Product Introduction:

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As a masterpiece of Chinese classical literature, „A Dream of Red Mansions“ has been broadly popular among readers from different social classes since its advent in the mid-18^th century. Its realistic depictions have gradually become the important painting subject for painters. Countless paintings of the subject, from civil painting workshops or imperial art academy, were created in over 200 years. Among them, “Picture Book of 'Dream of Red Mansions' by Sun Wen in Qing Dynasty”, painted with colored fine brushwork techniques and currently stored in Lushun Museum in Dalian, is a little-known art treasure.

The picture book, bound with the vertical accordion binding method, is consisted of twenty-four volumes, in which one volume is blank. Each volume possesses ten pictures and amount to two hundred and thirty pictures are displayed in the book. Each picture, painted on silk, is 43.3 cm in length and 76.5 cm in width. Each volume is covered by wood wrapped in golden-flecked cream silk. The picture book beginning with “Panorama of the Great View Garden in ‘The Story of the Stone’”, exhibits the scenarios of the 120-chapter “A Dream of Red Mansions”. The number of pictures painted for each chapter varies. It seems the picture book was not finished by the same painter because the painting style of the first 80 chapters differs significantly from that of the last 40 chapters. The pictures were inscribed “a seventy-three-year-old elder Run Zhai Sun Wen”. After the initial investigation, it turned out that Sun Wen, whose style is Run Zhai, was born in Fengrun of Hebei province in the Reign of Emperor Jiaqing of Qing Dynasty. The picture book was mostly designed and painted by Sun Wen, supported by Sun Yunmo, during the reign of Emperors Tongzhi and Guangxu of Qing Dynasty.

Viewing the pictures, you could find they were precisely composited with fine brushwork and thick color pattern. Putting the figures into the specific circumstances, the painter, with a unique conception, succeeded in combining the emotions and scenes and presenting a poetic art world. The picture book vividly visualized the spiritual connotation of the original novel. The picture book proves to be the sole masterpiece among the painting works of the same subject by its detailed and complete scenarios and vast volumes.

In this picture book, which was duplicated, printed and published based on the original work, the titles that were attached to the original work and written on the labels, are arranged as the chapter titles under each picture. The asterisks are adopted to mark the chapter titles that came from “A Dream of Red Mansions” (People’s Publishing House, 1964), and brackets indicate the original titles on the labels are false or have wrongly written characters. Additionally, each picture couples with a brief introduction of the scenarios to improve the understanding of the picture. Ever since the first edition published in September of 2004, three editions of traditional Chinese character version of the picture book have been published and the book has been printed for eight times. The accordion binding edition picture book of the original size was extremely welcomed by the painters and book lovers and became the best seller. The Chinese English bilingual edition is the fourth edition of the series. The brand-new high quality pictures bring a more vivid effect and the high-fidelity presents the features of the original work. This edition printed in extra large 6mo, which provides a much bigger size of both book and pictures in this edition than those in Chinese edition and makes the picture book look magnificent.

“A Dream of Red Mansions” has been translated into many languages and disseminated all over the world. This Chinese-English bilingual picture book would provide the crowning touch to the promotion of colourful Chinese culture and be loved by both Chinese and foreign readers.

                                                                                                     The Writer’s Publishing House
                                                                                                                            September, 2007
 

Preface

Lushun museum, with a history of nearly a hundred years, enjoyed an excellent reputation at home and abroad for its abundant and distinctive collection of cultural relics. In recent years, Lushun museum has reinforced its efforts in development and collaborated with some domestic famous publishing companies. They published their academic achievements, which are influential in both China and foreign countries and draw the attention from the experts in all fields. This Picture Book of 120-Chapter ‘A Dream of Red Mansion’ by Sun Wen in Qing Dynasty (Deluxe Edition in English & Chinese) is one of them.

