Ts'ao Hsueh-Ch'in

Yet Pao Yu’s meaningless life unconsciously evolves slowly toward illumination. He is a Taoist saint who doesn’t know he is one and doesn’t want to be one. Like Prince Genji, he is indifferent to and ignorant of his cosmic role. He struggles, unaware, against an embodied principle of hate. When salvation comes, it is scarcely distinguishable from its opposite. --Kenneth Rexroth, The Dream of the Red Chamber, Classics Revisited (1968)


Recommended reading:
by Ts'ao Hsueh-Ch'in at Reading Rat


Study Guide: Dream of the Red Chamber by Chan Tsao, CliffNotes