters and over 400 minor ones.

A scene from the story, painted by Xu Bao (born 1810)
Other scenes

The story is prefaced with supernatural Taoist and Buddhist overtones. A sentient Stone, abandoned by the Goddess Nüwa when she mended the heavens, enters the mortal realm after begging a Taoist priest and Buddhist monk to bring it to see the world.

The main character, Jia Baoyu, is the adolescent heir of the family, apparently the reincarnation of the Stone (the most reliable Jiaxu manuscript however has the Stone and Jia Baoyu as two separate, though related, entities). In that previous life he had a relationship with a flower, who is incarnated now as Baoyu's sickly cousin, the emotional Lin Daiyu. However, he is predestined in this life, despite his love for Daiyu, to marry another cousin, Xue Baochai. The novel follows this love triangle against the backdrop of the family's declining fortunes.

The novel is remarkable not only in its huge cast of characters — over 400 in all, most of whom are female — and its psychological scope, but also in its precise and detailed observations of the life and social structures of 18th-century China.

Bahasa dan askara

The novel, written in Vernacular Chinese and not Classical Chinese, is one of works which establishes the legitimacy of the vernacular idiom. Its author is well versed in Classical Chinese – with tracts written in erudite semi-wenyan – and Chinese poetry. The novel's conversations are written in a vivid Beijing Mandarin dialect which was to become the basis of modern spoken Chinese, with influences from Nanjing Mandarin (where Cao's family lived in the early 1700s).

The novel contains nearly 30 characters which could be considered major, and hundreds of minor ones. Cao centers the novel on Jia Baoyu, the male protagonist, and the female relations around him, at one point intending to call the book The Twelfth Beauties of Jinling. Females in this novel take centerstage and are frequently shown to be more capable than its male counterparts. They are also very learned literarily, unlike most Qing maidens of their time.

Watak-watak utama

Jia Baoyu - the main protagonist. He is the adolescent son of Jia Zheng and his wife, Lady Wang. Born with a piece of luminescent jade in his mouth (the Stone of the title), he is the male heir to the Rongguo line. Much to his strict Confucian father's displeasure, Baoyu prefers casual literature to the Four Books, and though highly intelligent, hates the company of bureaucrats and most males. Sensitive and compassionate, he famously said "girls are bone and flesh made of water, and men are bone and flesh made from mud". The "Dream of the Red Chamber" is mainly about Baoyu's love with Lin Daiyu. Unfortunately, Daiyu died and Baoyu married Xue Baochai.

Lin Daiyu - Jia Baoyu's female orphaned cousin and his love interest. She is the daughter of a Jinling scholar official Lin Ruhai and Jia Min, Jia Zheng's sister. The novel proper starts in Chapter 3 with her departure for the Rongguo house. Emotional, consumptive, prone to fits of jealousy, she is nevertheless highly talented literarily. Daiyu is the incarnate of a Crimson Pearl grass whose very purpose of her mortal birth is to repay her divine waterer, reborn as Baoyu, a "debt of tears". She eventually died.

Xue Baochai - Jia Baoyu's other female cousin and his eventual wife. The only daughter of Aunt Xue, sister to Baoyu's mother, and Xue Pan's sister, she is a foil to Lin Daiyu. While Daiyu is unconventional and hypersensitive, Baochai is sensible, tactful and a favorite of the family, a model Chinese feudal maiden. Baochai's golden locket and Baoyu's jade are thought to indicate a bond of an ideal marriage, but Baoyu's marriage to Baochai was very sad.

Grandmother Jia, née Shi - also called the Matriarch or the Dowager. Baoyu's and Daiyu's grandmother, she is the highest living authority in the Rongguo house (and the oldest and most respected of the entire Clan) and a doting figure. She has two sons, Jia She and Jia Zheng, and a daughter, Min, Daiyu's mother.

Shi Xiangyun - Jia Baoyu's second cousin by Grandmother Jia. Orphaned since infancy, she grew up under his maternal uncle and aunt. She is opened-hearted and cheerful but as well read literarily as either Baochai or Daiyu. She eventually had a good marriage, but for some reason they had to leave each other.

Jia Yuanchun - Baoyu's elder sister by the same parents, at least a decade older. Handpicked by authorities to be a Palace maid, she subsequently became an Imperial Concubine. Her court influence marked the height of the Clan before its eventual wane. She eventually died, how she died nobody knows.

