Comments on Chang Chih's New Sequel to the Dream of Red Chamber

Author: Chiang Ying-lung

Abstract：

Over a period of ten years, Chang Chin, an author in mainland China, wrote a sequel in 30 chapters to Ts'ao Hsueh-ch'in's Dream of the Red Chamber. Chang thought that his sequel well matched the theme and grasped the spirit of the original work. He entitled his work A New Sequel to Dream of the Red Chamber.
My comments on Chang's New Seguel to the Dream of Red Chamber are divided into seven parts:
The first part deals with the motivations and the process of Chang's writing his new se-quel.
The second part discusses the sequel in terms of the plot.
The third part illustrates, with concrete examples, how Chang efforted to vie with Ts'ao in demonstrating his wide knowledge.
The fourth part discusses the degree of Chang's success in writing poem in various tradi-tional forms, such as the shih poems, the tz'u poems, and the couplets.
The fifth part points out some inappropriate or misused Chinese characters and misquo-tations.
The sixth part points out that it is a misnomer to call the Chinese characters used in the sequel the "complicated script." Instead, they should be termed the "orthodox script."
The seventh part concludes my comments with an indication of the positive value of the sequel.
Chang, Chih. A New Sequel to the Dream of the Red Chamber. Taipei: Li-chi Publica-tion Co., 1989.

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