HUNG LOU MENG;

OR, THE DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER, A CHINESE NOVEL

BY

CAO XUEQIN

Translated by H. BENCRAFT JOLY







BOOK I.





PREFACE.

This translation was suggested not by any pretensions to range myself
among the ranks of the body of sinologues, but by the perplexities and
difficulties experienced by me as a student in Peking, when, at the
completion of the Tzu Erh Chi, I had to plunge in the maze of the Hung
Lou Meng.