62 pages • 2 hours read
Cao XueqinDream of the Red Chamber, Volume 1
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1760A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
The chapter begins with Jokey Jin kotowing to Bao-yu and Qin Zhong to settle the argument between them. He comes home enraged, and his mother Widow Jin warns him not to get too haughty—they don’t have to money to afford a tutor, and she reminds him that they are lucky he got into school in the first place. She tells him, “If you get yourself thrown out of there, you needn’t think you can get in anywhere else” (217-18). Later, a relative, Mrs. Huang, becomes haughty at the knowledge that Jokey Jin has been in a fight at school, and she goes to complain to Jia Rong and Qin-shi about the problem.
While visiting with You-shi, Mrs. Huang learns that Qin-shi has fallen ill. She isn’t having her period and is listless and exhausted. You-shi is deeply concerned about Qin-shi and says that Qin-shi’s brother Qin Zhong has only stressed her body more by talking to her about his fight at school as well as the bullying done by Jokey Jin and other boys. Mrs. Huang quiets when she hears this, and the matter drops.
A new doctor, named Zhang, visits the household. He is one of many who have come, though none could be of any help. He is a humble doctor, and he does things differently than others—he focuses only on Qin-shi’s pulse, and he doesn’t listen to a list of her symptoms as the other doctors had. He diagnoses her with a nervous disorder causing an imbalance in the heart, spleen, and liver, and he prescribes medication. The family is deeply impressed with Dr. Zhang and his methods.
Chapter 11 Summary
A party is planned for Jia Jing’s birthday. Jia Jing lives inside a monastery and expresses that he has no desire to “go back into [their] quarrelsome world again” (222). Instead, he asks for a calligrapher to transcribe a religious text of his for distribution. In his absence, the household hosts a party with a band and actors, who perform scenes from famous plays.
During the party, Grandmother Jia and Qin-shi are both absent due to illness. Grandmother Jia has a small stomach bug, but Qin-shi remains ill from her previously diagnoses nervous condition. Everyone in the family fears she won’t survive. Xi-feng, who is a particularly good friend of Qin-shi, visits her in her bedroom, and Bao-yu accompanies her. During their visit, Bao-yu—so struck by the sadness of Qin-shi’s words about her condition and possible mortality, in combination with memories of his dream in the Land of Illusion—starts weeping. Xi-feng asks him to leave, but she stays longer and tries to cheer up Qin-shi. On Xi-feng’s way back to the party, Jia Rui harasses and ogles her. Xi-feng is disgusted by him, calling him an “odious creature” (237). She declares, “I’ll settle this hash for him” (237).
The party disbands, and Xi-feng frequently visits Qin-shi in her time of illness. Xi-feng confesses to You-shi that there seems to be very little hope for Qin-shi, and You-shi admits they have “been quietly making a few preparations” (241) for her death. The chapter ends on this morose note and with Xi-feng asking her maid Patience to invite Jia Rui over after his frequent calls so that she can “deal with him” (242).
Chapter 12 Summary
Xi-feng decides that the best way to handle the attentions of Jia Rui is to trap him. He arrives at her apartment, and she makes passes at him, encouraging his attentions and flirting with him. She invites him to visit her often, and his good luck stuns him. He says, “[P]eople always told me what a holy terror you were and how dangerous it was to cross you; but now I know that in reality you are all gentleness” (244). In response, Xi-feng tells him to meet her in the courtyard at nightfall to consummate their relationship.
Jia Rui arrives in the courtyard, but nobody is there. Only one gate is open, and he waits for a long time until he hears a bang. He goes to investigate and finds himself locked inside. It is mid-winter, and he nearly freezes until morning. When Jai Rui returns to his grandfather, Jia Dai-ru chastises him for being out all night. Dai-ru makes his grandson kneel in the courtyard and do recitations for his bad behavior and lies. Jia Rui, however, still loves Xi-feng. He sees her again, and she tells him to meet her in the courtyard behind her apartment. He goes late that night and jumps on the first figure he sees, but it is Jia Rong. Jia Qiang catches him kissing Jia Rong and insists they bring him to Lady Wang for punishment. He gets out of the situation by promising 50 taels of silver each to Jia Rong and Jia Qiang, but he doesn’t escape without being sloshed with a bucket of excrement.
After these situations, Jia Rui is enraged at Xi-feng yet still feels attracted to her. His confused feelings caused a serious illness, which no doctor could cure. A Taoist monk appears at his door and offers a mirror to heal the illness, which the monk claims comes from the Land of Illusion. The mirror is inscribed with the words “A MIRROR FOR THE ROMANTIC,” and it is supposed to heal the “ill effects of impure mental activity” (251). The monk tells Jia Rui to never look in the front of the mirror, only the back, and then disappears.
Jia Rui cannot resist looking in the front of the mirror, where he sees an image of Xi-feng enticing him. The illusion repeatedly draws him in, until “two figures approached him holding iron chains” (252). The figures trap Jia Rui in the mirror. Dai-ru finds his grandson’s dead body, and the discovery devastates him.
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
Illness, death, and the illusion of love are the primary subjects of Chapters 10 to 12: Bodily imbalances, which stem from mental activities, trouble the characters and throw their systems out of alignment. Qin-shi’s illness is revealed by Dr. Zhang, who suggests that her sensitivity and excessive worrying are the cause of her weakness. Jai Rui finds himself ill from his “impure mental activity” (251) after his lust for Xi-feng ends in his own humiliation. In this way, the author makes it clear that there is a correlation, per the laws of Chinese medicine, between the mind’s health and the health of the body. Along the same logic, Jia Rong asks Xi-feng to cheer up Qin-shi, to help her break from her pessimism about her illness, in the hopes that a lifted spirit could cure her. This idea ties into the Confucian ideology about the illusion of mortal life, suggesting that a change in perspective or temperament has the power to heal the body—in this way, the illness itself is only a result of flawed thinking, in the same way that lustful behavior is a result of a flaw in perspective.
The death of Jai Rui offers a dark, cautionary tale along these same lines. The arrival of the Taoist monk, Mysterioso, with the “Mirror for the Romantic” (251) suggests a spiritual cure for illness caused by lust. However, Jai Rui cannot resist the temptation of Xi-feng’s body, even if he knows it is an illusion. Mysterioso argues that Jai Rui’s death is entirely self-inflicted when Dai-ru tries to burn the mirror that killed his grandson. He says, “Who told him to look in the front [of the mirror]? It is you who are the blame, for confusing the unreal with the real!” (253). This, Mysterioso, says, is one of the consequences of love and of falling into the illusion of mortal life. The ability to find truth through spiritual practice is the only true path out of illusion, and when given this opportunity, Jai Rui once again failed to resist the temptation of love.
Ultimately, the message of these chapters is best summed up in the words of Xi-feng, who says of Qin-shi’s illness, “I know ‘the weather and human life are both unpredictable’” (231), quoting a Chinese proverb. If human life is an illusion, there is no control other than a devotion to spiritual practice and the acceptance of suffering and the power of fate. Human life, as Xi-feng says, is as unpredictable as the weather, and humans have little to no control over it.
