Learning:
The
Journey of a Lifetime
A
Cloud Chamber of the Mind
2006 Literature Notebook
The Story of the Stone vol. 1
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Learning: 2006 Literature Notebook |
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The Story of the Stone vol. 1 |
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| Introduction | ||||
| Setting | the capital city | ||||
| Characters | Lucky. A maid of the Zhen family [1, 2]. Jia Yu-cun. [1, 2, 3] A poor student who becomes a bureaucrat. Lin Ru-hai. [2, 3] A Salt Commissioner in Yangchow area. Originally from an aristocratic family, he was no longer entitled to any privileges, and made his way by education and merit. His chief wife was a Miss Jai, and they have a young daughter Dai-yu. Lin Dai-yu. [2, 3] Young daughter of Lin Ru-hai. She receives tutoring from Jai Yu-cun.
Nightingale. [3] A personal maid for Lin Dai-yu. She was originally one of Grandmother Jia's maids. Aroma. [3] A personal maid for Bao-yu. She was originally one of Grandmother Jia's maids. Xue Pan. [3] Son of Aunt Xue in Nanking. Xue Pan, "relying on wealth and family pull to protect him from the consequences, had taken another man's life." |
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| Action | Lin Ru-hai writes a letter to Jia Zheng, his brother-in-law, recommending that they support Jia Yu-cun as he attempts to be reinstated. Yu-cun moves to the capital with Dai-yu and then with Jai Zheng's help soon gets a position in Nanking. Lin Dai-yu moves in with her relatives in the Jia Rong-gue mansion. She is about 11 years old at this time. She is graceful but frail. When she first sees Bao-yu, she has the strong feeling of having seen him before. Bao-yu has the same reaction. We meet Bao-yu, a young boy who is the mortal manifestation of THE STONE. Both he and Lin Dai-yu sense that they have met before (which must be in the other world that is inhabited by spirits, souls and fairies). It is decided that Dai-yu and Bao-yu will share the same room, each accompnied by a nurse and a maid. The family hears that a relative Xue Pan, the son of Aunt Zue in Nanking, had murdered another man. |
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| Comment | I wonder if Lin Dai-yu was once the fairy girl Crimson Pearl Flower who was brought to life by The Stone? "The consciousness that she owed the stone something for his kindness in watering her began to prey on her mind and ended by becoming an obsession. ... 'The only way in which I could perhaps repay him would be with the tears shed during the whole of a mortal lifetime if he and I were ever to be reborn as humans in the world below.' " [p. 53] [1] |