Since its emergence in the eighteenth century, Dream of the Red Chamber has been widely regarded as the greatest novel in the Chinese literary tradition. Written over more than a decade by Cao Xueqin under conditions of poverty and without patronage, the novel was left unfinished at the author’s death. Yet despite censorship, repeated bans, and its early circulation only in manuscript form, it achieved extraordinary vitality among readers and went on to inspire countless adaptations in drama, film, and television.

This lecture explores how Dream of the Red Chamber has been written, read, and reinterpreted across different historical moments. From its early reception as a work of emotional and artistic brilliance, through the late Qing and Republican debates between allegorical “hidden meaning” interpretations and modern textual scholarship, to its Marxist readings in the socialist era, the novel has continually been reshaped by changing intellectual and political climates.

By tracing the novel’s transmission history and major interpretive frameworks, this lecture asks a broader question: how can an unfinished work remain endlessly generative, inviting each generation to read its own concerns into its pages? In doing so, Dream of the Red Chamber emerges not only as a literary masterpiece, but as a mirror reflecting the evolving cultural psyche of China itself.