There are a lot of debates about the latter 40 chapters of The Dream Of Red Chamber since long ,and the "Hong Studies" are unable to agree. Some "New Hong Studies" such as Hushi and Yu pingbo thought that the latter 40 chapters of The Dream Of Red Chamber were continued by Gaoe .They divided the 120 chapters into two discontacting parts ,and draw the conclusion that the first 80 chapters were written by Cao xueqin and the later 40 chapters were written by Gaoe. Therefore, there are many arguments about the author of the latter 40 chapters of The Dream Of Red Chamber.But I think that Hushi and Yu pingbo are wrong, because the latter 40 chapters of The Dream Of Red Chamber as well as the first 80 chapters ,their original authors are Cao xueqin.I believe that Cao xueqin had written the entering 120 chapters, and the first 80 chapters had putted out after they had been completed, unfortunately, the latter 40 chapters were lost because a lot of readers wanted to lend the manuscripts before they were published. Slowly and slowly, some manuscripts were lost.Fortunately, some of them were found by Cheng weiyuan, and he thought these manuscripts were valuable and he collected all of them that he had found. Because the quantity of them were vast, and he was eager to put out them, so he asked Gaoe to join him. They saved the uncompleted manuscripts based on their original copies. Firstly, they corrected some erroneous characters and some wrong words. Secondly, they putted these revised chapters and the original first 80 chapters into an entirement. Lastly, they patched the block-printed book of 120 chapters .Therefore, not only the latter 40 chapters of The Dream Of Red Chamber and also the first 80 chapters ,their original authors are Cao xueqin. The view that the latter 40 chapters are written by Gaoe is wrong. We should believe that the latter 40 chapters are patched by Gaoe. |