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 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
The story line returns to Yu-cun, who has received the reinstatement to his post as a minister with the help of the Jia household. He is now working in Nanking, in the same district where Xue Pan faces manslaughter accusations. Yu-cun is deeply upset when he learns that the family of the murdered man, Feng-Yuan, has not received justice. An usher Yu-cun knew from his early days at Bottlegourd Temple pulls him aside to explain the complicated nature of the situation.
Xue Pan is related to the wealthy Jia and Wang families, and no minister has been willing to bring him up on charges of manslaughter. The usher scolds Yu-cun for not having his “Mandarin Life-Preserver [...] [which] list[s] those families which are so powerful that if you were ever to run up against one of them your life might be in danger” (111). The usher explains that Feng-Yuan was a young, gay man from a small estate who fell in love with a slave girl and bought her. The girl was going to arrive at his house in three days, but the kidnapper of the slave girl sold her to another man, Xue Pan, to make more money. Feng and Xue then fought over the girl, each insisting she was rightfully theirs. However, Xue used his influence and violent henchmen to beat Feng-Yuan to death, thus settling the argument in Xue’s favor. The slave girl is the young kidnapped Ying-lian, the daughter of Zhen Shi-yin. Nobody knows what happened to Ying-lian after the fight; the usher only knows that Xue also beat her.
Ultimately, Yu-cun decides to close the case with a monetary settlement for the family of Feng, which pleases everyone enough to move forward and makes Yu-cun look good with the Jia family and the Emperor. Xue Pan goes to the capitol and ends up living with his mother and sister in the Rong mansion, where Lady Wang, Dai-yu, and Bao-yu reside in a small house on the edge of the compound. His time with the other Jia men only makes him more oafish, selfish, and cruel.
Chapter 5 Summary
Bao-yu attends a small garden party with the Rong and Wang families to celebrate the spring and grows tired. Qin-shi, the wife of Bao-yu’s nephew Jia Rong, invites him into her elaborate chambers. He isn’t pleased with the guest bedroom, and so Qin-shi invites him to sleep in her room. The room, decorated with antiques from the bedchambers of empresses, has a beautiful floral smell, and Qin-shi admits that her chambers are “fit for an immortal to sleep in” (127). Bao-yu rests, and soon falls into a half-sleep where Qin-shi seems to be both with him and floating far away.
Bao-yu hears a song in the distance and comes upon the fairy Disenchantment. She tells him their meeting is fated, as she is responsible for redistribution of “love-karma” (130). She then reveals that his father and the other elders in the Jia family have asked her to teach him the proper ways of love so that he can continue their family line in an honorable way. Bao-yu journeys to the Land of Illusion, the home of the fairy Disenchantment, where he sees a registry of beautiful women, all described in images and riddles. Bao-yu imbibes magical tea and wine, and he finally watches a song cycle called “Dream of the Golden Days,” which describes in more detail some of the same stories from the riddles in the registry. Each is about ill-fated love, pain, suffering, and bad luck. Bao-yu becomes drunk and bored, and he doesn’t understand the warnings.
Bao-yu is brought to a bedroom to sleep but is surprised to find a fairy girl there named Ke-qing. Disenchantment instructs Bao-yu in the art of love, and then tells him to perform the act with Ke-qing. In doing so, he can understand that love is an illusion in dreams and in the mortal world and devote himself to other, more important pursuits, like the study of Confucianism. Bao-yu makes love to Ke-qing, and then the next morning they wander together in the meadows. But they come upon a dark, frightening world, “where only thorn-trees grew and wolves and tigers prowled around in pairs” (147). The fairy Disenchantment stops them before they tumble into a deep ravine full of monsters, telling them that only those fated to cross the Ford of Error may ferry across, and that crossing will ruin any advice the fairy has given. Water monsters rising from the ravine tug at Bao-yu, who calls out to Ke-qing to save him. In the mortal world, Bao-yu’s maids race to comfort him, and Qin-shi wonders how Bao-yu could have known her childhood name, Ke-qing.