Wang Xifeng - Baoyu's elder Cousin-in-law, wife to Jia Lian, niece to Lady Wang, so related to Baoyu both by blood and marriage. Many years older, she is extremely capable, clever and at times, devious. She in charge of the daily runnings of the Rongguo household and holds the purse-strings. Her name translates to "Phoenix" - a mythical bird of authority. She also, eventually died.

Jia Zheng - Baoyu's father, a stern disciplinarian and Confucian scholar. Afraid his one surviving son would turn bad, he imposed strict rules and occasional corporal punishment for his son. He has a wife and two concubines.

Lady Wang - Baoyu's mother, a Buddhist. Not particularly involved in the family's financial affairs, she is a figure of some authority. She was blamed for the death of Qingwen, Baoyu's maid.

Jia Yingchun - Baoyu's elder female cousin, weak if kind-hearted, a devout Taoist who was sold to a tyrannical general as wife. She eventually died.

Jia Tanchun - Baoyu's younger half-sister, by Concubine Zhao. Brash and extremely outspoken, she is almost as capable as Wang Xifeng, once temporarily taking over the family's day-to-day financial runnings when the latter was ill. Wang Xifeng herself compliments her privately, but laments she was "born in the wrong womb". She had to go far away.

Li Wan - Baoyu's elder sister-in-law, widow of Baoyu's deceased older brother, Zhu. Her primary task is to bring up her son Lan.

Jia Xichun - Baoyu's younger second cousin from the Ningguo house, but brought up in the Rongguo Mansion. A gifted painter, she is a devout Buddhist, eventually a nun.

Aunt Xue - Baoyu's maternal aunt, mother to Pan and Baochai.

Xue Pan - Baochai's older brother, a dissolute, idling rake who was a local bully in Jinling. Not particularly well studied, he once killed a man over a servant-girl and had the manslaughter case done over with money.

Jia Lian - Xifeng's husband and Baoyu's paternal elder cousin, a notorious womanizer.

Miaoyu - a young nun from Buddhist cloisters of the Rongguo house. Beautiful, talented but disdainful,

Granny Liu - a country woman, she saved Wang Xifeng's daughter, Jia Qiaojie.

Xiren - Baoyu's principle maid. She is very kind, and eventually married Jiang Yuhan, an actor.

Qingwen - Baoyu's other maid-in-waiting. Brash, haughty but beautiful, Lady Wang later sent her home, where she died.

Zijuan - Daiyu's chief maid.

Yuanyang - Grandmother Jia's maid. She rejected a marriage proposal with Jia She.

Qin Keqing

Jia Qiaojie - Wang Xifeng's daughter. Sold as a prostitute by Wang Ren and Jia Qiang, she was saved by Granny Liu.

Tema

Fiksyen/Realiti

The name of the main family, "賈" looks similar to the author's surname 曹 and has the same pronunciation in Mandarin as another Chinese character "假", which means fake or sham. Thus Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) suggests that the novel's family is both a reflection of his own family, and simultaneously fictional - or a "dream"-version of his family. (Baoyu occasionally dreams of another Baoyu, whose surname is "Zhen", which puns on "real".)

The novel is normally called Hong Lou Meng (紅樓夢) - literally "Red Mansion Dream". "Red Mansion" was an idiom for the chambers where the daughters of rich men live; thus the title can be understood as a "dream of rich young women". It can also be understood as referring to a dream that Baoyu has - in a "Red Mansion" - at Chapter 5 of the novel, where the fates of many of the female characters are foreshadowed. "Red" also suggests the Buddhist idea that the whole world is "red dust" (紅塵) - merely illusory and to be shunned. Thus the novel fits in perfectly with Buddhist (佛) and Taoist (道) beliefs that to find enlightenment, one must realize that the world is but a dream from which we must awake.

Masalah teks

The textual problem of the novel is extremely complex and has been the subject of much critical scrutiny and conjecture in modern times. Cao did not live to publish his novel, and only hand-copied manuscripts existed after his death until 1791, when the first printed version was published. This version, known as the Chenggao edition, contains edits and revisions not authorised by the author.

Versi-versi manuskrip awal

The novel, published up till the 20th century, was anonymous. Since the twentieth century, after Hu Shi's analyses, it is generally agreed the first 80 chapters of the novel is written by Cao Xueqin.

