The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 3 Quotes

“If with the water’s rosy hue comparison be made,
Carmine tears and dewy flowers seem of the self-same shade.
Yet lady’s tears and flowers in this unalike I find,
That the flowers are still and smiling, but the tears flow unallayed.
As she gazes on the smiling flowers, her tears at last grow dry;
But as they dry, the springtime ends and the flowers fade. The flowers fade, and an equal blight the lady’s fair cheek palls.
The petals drift; she is weary; and soon the darkness falls.
A nightingale is singing a dirge for the death of spring,
And moonlight steals through the casement and dapples the silent walls.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Warning Voice

“Any doctor will do in an emergency.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 3: The Warning Voice

“They found Xiang-yun where the maid had said, on a large stone bench in a hidden corner of the rockery, dead to the world. She was covered all over from head to foot with crimson petals from the peony bushes which grew about; the fan which had slipped from her hand and lay on the found beside her was half buried in petals; and heaped up peony petals wrapped in a silk handkerchief made an improvised pillow for her head. Over and around this petalled monstrosity a convocation of bees and butterflies was hovering distractedly.”
― Cáo Xuěqín, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 3: The Warning Voice

“If only I could die this minute and my heart burst out of my body so that you could see how true it is! After that I shouldn’t care if all of me—flesh, blood, and bones—was blown by the winds into every corner of the earth!”
― Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 3: The Warning Voice

“The two girls descended the slope of the little mountain. A few steps round a turn in the pathway which skirted the foot of it took them to the pavilion. Near the water's edge, linking it with Lotus Pavilion farther along the shore, was a bamboo railing. The two old women who were on night watch in it, little imagining that an overspill from the hilltop party would come their way, had long since put their light out and gone to sleep. Dai-yu and Xiang-yun laughed when they saw that the pavilion was in darkness.

"They've gone to sleep. Never mind. All the better. Let's sit outside here on the covered verandah and look at the moonlight on the water."

They found a couple of drum shaped bamboo stools to sit down on. A great white moon in the water reflected the great white moon above, competing with it in brightness. The girls felt like mermaids sitting in a shining crystal palace beneath the sea. A little wind that brushed over the surface of the water making tiny ripples seemed to cleanse their souls and fill them with buoyant lightness.”
― Cáo Xuěqín, The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 3: The Warning Voice

“Not chewed-off ends of the sky’s embroidery?
‘What are they?’ – ‘Raise the blind a bit and see.’
‘A white hand snatches some and draws it in,
Pursued by the swallows’ chiding din.
Oh stay, oh stay!
The lovely spring drifts after you away.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Warning Voice

“The melons looked all right, but there’s not much inside them when you cut them open.’ ‘Those mooncakes are good, aren’t they?’ said Cousin Zhen. ‘They were made by our new pastry-cook. I tried them myself to make sure they were all right before venturing to send you any. As for the melons: we’ve been lucky in previous years, but for some reason none of them this year seem to be any good.’ ‘I think we must blame the weather,’ said Jia Zheng. ‘The rains this year were excessive.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Warning Voice

“Flute-playing at Convex Pavilion”
― Cao Xueqin, The Warning Voice

“The story you’ve just been listening to is called Falsehood Exposed, or The Tale of a Grandmother. It is a story which took place under the reigning dynasty, on this very day of this very month of this very year on this very spot and at this very hour. How can Grannie “with one mouth tell a double tale”? Ah, how indeed! Our tale puts forth two tails. Which tail to wag? Wig-wag. But for the time being we do not inquire which tale is false, which true. Our story turns rather to those people in the party who were admiring the lanterns and watching the play… Just give these two kinsfolk a chance to drink a cup of wine and watch a scene or two more of the play, Grannie, and then you can get on with your Exposure of Falsehood – dynasty by dynasty.”
― Xueqin Cao, The Warning Voice

“Please, my dear! It isn’t that I find your feet in the least distasteful. It’s just that I drank rather a lot of yellow wine last night and ate lots of very rich mooncakes, so today I am feeling a little queasy.”
― Cao Xueqin, The Warning Voice

“The immortal parts of the late Droopy’s relict leaped through her cranium and described several somersaults in the air. She”
― Cao Xueqin, The Warning Voice