“Dream of Red Mansions” is a masterpiece written by Cao Xueqin, a great writer in the Qing Dynasty of China. He “pored over the book for ten years and rewrote it five times.” The story focuses on the love and marriage tragedy of the noble youths, Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai. The book completely and deeply reveals the characteristics of the times of the late feudal society in China, and also gives a convincing criticism on the decadent feudal system. Through the delineating the dazzling array of characters and disclosing the various conflicts by the author, his work has won a tremendous artistic appeal. Ever since the first time “A Dream of Red Mansions” was published, it had been popular for over two hundred years and produced such a profound and extensive impact that hundreds of editions of “A Dream of Red Mansions” were published in various art forms in different eras. In painting art field, either the folk artists or the royal painters left us abundant paintings of the novel, in the forms of New-year drawing, print, fresco, embroidered portrait and so on. The “Picture Book of ‘A Dream of Red Mansions’ by Sun Wen in Qing Dynasty”, painted with fine brushwork techniques and collected by Lushun Museum, outstands these great painting works.

The picture book, created on the subject of “A Dream of Red Mansions” during the Reign of Emperor Tongzhi and Guangxu (1862-1908) in the late Qing Dynasty, was painted with colored fine brushwork techniques on silk, different from the other illustrated novels of embroidered portraits with limning monochrome painting techniques. This picture book opened a new artistic world and was taken as a treasure. It stands in a leading stage among the painting works on the same subject for its vast volumes, magnificent scenes and numerous figures. Based on the version of “A Dream of Red Mansions” with one hundred and twenty chapters, from Chapter One “Zhen Shiyin in a Dream Saw the Jade of Spiritual Understanding” to the last one “Jia Yucun concluded a dream of red mansions”, the painter carefully selected and tailored on the figures and scenarios in each picture. Rather than exhibiting the chapters evenly in the pictures, the painter particularly emphasized on some scenarios according to the description in the novel. For example, on one hand he exhibited one single chapter in two or even more pictures, while on the other hand condensed two chapters into one picture. His arrangement not only highlighted the stresses of the original novel, also sufficiently reflected the essences of it. The concentrated, concise and implicit layout of the pictures improves the artistic enhancement of the book.

As a colored-pattern picture book of “A Dream of Red Mansions”, it is supposed to be the re-creation of the novel. The painter could hardly grasp the images of characters in the novel accurately unless he thoroughly immersed himself into the novel to have an insightful understanding. “A Dream of Red Mansions” depicted numerous characters. According to the statistic data, there are over three thousand and seven hundred figured painted in the picture book. Each of those figures has its own feature, which ensures the vividness of the painting.

The painter was a folk artist of the late Qing Dynasty. He mainly used the traditional folk colors, crimson and emerald, in his work, but succeeded in integrating the figures with their surroundings. Therefore, despite the thick and bright color-pattern, the pictures look refreshing and elegant. Another strongpoint worth mentioning is that though the whole picture book continued the Chinese traditional folk painting style, the painter innovatively adopted the foreshortened figure, a painting technique widely adopted in western painting, which enhanced the expressional ability of the pictures and put the folk art in the late Qing Dynasty a giant step forward.

This picture book reproduced the novel with one hundred and twenty chapters in two hundred and thirty pictures. It not only exactly reveals the original spirit in the novel and provides visualized materials for study on “A Dream of Red Mansions”, also obtains an extremely high level of Chinese classical painting art. The pictures are quite important resources for studying on the folk painting in the late Qing Dynasty. However, due to some historical reasons, this art treasure has been known by only few people for quite a long time in spite of its highly aesthetic and cultural value. In recent years, the researchers in Lushun Museum have reached a new understanding and evaluation of the picture book by studying carefully and consulting with the renowned domestic experts on “A Dream of Red Mansions”. In 2004, the pictures were firstly exhibited in the National Museum and won a unanimous praise by the visitors. In the same year, the Writers Publishing House published the trade edition of the picture book, which was widely acclaimed by all.

I believe the publishing of this picture book would have an active effect on the study of “A Dream of Red Mansions” and other relevant art forms. It proves to be a meaningful attempt. The researchers and analysts in Lushun Museum are expected to further investigate on the collection of cultural relics in the museum, conduct in-depth academic research, produce high-level achievements and make new contributions to the urban cultural development of Dalian.

                                                                                                                                     Xia, Deren
                                                                                                                             Major of Dalian                  
                                                                                                                                     June, 2007