On The Story Of The Stone Of Jiaxu Version

The research on various editions has been one of the most important areas drawing extensive scholarly attention in Honglou meng study. This area is also closely related to the formation and circulation of the novel. Since the time Cao Xueqin wrote the novel over two hundred years have passed, and many controversies arose concerning whether or not the author has finished this brilliant literary work: some thinks that Honglou meng was completed solely by Cao Xueqin from beginning to end, other argues that Cao Xueqin only edited the novel employing ingenious and elaborate literary techniques, still there are many other opinions such as, the novel was based on an early draft and went through repeated editing work, or it was a combination of two different novels and so on.As to the over ten remaining versions today, all are incomplete ones; some only contain several chapters (e.g. Zhengcang version), others have more than ten or dozens of chapters (e.g. Jiaxu version, Shuxu version, Jimao version); even in the comparatively complete 80-chapter Gengchen version, two chapters (64th, and 67th ) were missing, with many parts damaged. Then what caused the incompleteness and inconsistence of those surviving manuscripts,Many researches done on this topic have produced convincing answers to the question. For example, some contends that Honglou meng was left unfinished by Cao Xueqin, or Cao Xueqin died in misery when the novel was still in the process of revising and editing ect. Those former researches have greatly assisted readers in their understanding of the novel, however, to reach a clear and thorough comprehension, readers are confronting with still many difficulties such as the structure and the theme of the novel, as well as the naming, the characters' fate, ect.This paper will focus its attention on Jiaxu version by firstly examining its present surviving conditions; and secondly, it will look at Hu Shi's research on different aspects to this version; next, after an overview of former researches, an analysis of the main body of that version and Red Ink Stone's commentaries inside will be given; finally, the author of this paper will present his own opinions on the writing time of Jiaxu version, the text value of this version, its status and significance in the novel's formation process. Comments from professionals and general readers of Honglou meng are sincerely welcome.