IN SEARCH OF CAO XUEQIN’S BEIJING

By RONALD GRAY

Nearly three years ago, I read the great Chinese novel, A Dream of Red Mansions, (Honglou meng) by Cao Xueqin for the first time, and was simply overwhelmed by the cultural scope, striking realism and eloquent sophistication of this 18th century masterpiece. Since then, I have reread the book five times, watched both the TV drama based on the number, as well as the recent CCTV series on Cao’s life, of which so little is known, and read assorted books and numerous articles about him and the story. I have also been lucky enough to have several fascinating discussions with Zhou Ruchang, China’s foremost authority on the work. Last June, I set out to try to find places associated with Cao’s life in Beijing, where he lived from 1728 to 1763.

INSPIRATION: Jialetang, a hall inside Prince Gong’s Mansion in Beijing. The surrounding gardens inspired scenes for A Dream of Red Mansions

After doing some research, the first place I visited was the Beijing Botanical Gardens, which is located in the Western Hills, north of Beijing. In the middle of the gardens is a small, picturesque lake, on the east side of which is Yellow Leaves
village, where the Cao Xueqin museum is located. The museum, which consists of a small rather rustic-looking residential compound containing four old-style houses, is located on the site when Cao spent the last six years of his sad and short life in poverty. Inside the museum are five exhibition rooms holding old paintings of the writer, a wall covering bearing old writing, believed to be somehow connected with him, editions of the novel translated into many languages, and a large intriguing painting of what the surrounding area looked like when Cao lived there. Stepping outside the museum into the summer heat, and looking at the expansive mountains, it was very easy to imagine the isolation and sense of loss and failure that Cao must have felt living here as he struggled (unfortunately unsuccessfully) to finish his book.

I then explored Prince Gong’s Mansion, which is near Hou Hai lake. This place is important because according to Zhou Ruchang, it is the garden served as the model for the famous Prospect Garden in A Dream of Red Mansions. The private residential compound is one of the largest and best maintained in Beijing. While the garden is considerably smaller than the extensive one in the novel, it remains quite impressive and provides the visitor with a good introduction to north China’s classical garden aesthetics. The area around the mansion, which Cao Xueqin knew well and lived near when he first came to Beijing, is still rich in atmosphere and full of winding alleyways known as hutongs.

Jumping from the real to a relatively faithful recreation, I next visited Grand View Garden, which is in the southwest part of Beijing. It was built in the 1980s and replicates the garden in the novel. (So much so that part of the popular 1987 TV adaptation was filmed here). There are various residences based upon the dwellings of several famous characters in the story, colorful pavilions, several lakes, a quaint rural village, a monastery, impressive examples of traditional hill stones and even a “rose cemetery,” based on a well-known scene in the story.

Although the gardens have recently become quite touristy, with night lasers shows, ubiquitous vendors and canned music softly playing from carefully hidden loudspeakers, it is still worth a visit for it does give you a feel for the layout of the novel’s garden. I spent a late June afternoon lazily wandering around the spot carrying a copy of the book and looking for my favorite places from the story.

That completed my short tour, but I plan to continue my odyssey in the future, for interesting leads do occasionally pop up. For example, I recently found out on the Internet that there is a residential compound near Xidan, which has a 300 year old jujube tree, which should have “seen” Cao Xueqin when he meet friends here for poetry discussions. Legend says that it was at this place that he first thought of writing the novel. My search continues.