Chinese literature response 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Chinese literature response 2 - Essay Example And still it turns out to be a psychological novel that can marvel any European novels of that time .The advantage of the novel in traditional Chinese literature was that, it only held a peripheral position in the literary system. Thus novelists could explore new themes with more freedom, from which the orthodox modes of writing shied away. â€Å"The story of the Stone† is a typical example of a novel exploring poetically the unorthodox themes, of romantic, passionate love and emotions in the Chinese classical literature. In its opening itself the novel introduces the main theme of passionate love. It begins by telling the reader about a magical stone that can move by its own, change size and can even talk. It was cast off from the heavens by the Goddess Nu-Wa who was repairing the sky with stones. This particular stone was the only excess one left when she finished her work. The stone had magical qualities because it had been touched by a Goddess. The magical stone was distained to be incarnated into a human being. As the stone waits for its future destiny, near a pond it falls in love with a flower. The theme of love is thus introduced at the very beginning of the novel. The stone gets incarnated as the minor noble man Jia Bao-yu of the influential Jia family, a cultured wealthy family in early Qing dynasty China. The flower gets incarnated as Lin Dai –yu who is related to the Jia family but is a commoner. The novel centers around these two teenagers, who though unaware of their heavenly ori gins, try to come to grips with the human destiny on earth through very ordinary daily events in their lives. The caricature of Jin-Bao-yu is interesting and unique. He is the heir to the family. He is handsome, but very impertinent. The heir of the family should get very high education and pass the civil service examinations. But he is a spoilt boy, spoiled by his grand mother. While all boys of his age study, he spends time in the women’s quarters enjoying the