hapter 308: One bombshell after another!
Senior Song spoke, “It might be a coincidence, and not considered evidence.”
Zhang Ye shook his head, “Coincidence cannot explain it. The only explanation is that only 80 chapters of Cao Xueqin’s ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ were transmitted and seen by Gao E. He seriously studied it and then carried on writing the story. Gao E was very lucky. He saw a more complete ancient version of the 80 chapters that none of us have ever seen. Of course, there are things that he modified and filled in the blanks, but there were no major changes.”
Senior Song insisted, “Then why couldn’t it be Gao E obtained the 120 ancient chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ before arranging and publishing it?”
Zhang Ye did not answer the question, but rather asked, “Has anyone heard of a person known as Zhiyanzhai (Red Inkstone)?”
Senior Song shook her head.
Many Peking University students also shook their heads.
Only a History department junior said in a crisp voice, “I think there was an ancient text. I remember the name as ‘Zhiyanzhai’s Second Annotations to The Story of the Stone’. However, this ancient book only had a few rounds of circulation only. It is extremely incomplete. The comments in it are all baffling, so many expert scholars and Redologists do not count it as an ancient text. They find that it lacks the authority, and might have been blindly written.”
The students checked on the internet, and indeed, there was such an ancient text.
“Well said.” Zhang Ye smiled. “Zhiyanzhai’s ancient book is not looked up to by people because of two reasons. First, it’s because it’s too incomplete, and second, because it’s hard to understand. Hence, no one has seriously researched it. Even if one were to research it, it would be in passing, without paying close attention to it. Hur Hur, but I have something to tell everyone now. You can’t say he blindly wrote it just because you can’t understand it. This would be disrespectful to academia in itself. Actually, Zhiyanzhai’s ancient text is the only version of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ that has been spread down with the greatest authority!” In his previous world, Zhiyanzhai’s ancient text was passed down with the most complete and detailed evaluations. He had seen the original version before!
“How can it be!?” Senior Song refused to believe.
Many Peking University students also shook their heads.
Zhang Ye said with a mocking smile, “You say that Zhiyanzhai was just blindly writing? It is only because the people who researched Zhiyanzhai’s ancient book could not understand what he was saying. Others might not understand, but I do. I believe if everyone keeps thinking based on the establishment that ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ only has 80 chapters, you will also be able to understand it.” He took out another piece of information. It was information readily available in this world. Although Zhang Ye had seen the original versions of Zhiyanzhai’s ancient text, most of it had been lost in this world. He could not use that as proof, and could only use available evidence.