Abstract

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Title:: Direct Influence of The Carnal Prayer Mat on A Dream of Red Mansions

Keywords:: The Carnal Prayer Mat; A Dream of Red Mansions; stone; beauty roster; influence on creation

Abstract:: Cao Xueqin’s A Dream of Red Mansions is parallel to Li Yu’s The Carnal Prayer Mat in title, theme as well as the general narrative structure, both of them having the similar characters of “a monk and a Taoist priest”. The protagonist Jia Baoyu in A Dream of Red Mansions is the analogue of Weiyang Sheng in The Carnal Prayer Mat; the beauty roster in the former can also find its counterpart in the latter. In addition, it is not difficult to see these two novels have a lot in common in both diction and the theory of novel writing. The author of A Dream of Red Mansions must have studied The Carnal Prayer Mat. It is quite clear that the former is under the direct influence of the latter. This finding will add to the seemingly exhaustive studies of redology some new facts.