【正文】
之間對這個故事的文學價值和不足之處的長篇討論,將一塊身心俱疲的石頭作為故事的出 發(fā)點而形成的重要的敘事傳統(tǒng)。更確切地說,道士看到了石頭背后刻著文字才辨認出了這塊就是曾經(jīng)由他攜帶入塵世的頑石,因為這些文字詳細地講述了石頭在塵世的際遇。但石頭一心只想著要去人世體驗一番,他們的話就如隨風過隙。由于石頭已經(jīng)具有靈性,它對于自己被遺棄感到非常沮喪。前三段的故事情節(jié),為主角虛構(gòu)了遠古時期他的神奇的來源。 hence the original title of the novel, the Story of the After perusing it, the Daoist acknowledges to Stone, author of the inscribed tale, that it indeed has some interest, but he maintains that it is also seriously flawed. Despite his initial reservations, Vanitas agrees to transcribe the narrative. This episode, which contains a lengthy debate between Stone and the Daoist on the tale’s literary merits or lack thereof, is an important point of departure from what Stone describes as an exhausted narrative tradition. As such, this section will feature prominently in the subsequent discussion. The third and final episode of the prologue introduces a set of new characters including the penurious scholar Jia Yucun, who serves an ingenious narrative link between the mundane and the ethereal world. Vestige of Tradition or Sign of Innovation Despite its exceedingly plex nature, scholars are curiously indifferent to the beginning of the Dream of the Red Chamber. Instead, they are fixated on the missing part — the ending — of the novel, looking for clues and hints in every conceivable place. A review of the scholarly and critical literature on the novel reveals few studies of the novel’s extraordinary beginning. In a way, that is only to be expected. The prospect of “ pleting” the novel in some way, or even figuring out its overall design is too tantalizing a challenge to From time to time new theories put forward, some more plausible than others. Granted, to the extent that the significance of a narrative rests on its ending, the task of evaluating the novel is made more difficult without its conclusion. The absence of critical attention to the beginning of the novel can also be attributed to other factors, some of them ideological. Critics in mainland China dismiss the mythic elements of the Dream of the Red