In a famous episode of the eighteenth-century masterpiece The Dream of
the Red Chamber, the goddess Disenchantment introduces the hero,
Pao-yü, to the splendors and dangers of the Illusory Realm of Great
Void. The goddess, one of the divine women in Chinese literature who
inspire contradictory impulses of attachment and detachment, tells
Pao-yü that the purpose of his dream visit is "disenchantment through
enchantment," or "enlightenment through love." Examining a range of
genres from different periods, Wai-yee Li reveals the persistence of the
dialectic embodied by the goddess: while illusion originates in love and
desire, it is only through love and desire that illusion can be
transcended.
Li begins by defining the context of these issues through the study of
an entire poetic tradition, placing special emphasis on the role of
language and of the feminine element. Then, focusing on the "dream
plays" by T'ang Hsien-tsu, she turns to the late Ming, an age which
discovers radical subjectivity, and goes on to explore a
seventeenth-century collection of classical tales, Records of the
Strange from the Liao-chai Studio by P'u Sung-ling. The latter half of
the book is devoted to a thorough analysis of The Dream of the Red
Chamber, the most profound treatment of the dialectic of enchantment
and disenchantment, love and enlightenment, illusion and reality.
Originally published in 1993.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from
the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions
preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting
them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the
Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich
scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by
Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
