13 quotes
Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true;
Real becomes not-real when the unreal's real.
Pages full of idle words
Penned with hot and bitter tears:
All men call the author fool;
None his secret message hears.
All is insubstantial, doomed to pass,
As moonlight mirrored in the water
Or flowers reflected in a glass.
Girls are made of water and boys are made of mud. When I am with girls I feel fresh and clean, but when I am with boys I feel stupid and nasty.
Dream of the Red Chamber (1760)
One day, when spring has gone and youth has fled,
The Maiden and the flowers will both be dead.
Dream of the Red Chamber (1760)
Fall'n the great house once so secure in wealth,
Each scattered member shifting for himself.
Dream of the Red Chamber (1760)
All, insubstantial, doomed to pass,
As moonlight mirrored in the water
Or flowers reflected in a glass.
Dream of the Red Chamber (1760)
All those whom history calls great
Left only empty names for us to venerate.
Dream of the Red Chamber (1760)
Let others laugh flower-burial to see:
Another year who will be burying me?
Dream of the Red Chamber (1760)
Jia zuo zhen shi zhen yi jia,
Wu wei you chu you huan wu.
Dream of the Red Chamber (1760)
When first the world from chaos rose,
Tell me, how did love begin?
The wind and moonlight first did love compose.
Dream of the Red Chamber (1760)
In spring the little boys look up and stare
To see me ride so proudly in the air.
My strength all goes when once the bond is parted,
And on the wind I drift off broken-hearted.
If anyone is in a hurry to read my novel, all he's got to do is keep me daily supplied with roast duck and good Shaoxing wine, and I'll be happy to oblige him.
Attributed