More than ten seconds passed.
People finally came out of their pondering states.
Senior Song breathed in and raised her hand, “Teacher Zhang!”
Zhang Ye kept the projector transparencies and smiled. “Little Song, go ahead.”
“Your discovery indeed seems very valuable, but…” Senior Song stubbornly insisted, “Even if many ancient texts of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ originated from Zhiyanzhai’s edition, if we want to force it, it still doesn’t answer the problem. We can’t use Zhiyanzhai’s comments to say that the last 40 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ were not written by Cao Xueqin. Even if Zhiyanzhai was extremely close with Cao Xueqin, and might have participated in discussions and the creative process, I still have the same thing to say. It is possible that when Zhiyanzhai wrote those comments, ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ was still not completed yet. Later on, Cao Xueqin changed his mind and did not follow his original intentions. You previously refuted me saying that Zhiyanzhai’s tone was very affirmative, and said that he had seen the entire ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’, that still lacks evidence.”
Professor Zeng nodded. Little Song’s sharp question was good. Academic research had to be as such. By continuously picking at flaws in an argument, and continuously searching for problems, only then could you see things clearer.
As Senior Song was saying, her thoughts became clearer, “So although many things make sense according to Zhiyanzhai’s words from inference, and people of that era had never seen the entire ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’, while Zhiyanzhai, who was very close with Cao Xueqin, only had a general idea and outline of the story, resulting in Zhiyanzhai having such comments. This also led to the ancient texts being passed down without the complete 120 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’. They could not record it down because no one had seen the ending plot. After Cao Xueqin finished writing ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’, the manuscript was for some reason sealed and saved, but was found many years later by Gao E. Only then was it spread during that period! As for why Gao E referenced Zhiyanzhai’s comments, and had erroneously included it in the circulated version, this also indicates the level of Gao E’s academic rigor. When he ‘supplemented’ ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’, he studied Zhiyanzhai’s comments, and maybe even the complete 120 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ that was passed down contained in Zhiyanzhai’s comments. As a collator, he ended up making a mistake, so the 120 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ was still written by Cao Xueqin!”
“That’s right!”
“That was well said by that student.”
“Mighty Senior Song! Well said!”
“If we depended on guessing like that, then everything would be able to make sense! Teacher Zhang Ye’s opinions can’t really hold water! That’s indeed our Straight A student, Senior Song!”
The students of Peking University were suddenly enlightened!
A few Peking University teachers also looked towards Senior Song and thought to themselves what a smart student she was!
However, Zhang Ye did not mind, and instead smiled. He looked at Senior Song and said, “Then according to what you say, people from that era have never seen the complete ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’?”
Senior Song affirmed, “It has to be so. According to this inference, your opinion will be overturned. If the complete 120 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ was first spread by Gao E, the comments of Zhiyanzhai would not be able to hold.”
Zhang Ye smiled as he shook his head.
“You don’t agree?” Senior Song leered at him.
Zhang Ye said, “Hur Hur, actually I’m very happy. Why? Because when I first put out my views, everyone was thinking that I was making excuses. They thought that I was using some unreliable information with biased assumptions to make my arguments, but it seems that you all have realized that this situation is now switched?”
Senior Song immediately blushed, “But I’m not forcing my argument and using biased assumptions. It might be a possibility, no, it has to be like that!”
“Are you sure?” Zhang Ye asked.
“I’m sure!” Senior Song insisted firmly.