Chapter 9 is truly an eye-opening chapter of Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong lou meng 紅樓夢)! We discuss Jia Zheng’s questionable ideas on education as Baoyu and Qin Zhong prepare entrance into the Rong private school, an institution entangled in sex, money, coercion, and homophobia.

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The second half of our discussion of a truly iconic chapter of the Qing classic novel Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong lou meng 紅樓夢)! What is the secret behind the matching couplets inscribed on Baoyu’s jade and Baochai’s locket? Is Daiyu right to be angry at being excluded? How can someone be so artful even in jealousy? When it snows (xue 雪) at the Xue 薛 household, is this symbolic entrapment? And you gonna pull a C. T. Hsia and pretend this correspondence never happened? When all comes to naught, will Baoyu be able to rely on his calligraphy skills? 

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Another iconic chapter of the Qing classic novel Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong lou meng 紅樓夢)! In this dream within a dream, Baoyu navigates a series of physical and social obstructions on his way to visit the ailing Xue Baochai. Baoyu and Baochai prepare to compare jewels, Baoyu to show Baochai his precious jade, Baochai to show Baoyu her golden locket. What psychological and cosmic significance is represented in this fateful exchange? Is there any remedy to the wuxing 五行 pill Kevin has consumed? Are all systems of totalizing meaning a kind of madness? Is to dream and to record one's dreams a socially-accepted form of conspiracy mongering? 

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Whereas last week we pondered the representation of flowers, this week we dig into their social and symbolic roots. On what foundation does the Ning household rest? Why does Qin Zhong arouse such envy and desire in Baoyu? What sacrifices did Big Jiao make? What creative gestures, what procreative acts lie just below the surface? Of the dust and the ashes, what remains unseen and what ought remain unspoken?

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Chapter 7 is a beautiful chapter, a perfect microcosmic portrait of this novel, a self-enclosed small dream 小夢 from which to glimpse the greater whole. We follow Zhou Rui’s wife on a tour of the Rong compound delivering fake flowers to Jia-adjacent beauties. Kevin presents his new “every chapter is itself a dream” theory, explaining for the first time on the podcast the meaning of being “wuxing 五行-pilled” from a materialist, secular, social-scientific perspective, incorporating insights from Bataille’s famous short essay “The Language of Flowers.” How does one experience flowers, and how does a flower experience this experience? Are these matters elevated or base? Are they on the level of language, nature, or the spaces in-between? 

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After our epic 4-parter dedicated to Chapter 5, the infinite dream of desire, we return with a light-hearted whole-chapter-as-one-episode discussion of Chapter 6 of Hong lou meng 紅樓夢, a chapter known for its comic relief, as well as its exploration of the dynamics of wealth and class. Briefly is discussed the material consequences of Chapter 5’s ideational waywardness. 

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In pt. 4 of 4 of our epic Hong lou meng 紅樓夢 Ch. 5 “Dream Chapter” discussion, a leisurely jaunt through the lyrical Land of Illusion 太虛幻境, we learn what happens when one dreams within a dream, to find the bed being dreamt in already occupied by the dialectical synthesis of one’s two primary love interests. What is this danger lying at the edge of illusion? What are these monstrous beasts reaching out from the void, and what is the meaning of this wooden raft?

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In part three of four of our epic Hong lou meng 紅樓夢 Chapter 5 “Dream Chapter” discussion, a leisurely jaunt through the lyrical Land of Illusion 太虛幻境, we give listen to a few prophetic songs singing the fates of Baoyu, Daiyu, Yuanchun, Tanchun, and Miaoyu.  Kevin demos a new translation of “Frowning Brows” 枉凝眉 and we discuss the possible historicity of metaphors and meaning. 

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We continue our exploration of the lyrical Land of Illusion 太虛幻境 showcased in one of the most famous chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong lou meng 紅樓夢, Story of the Stone 石頭記), Chapter 5, the dream chapter! Do you commend the marriage rites of gold and jade, or do you still recall the bond of old by stone and flower made? (A blood bond, or blood covenant 盟, as discussed in this episode.) As for Qin Keqing, if “love was her sea, her sky,” why does Baoyu see depicted a beautiful girl hanging by her neck from a beam? Lots to discuss as we delve ever deeper into this wondrous and complex dreamscape. 

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Chapter 5 part 1 

It’s part one of Chapter 5, a return to the Land of Illusion 太虛幻境 in one of the most famous chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong lou meng 紅樓夢, Story of the Stone 石頭記), the dream chapter! This is also one of the most complex chapters of the novel (so many allusions, so much art and imagery!), so we have broken up our treatment into several separate episodes. We begin working through some cryptic and surreal imagery and messaging, and discuss in some detail the psychological and psychoanalytical dynamics reflected in the dream material. Get ready for some strange otherworldly bureaucracies, famous poems and songs, and the emergence of desire in its infinite sensual and representational forms.

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