The culmination of the Chinese novels was the “Dream of the Red Chamber” (also title the “Story of the Stone” ) . The author of the novel was Cao Guerin . It was a vast work , elaborated against the broad background of the society and around the clue of the entanglement in love and marriage among Jia Baoyu , Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai . It exhibited vividly and realistically the doom of the late feudal society , while it extoled warmly the rebels against the feudalistic way of life , and their love . In the perspective of the world literature , the profundity of its thoughts , the 
richness of its messages , and the excellence of its art are also seen very rare . As Lu Xun pointed out : The “Dream of the Red Chamber” upset both the traditional thoughts and the traditional writing technique .
The characters in the novel were portrayed most splendidly . The characters Jia Baoyu , Lin Daiyu , Xue Baochai , Sister Feng , Granny Liu , etc., have become lasting artistic models . Their sentiments and thoughts were expressed very naturally . Everything in the novel was portrayed vigorously and vividly . Life seemed to trickle spontaneously onto the pages , and unfold itself in front of the reader like a very long scroll . This realistic , natural feature of the novel was due to the creative genius of the author . The plot of the novel was very ingenious . Like a meandering brook , the transition from one chapter to another was like a continuous flow . Above the plot was an illusory , mystical world , hinting at the final destination of the dream of the Red Chamber and causing a sorrowful atmosphere over the dazzling events . The language was of a very high level . Its narratives used a matured colloquial language , plain but elegant , explicit but implicit . Its dialogued fitted in with the status , cultural attainment , personality and mentality of the characters in the particular circumstances . The dialogues were so vivid that the readers would feel as if they saw and heard actually the characters . What is more , the novel contained also a number of poems , Song poems , verses of dramas and parallel prose , which are compatible with the plot and the life of the aristocrats . The quality of thee was also fairly high , indicating the high classic cultural attainment of the author . For example , the lyric of the “Elegy to Lady Lotus” attributed to Jia Baoyu were both superb poetical works viewed independently .
