The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 2 Quotes

“I would do anything – absolutely anything,’ he was thinking, ‘if only you would be nice to me. If you would be nice to me, I would gladly die for you this moment. It doesn’t really matter whether you know what I feel for you or not. Just be nice to me, then at least we shall be a little closer to each other, instead of so horribly far apart.’ At the same time Dai-yu was thinking: ‘Never mind me. Just be your own natural self. If you were all right, I should be all right too. All these manoeuvrings to try and anticipate my feelings don’t bring us any closer together; they merely draw us farther apart.’ The percipient reader will no doubt observe that these two young people were already of one mind, but that the complicated procedures by which they sought to draw together were in fact having precisely the opposite effect. Complacent reader! Permit us to remind you that your correct understanding of the situation is due solely to the fact that we have been revealing to you the secret, innermost thoughts of those two young persons, which neither of them had so far ever felt able to express.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Crab-Flower Club

“Can I, that these flowers’ obsequies attend,
Divine how soon or late my life will end?
Let others laugh flower-burial to see:
Another year who will be burying me? As petals drop and spring begins to fail,
The bloom of youth, too, sickens and turns pale.
One day, when spring has gone and youth has fled.
The Maiden and the flowers will both be dead.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Crab-Flower Club

“To hold the garden’s fragrance in one vase, And see all autumn in a single spray?”
― Cao Xueqin, The Crab-Flower Club

“After long cold the trees strange frost-fruits bear”
― Xueqin Cao, The Crab-Flower Club

“Questioning the Chrysanthemums
by River Queen Since none else autumn’s mystery can explain,
I come with murmured questions to your gate:
Who, world-disdainer, shares your hiding-place?
Of all the flowers why do yours bloom so late?
The garden silent lies in frosty dew;
The geese return; the cricket mourns his fate.
Let not speech from your silent world be banned:
Converse with me, since me you understand!”
― Cao Xueqin, The Crab-Flower Club

“To hold the garden’s fragrance in one vase,
And see all autumn in a single spray?”
― Cao Xueqin, The Crab-Flower Club

“Yin-yang is a sort of force,’ said Xiang-yun. ‘It’s the force in things that gives them their distinctive forms. For example, the sky is Yang and the earth is Yin; water is Yin and fire is Yang; the sun is Yang and the moon is Yin.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Crab-Flower Club

“This charming custom of ‘speeding the fairies’ is a special favourite with the fair sex, and in Prospect Garden all the girls were up betimes on this day making little coaches and palanquins out of willow-twigs and flowers and little banners and pennants from scraps of brocade and any other pretty material they could find, which they fastened with threads of coloured silk to the tops of flowering trees and shrubs. Soon every plant and tree was decorated and the whole garden had become a shimmering sea of nodding blossoms and fluttering coloured streamers. Moving about in the midst of it all, the girls in their brilliant summer dresses, beside which the most vivid hues of plant and plumage became faint with envy, added the final touch of brightness to a scene of indescribable gaiety and colour.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Crab-Flower Club

“Here, too, everything had been transformed: brilliantly embroidered screens and cushions specially brought out for the occasion and an incense burner set down in the middle of the room from which emanated delicious odours of pine and cedar and Hundred Blend aromatic.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 2: The Crab-Flower Club

“Last night I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls;
Tonight beside the watery waste I sing.
The island's cloud-cap drifts above the sea,
And mists about its mountain forests cling.
Our pasts and presents to the moon are one;
Our lives and loves beyond our reckoning.
Yet still my heart yearns for that distant South,
Where time is lost in one eternal spring.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 2: The Crab-Flower Club

“Like spendthrift youths in spring's new fashions dressed,
Its bare thin branches burst in glorious flower.
Snow no more falls, but a bright rosy cloud
Tints hills and streams in one long sunset hour.

Through this red flood my dream-boat makes its way,
While flutes sound chill from many a maiden's bower.
Sure from no earthly stock this beauty came,
But trees immortal round the Fairy Tower.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 2: The Crab-Flower Club

“On the stone tower a stork unwatchful sleeps -
On the warm mat a cat contented sighs.

In moonlit caves, the silvery water laps -
And red flags flutter against sunset skies.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 2: The Crab-Flower Club

“Once outside the courtyard gate, the Garden stretched out on every hand in uniform whiteness, uninterrupted except for the dark green of a pine tree or the lighter green of some bamboos here and there in the distance. He felt as if he was standing in the middle of a great glittering crystal bowl.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 2: The Crab-Flower Club

“Going indoors she sat down by the moon-window to take her medicine. Light reflected from the bamboos outside passed through the gauze of the window to make a green gloom within, lending a cold aquarian look to the floor and the surfaces of the furniture.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 2: The Crab-Flower Club

“A place remote, where footsteps seldom pass,
And dew glistens on the untrodden grass.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 2: The Crab-Flower Club

“A wintry sunset gilds the vine-wreathed door
Where stands, mossed by old rains, the flower pot.
Its snowy blooms, as snow impermanent,
Are as pure as pure white jade that alters not.
O fragrant frailty, that so fears the wind!
Most radiant whiteness! Full moon without spot!
White flower-sprite, shake your silken wings! Away!
And join with me to the hymn the dying day!”
― Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 2: The Crab-Flower Club

“I’ve already told them to light the stove there and get the underground heating system started.”
― Xueqin Cao, The Crab-Flower Club

“but he was not averse to gentler pastimes: he frequented the budding groves and could play on both the flute and the zither.”
― Xueqin Cao, The Crab-Flower Club

“The discovery that he was a keen amateur actor – one, moreover, who specialized in romantic roles – had led Xue Pan to jump to the wrong conclusion and assume that he must share the same ‘wind and moonlight’ proclivities as himself.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Crab-Flower Club