Zhiyanzhai

"八字便是作者一生慚恨。"

"若云雪芹披阅增删，然则开卷至此这一篇楔子又系谁撰？足见作者之笔狡猾之甚。后文如此者不少。这正是作者用画家烟云模糊处，观者万不可被作者瞒蔽了去，方是巨眼。"

"Persons whom I saw thirty years ago and with whom I was intimate now appear on the page, and this compels me to declare that The Story of the Stone is a book of the deepest feelings and the truest words. Unless, however, one has in fact experienced such events or been deluded by such feelings, reading it is like "chewing wax" absentmindedly, never understanding the miraculous wonders of what one has witnessed."

"能解者方有辛酸之泪，哭成此書。壬午除夕，書未成，芹爲泪盡而逝。余常哭芹，泪亦待盡。每思覓青埂峰再問石兄，奈不遇癩頭和尚何！悵悵！今而後惟願造化主再出一芹一脂，是書何幸，余二人亦大快遂心於九泉矣。甲午八日泪筆。"

"知眼泪還債，大都作者一人耳。余亦知此意，但不能說得出。"

"By resorting to illusions, the supreme expression of love is attained. Nothing can compare to it."

"作者今尚記金魁星之事乎？撫今思昔，腸斷心摧。"

"又是一個有害無益者。作者一生為此所誤，批者一生亦為此所誤，於開卷凡見如此人，世人故為喜，余反抱恨，蓋四字誤人甚矣。被誤者深感此批。"

"自悟則自了，又何用人亦解哉？此正是猶未正覺大悟也。"

"……此書之妙皆從詩詞句中翻出者……"

"所謂越不聰明越快活。"

"釵玉名雖兩個，人卻一身，此幻筆也。"

"一部大書起是夢，寶玉情是夢，賈瑞淫又是夢，秦之家計長策又是夢……餘今批評亦在夢中……"

"鴛鴦劍能斬鴛鴦，鴛鴦人能破鴛鴦。"

"She composes her verses effortlessly. Different from others, her mindset and talents do not come from book-learning."

"Later I came across the following in the "Final Listing [of the Characters' Feelings]": Baoyu is "feeling not-feeling," Daiyu is "feeling feeling." These epithets are naturally assessments of their perversity and obsessiveness. And these summary judgments too are illogical and paradoxical. Superb indeed!"

"The entire Story of the Stone is plausible and reasonable, and each event or each word is judiciously put down, but this sort of absurd talk now and then appears too. Is the author being deliberately playful and whimsical? Here he is having his good laugh, unlike [authors of] other books in which "ghostly talk" [kuei-hua] is undertaken in all seriousness."

"字字看來皆是血，十年辛苦不尋常 。"

"Hu Shi] argued that Zhiyanzhai was none other than the author, Cao Xueqin himself. He based this [...] theory on the notion that Honglou meng is Cao Xueqin's autobiography and Cao himself is represented by Baoyu. Baoyu liked to eat cosmetics [...] and the phrase Zhiyanzhai sounds very similar to the phrase 'eat rouge' (chi yanzhi)."

"Zhou Ruchang believes] that the famous commentator and editor of the novel, Zhiyan Zhai 脂砚斋, was Cao Xueqin's cousin and second wife, as well as the prototype for the character Shi Xiang-yun (who Zhou thinks is Bao-yu's true love, not Lin Dai-yu)."

"Though the drift of Red Inkstone's remarks does not amount to a total disavowal of Honglou meng as a work of fiction, Red Inkstone certainly tends to single out certain parts of the novel for praise because 'there was really such a person' or 'this was what actually happened.' The commentary, valuable as it is, thus also serves to convert fiction to history, and the modern student should use it with discretion."