Early hand-copied versions — many of which are 80 chapters, all incomplete — have comments and annotations written on them in red ink. These commentators clearly knew the author in person, and some are believed to be members of Cao Xueqin's own family. The most prominent commentator is Red Inkstone (脂砚斋). These MS are the most textually reliable versions, known amongst scholars as "Rouge versions" (脂本). Even amongst the some 11 independent surviving manuscripts, small differences in some characters used, rearrangements and possible rewritings made each of them vary a little from another.

According to novel's first chapter, Cao Xueqin revised his novel five times, and died before he had finished the fifth version. To compound this problem, parts of the latter chapters of the book were lost, so we only have 80 chapters that are definitively written by the author.

The early 80 chapters brim with prophecies and dramatic foreshadowings which also give hints as to how the book would continue. For example, it is obvious that Lin Daiyu will eventually die; that Baoyu will become a monk; various characters will suffer in the snow; and that the whole estate will finally be consumed by flames.

Most modern critical editions have the first 80 chapters based on the Rouge versions.

Versi Cheng Weiyuan dan versi 120-bab Gao E

In 1791, Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E brought together the novel's first movable type edition. This was also the first "complete" edition of The Story of the Stone, which they reprinted as Dream of the Red Chamber. The original Rouge manuscripts have up till 80 chapters, ending three-quarters into the plot and clearly incomplete. The 1791 movable type edition had 120 chapters. This first 80 chapter was edited from the Rouge versions, but the next 40 was newly published.

In 1792, they published a second edition correcting many typographical and editorial errors of the 1791 version. In the 1792 preface, the two editors claimed to have put together an ending based on the author's working manuscripts, which they bought from a vendor.

The debate over the last 40 chapters still rages. Most modern scholars believe these chapters were a later addition, with inferior plotting and prose quality to the earlier 80 chapters. Hu Shih argued that the ending were forged by Gao E; he cited as support the ending of the 1791 Chenggao version, which does not coincide with the various foreshadowings of the chief characters' fates in Chapter 5.

Other critics suggest Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan may be duped into taking someone else's forgery as an original work. A few scholars believe that the last 40 chapters do contain Cao's own work; these are the minority view however.

The book, though, is still normally published and read in Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E's 120-chapter complete version. Some critical editions move these last 40 chapters to an appendix to indicate they were by another's hand.

Lihat juga

• Redologi

Rujukan

• Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China, ISBN 0-393-30780-8
• Cao, Xueqin. The Story of the Stone: a Chinese Novel: Vol 1, The Golden Days. trans. David Hawkes. ISBN 0-14-044293-6.
• Cao, Xueqin. The Story of the Stone: a Chinese Novel: Vol 2, The Crab-flower Club. trans. David Hawkes. ISBN 0-14-044326-6.
• Cao, Xueqin. The Story of the Stone: a Chinese Novel: Vol 3, The Warning Voice. trans. David Hawkes. ISBN 0-14-044370-3.
• Cao, Xueqin. The Story of the Stone: a Chinese Novel: Vol 4, The Debt of Tears. trans. John Minford. ISBN 0-14-044371-1.
• Cao, Xueqin. The Story of the Stone: a Chinese Novel: Vol 5, The Dreamer Wakes. trans. John Minford. ISBN 0-14-044372-X.
• Tsao Hsueh-Chin (Cao Xueqin), Dream of the Red Chamber, Translated & abridged by Chi-Chen Wang, Doubleday Anchor, 1958. ISBN 0-38-509379-9

Pautan luar

• Pengenalan kepada Edisi-edisi Mimpi Kamar Merah,  David L. Steelman, The Scholar, 1981
• Garis kasar Mimpi Kamar Merah
• Merah pada Emas: Mengajar Honglou meng  di California
• Rencana dalam Program Televisyen Pusat China mengenai Mimpi Kamar Merah – akhbar China Daily. Raymond Zhou. 12 November 2005.
• H. Bencraft Joly. Terjemahan bahasa Inggeris Jilid 1 dan Jilid 2 daripada Projek Gutenberg
• Lukisan watak-watak novel Mimpi Kamar Merah,  oleh An Ho
• Ilustrasi-ilustrasi untuk Mimpi Kamar Merah oleh Manhua
• Mimpi Kamar Merah,  sebuah terjemahan lengkap oleh Dr. B.S. Bonsall