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Wu Jianren: 新石頭記 The New Story of the Stone)

The Story of the Stone, aka The Dream of the Red Chamber is one of the classic Chinese novels, written in the eighteenth century. There have been various translations. The best is the five-volume The Story of the Stone published by Penguin but there are other and shorter versions, with details to be be found in the Wikipedia link just mentioned.

The Wikipedia article gives a plot summary here but basically we are following the story and travels of Jia Baoyu, a young man from a rich family.

The novel under review picks up the story but also takes us well into a future which is not just Baoyu’s future but also author Wu Jianren’s future. It is always fascinating to read a novel set in the author’s future but what well be our past, not least to see whether they got it right or if we agree with their view of how things might turn it out. There are quite a few novels like that but, famously, the English ones: Nineteen Eighty-Four, , Brave New World and The War of the Worlds though it could be argued that the latter two are set in what is still our future. In any case it is fascinating to see how Baoyu reacts both to his future/Wu Jianren’s present as well as both their futures.

You do not need to have read the original Story of the Stone to appreciate this novel. You can read it simply as a Chinese science fiction novel. If you wish to know how it relates to the original without reading the original, translator Liz Evans Weber gives us an excellent introduction and relates the two as well as mentioning several other books that continue the story. Or you can simply plunge in and enjoy the excellent story.

In the original story Baoyu had set off to take his imperial exams – an essential step for any young man from a rich family – and then dropped out. Neither he nor we know for how long though when he does reappear, various things seem to have changed. He watched hundreds or perhaps thousands of years pass as if they were a single day , the author comments. He removes his monk clothes, puts on layman clothes and sets off. He hopes he will meet someone to give him directions but, amazingly, the first person he encounters is Beiming, his erstwhile valet who has been looking for him for some time.

The first indication that times has passes is that they find an old newspaper in the dilapidated temple where they met dated 1901. They then find a box of matches, something neither man has seen before and Beiming nearly starts a fire. It gets more complicated when they learn of a book called The Dream of the Red Chamber. Beiming is sent out to buy a copy and comes back with multiple copies and different editions. They will continue to come across strange (to them) objects.

But there is a moral to this story. They are to take a steamer to Shanghai but Baoyu is shocked that though it is a Chinese ship, it is run by foreigners. This issue – the Chinese economy under foreign control – will be a running theme.

They meet Xue Pan, who was in the original book and was dissolute there and is dissolute here – wine, women and song, which Baoyu does not approve of. Xue Pan sells books and Baoyu is eager to read them, though less keen to learn English as recommend by Xue Pan.

The issue of foreign control of the Chinese economy comes to the fore when we see the Boxer Rebellion break out. This was specifically an anti-foreigner rebellion but soon suppressed by the various foreign powers, not least because they had the weapons and troops. Not surprisingly Xue Pan is pro-Boxer but Baoyu is opposed. As Baoyu leaves Beijing for Tianjin he sees many signs of destruction.

But things are not going to go well for our hero as he gets arrested though neither he nor we know why. He is, course, released, barely escaping with his life. He will return to Shanghai but, en route, he faces more danger,this time from crooks and bandits.

Things get more interesting when he is taken to the the Realm of Civilization which is a futuristic area, set up by Dongfang Wenming whose real identuty remains a mystery both to us and to Baoyu till almost the end of the book. We have an enlightened, modern government, sophisticated hospitals which have nothing to do as the population is very healthy and a contempt for religion: How can there be a barbarian country in this world that does not have a religion?’ I would reply by asking, ‘How can there be a civilised country in this world that does have a religion?. There are three things you do not see in this country: temples, churches and beggars. He later adds prostitution to the list.

However, they are more interesting because of their sophisticated technology: flying cars, metal-penetrating lens and a submarine that takes them to the South Pole. Indeed their technology, some of which twentieth century people will readily recognise and some of which will see very futuristic, is a key part of this novel and highly imaginative . They make a voyage in the futuristic submarine , encountering strange, imaginary and enormous sea creatures. But when they go to the South Pole, interestingly, when they are in the area they find that the climate is surprisingly warm which, of course, is reminiscent of what happens in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Given that the Poe novel was written well before this book, it would be interesting to know if Wu Jianren had read it.

While we learn a lot about their technology including their intention to create immortality, expand the power of brain (though, in an interesting bit of racism this could work for other peoples but not for red, brown and black peoples) and doing away with reproduction, and much more we learn about their political and social structure (enlightened authoritarianism and even some (though not much) feminism.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book as Wu Jianren both tells an excellent story but also clearly had a a very fertile imagination when it came to deciding what the future world would look like. As mentioned, some of what he imagines is known to us but quite a lot has not happened and is quite unlikely to happen.

Publishing history

First published in 1908 by Shanghai Reform Fiction Press
First English translation in 2025 by Columbia University Press
Translated by Liz Evans Weber