There is nothing in western literature that is quite like Dream of the Red Chamber. Once you get over the shock of reading the mid-18th century vernacular, the depth and charm of the romantic epic is one of the most compelling reasons to read it in the original Chinese. In the coming weeks, we will be annotating the entire first chapter of the novel in serial form. In this, the first paragraph of the book, author Cao Xueqin introduces his story as a work of fiction in which the astute reader will find eternal truths. He admonishes us to pay close attention to the text and explicitly tells us it is laced with double meanings....
