In a famous episode of the eighteenth-century masterpiece "The
Dream of the Red Chamber," the goddess Disenchantment introduces
the hero, Pao-yu, to the splendors and dangers of the Illusory
Realm of Great Void. The goddess, one of the divine women in
Chinese literature who inspire contradictory impulses of attachment
and detachment, tells Pao-yu that the purpose of his dream visit is
"disenchantment through enchantment," or "enlightenment through
love." Examining a range of genres from different periods, Wai-yee
Li reveals the persistence of the dialectic embodied by the
goddess: while illusion originates in love and desire, it is only
through love and desire that illusion can be transcended.
Li begins by defining the context of these issues through the
study of an entire poetic tradition, placing special emphasis on
the role of language and of the feminine element. Then, focusing on
the "dream plays" by T'ang Hsien-tsu, she turns to the late Ming,
an age which discovers radical subjectivity, and goes on to explore
a seventeenth-century collection of classical tales, "Records of
the Strange from the Liao-chai Studio" by P'u Sung-ling. The latter
half of the book is devoted to a thorough analysis of "The Dream of
the Red Chamber," the most profound treatment of the dialectic of
enchantment and disenchantment, love and enlightenment, illusion
and reality.
Originally published in 1993.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books
from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.
These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these
important books while presenting them in durable paperback
editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly
increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the
thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since
its founding in 1905."
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