Hung Lou Meng - book 1 | Page 3

to the heavens, how it
would be transmuted into human form and introduced by Mang Mang
the High Lord, and Miao Miao, the Divine, into the world of mortals,
and how it would be led over the other bank (across the San Sara). On
the surface, the record of the spot where it would fall, the place of its
birth, as well as various family trifles and trivial love affairs of young
ladies, verses, odes, speeches and enigmas was still complete; but the
name of the dynasty and the year of the reign were obliterated, and
could not be ascertained.
On the obverse, were also the following enigmatical verses:
Lacking in virtues meet the azure skies to mend, In vain the mortal
world full many a year I wend, Of a former and after life these facts
that be, Who will for a tradition strange record for me?
K'ung K'ung, the Taoist, having pondered over these lines for a while,
became aware that this stone had a history of some kind.
"Brother stone," he forthwith said, addressing the stone, "the concerns
of past days recorded on you possess, according to your own account, a

considerable amount of interest, and have been for this reason inscribed,
with the intent of soliciting generations to hand them down as
remarkable occurrences. But in my own opinion, they lack, in the first
place, any data by means of which to establish the name of the Emperor
and the year of his reign; and, in the second place, these constitute no
record of any excellent policy, adopted by any high worthies or high
loyal statesmen, in the government of the state, or in the rule of public
morals. The contents simply treat of a certain number of maidens, of
exceptional character; either of their love affairs or infatuations, or of
their small deserts or insignificant talents; and were I to transcribe the
whole collection of them, they would, nevertheless, not be estimated as
a book of any exceptional worth."
"Sir Priest," the stone replied with assurance, "why are you so
excessively dull? The dynasties recorded in the rustic histories, which
have been written from age to age, have, I am fain to think, invariably
assumed, under false pretences, the mere nomenclature of the Han and
T'ang dynasties. They differ from the events inscribed on my block,
which do not borrow this customary practice, but, being based on my
own experiences and natural feelings, present, on the contrary, a novel
and unique character. Besides, in the pages of these rustic histories,
either the aspersions upon sovereigns and statesmen, or the strictures
upon individuals, their wives, and their daughters, or the deeds of
licentiousness and violence are too numerous to be computed. Indeed,
there is one more kind of loose literature, the wantonness and pollution
in which work most easy havoc upon youth.
"As regards the works, in which the characters of scholars and beauties
is delineated their allusions are again repeatedly of Wen Chün, their
theme in every page of Tzu Chien; a thousand volumes present no
diversity; and a thousand characters are but a counterpart of each other.
What is more, these works, throughout all their pages, cannot help
bordering on extreme licence. The authors, however, had no other
object in view than to give utterance to a few sentimental odes and
elegant ballads of their own, and for this reason they have fictitiously
invented the names and surnames of both men and women, and
necessarily introduced, in addition, some low characters, who should,

like a buffoon in a play, create some excitement in the plot.
"Still more loathsome is a kind of pedantic and profligate literature,
perfectly devoid of all natural sentiment, full of self-contradictions; and,
in fact, the contrast to those maidens in my work, whom I have, during
half my lifetime, seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.
And though I will not presume to estimate them as superior to the
heroes and heroines in the works of former ages, yet the perusal of the
motives and issues of their experiences, may likewise afford matter
sufficient to banish dulness, and to break the spell of melancholy.
"As regards the several stanzas of doggerel verse, they may too evoke
such laughter as to compel the reader to blurt out the rice, and to spurt
out the wine.
"In these pages, the scenes depicting the anguish of separation, the bliss
of reunion, and the fortunes of prosperity and of adversity are all, in
every detail, true to human nature, and I have not taken upon myself to
make the slightest addition, or alteration, which might lead to the
perversion of the truth.
"My only object has been that men may, after a drinking bout, or after
they wake from sleep or when