Dream Illusion Void

Abstract

The dream of an unused or useless stone to be in and participate in the world of Passion. The stone reincarnates... to find itself in the Illusory world, submerged in all its preoccupations. Finally, it goes back to its original state, back to the great Void. This process brings to mind the philosophy of not a few philosophers, particularly that of Zhuang Zi and Western philosopher Rene Descartes. The paper is a philosophical treatise on the great eighteenth-century Chinese novel, “Hónglóu mèng,” otherwise known as “Dream of the Red Chamber.” The author, Cao Xueqin’s, extensive perspectives on dream, illusion, and void as illustrating “life” embodies and surrounds the entirety of the literature. The author makes use of the phenomena, the human experiences of “Dream,” “Illusion,” and “Voidness,” to highlight the life process a human being goes through. The paper, being based on a work of classic literature, also finds application in the general appreciation of Chinese literature (of novels in particular) and of better understanding of Chinese culture and way of thinking. The paper, designed for the dissemination of information for the greater number of people. As such, only
important names and relevant terms in the novels are presented in Chinese characters, albeit with a presentation of the Chinese pinyin, a romanized version of such.