Tag Archives: Cao Xueqin

Be A Walking ‘Stone’!

Posted on by

A stone and a flower came into life through hands of a monk. They, Baoyu and Daiyu, were born human to complete their earthly fates, their disposition life — the stone to experience earthly life and the flower to love the stone to repay his kindness on her. Their lives ended in miseries, disappointment, and death because of other people’s involvement and decisions, in this story their families. Their love shattered. Their wishes unfulfilled.

The novel’s ending might have been very different if Baoyu and Daiyu had stood up and fought for their heartfelt love.

The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin has a lot to do with fate, a disposition of one’s life. This is not a made-up concept to make a set-up for his novel. It is indeed a belief upheld by many people then and now. They believe that much of what happens in their lives are supposed to be so. It is predetermined by their fates. If it is so, there is no other way around it. How can it be worth trying to do it otherwise when anything and everything we do will never push this life beyond the border of fate?

My friends, don’t you ever do what others tell you to do? Don’t you ever believe what people tell you to believe? Much of this life is the speculation of your own actions. Yes, we may be born a stone, since we cannot control the creation part; but be a walking one! Choose your own path and walk your own journey! Many people will come and tell us which way to go; but “in the end the only steps that matter are the ones you take all by yourself” (Can’t go back now, Weepies).

The Story of the Stone

Aside

images[3]

“The Story of the Stone” is one of the four famous Chinese classical novels.  The story was written in Qing dynasty, Cao Xueqing was tried to expose societal dark by using this book. Basically, the first chapter is kind of introducing the different characters in the story. Some part of this chapter is describing the unreal world; the story is beginning with a stone. The author is trying to by using the stone bring out the story. The main characters are Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu. The story is talking about the love story of the two characters’ and it also talking about the Jia’s family story. Daiyu is the old lady Jia‘s granddaughter, and the following two chapters are talking about Daiyu’s mother died, and then Daiyu came to Jias of Rongguo House.

Actually, I read this novel when I was at middle school in China. “The Story of the Stone” as a requirement novel in Chinese middle school, every student needs to read this novel.   When I read this story at first time, I did not really understand what the story was talking about.  The reason is that there were many ancient Chinese words; the author also used many poems to explain his feelings.  After I got to understand this tory, I was interested in this story. It was not just a story; the author was trying to explore the realistic of the society in that dynasty. From the beginning the story, the author pointed out that “Pages full of idle words, Penned with hot and bitter tears:  All men call the author fool; None his secret message hears.”  From this short message, we could know that the author tried to expose the corrupt society. In that dynasty, people could not express anything they wanted, so they needed to use story to tell people what they tried to tell to the society. In a word, all truth would be covered. “Truth becomes fiction when the fiction’s true.”