Chapter 6 Summary
Bao-yu wakes from his nap to his maid Aroma tending to him. She notices that he has been sexually aroused during his sleep and needs new underwear. Bao-yu is embarrassed, but Aroma deals with the matter tactfully. When she takes Bao-yu into his room to change, the two begin to speak about Bao-yu’s dreams, and Bao-yu seduces Aroma. Aroma knew all along that she would become a partner for Bao-yu if he wanted, because of her role as his primary servant, and she is pleased.
The story continues on a new thread, with a visit from a distant relative who was adopted into the family. Granny Liu, the mother-in-law of a man whose grandfather was an adopted son of one of the Wang’s, notices her son-in-law’s stress over the family finances and suggests he ask a wealthy relative for money. Gou-er, Granny Liu’s son-in-law, initially sneers at the request, saying, “There are no tax collectors in my family and no mandarins among my friends. What way could there be of laying my hands on some money?” (152).
Granny Liu reminds him of his relationship to the Wangs, and she finally agrees to visit the Rong house for him, with her grandchild in tow. As a poor woman living on a plot of farmland outside the capitol, the servants initially disregard her, and she asks to see Mrs. Zhou, the wife of an old servant who was familiar with the family. Zhou Rui’s wife takes Granny Liu and her grandson Ban-er in, and she immediately understands the reason for their visit. Hoping to show off her own position with the Jia family, she breaks custom to introduce Granny Liu to the young Wang Xi-feng. Although Wang Xi-feng is initially confused by the relationship, Lady Wang sends a message to clarify the issue, and Wang Xi-feng treats Granny Liu and Ban-er to a small meal and sends them off with 20 pieces of silver.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
Two primary themes run through these chapters—the idea of love as illusory and full of suffering, and the nuances of social class and the complications that arise because of it. In Chapters 4 and 6, the idea of social class and the strange nature of social customs make up the majority of the conflict. In Chapter 4, Yu-cun faces trouble when a thug related to the Jia family, Xue Pan, is accused of manslaughter. Yu-cun wants to bring justice to the much less affluent murdered man, but nobody in the ministry will make a statement about the case, for fear of retribution from Xue Pan and his henchmen. This conflict is deeply embedded in the complicated nature of social class and social hierarchy, as well as the strict customs of Chinese culture during this period that insist on behaving favorably toward the wealthy. An usher in the court even shows Yu-cun a rhyming poem, which lists the wealthy families that should not be bothered with legal matters: “The Nanking Xue / so rich are they, / To count their money / Would take all day” (111). This poem is referred to as a “Life Preserver” (111), which indicates the social significance not only of having this knowledge but acting in accordance to these customs. It is, for Yu-cun, a matter of life and death.
Another side of this theme is made clear in Chapter 6 when Granny Liu, a poor widow from an impoverished farming family, uses some of these social customs to her benefit to get money for her daughter and son-in-law. Although Granny Liu’s distance from the family makes it unlikely that she would even get to see a family member of any importance, her tactfulness and awareness of social customs leads her to visit with Zhou Rui’s wife, a low-level servant who “was, in any case, anxious to demonstrate her own importance in the Jia household” (155). The selfish desire to preserve reputation and status, with Zhou Rui’s wife and among the prominent female members of the Jia family, result in Granny Liu leaving the mansion with 20 silver pieces and her goal achieved.
In Chapter 5, the story takes on a more mystical tone. Bao-yu travels to the celestial world of fairies at the request of his older family members, who hope to teach him about the illusory nature of mortal love. The fairy Disenchantment returns and allows Bao-yu to consummate a relationship with a young fairy girl named Ke-qing. She hopes to show him that “the love of your dust-stained, mortal world must be doubly an illusion” so that Bao-yu will “henceforth be able to shake [him]self free of its entanglements” (146). Characters of high moral standing continuously repeated this value, which promotes serious study of Confucius and other literatures over lust and romance. But Bao-yu’s curse makes it impossible for him to resist love, and he only falls deeper into his lust after his relationship with Ke-qing, which leads to a sexual encounter with his maid, Aroma back in the mortal world. The consequences of this decision, and of Bao-yu’s behavior, are made repeatedly clear in the song cycle and dark riddles that the fairy Disenchantment shares with Bao-yu. This foreshadows the conflict to come in Bao-yu’s life. After the song cycle, the fairy Disenchantment sighs over Bao-yu’s lack of interest in her clues. She says, “Silly boy. You still don’t understand, do you?” (145).
