The “dream work” in the Dream of the Red Chamber: A perspective of psychoanalysis on the writing techniques of the Guiyou edition of The Story of the Stone

The Dream of the Red Chamber, originally titled The Story of the Stone, is the foremost of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It tells the story of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai. The mainstream of redology has traditionally held the view that the prototype of the Dream of the Red Chamber is the family affairs of Cao Yin during the mid-Qing dynasty. The Guiyou edition of The Story of the Stone, discovered in recent years, clearly refers to the history of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, supporting the idea that the main theme of the Dream of the Red Chamber is to "mourn the fall of the Ming and expose the faults of the Qing", providing a new perspective for interpreting the novel. To test the applicability of dream theory to literary creation, this article compares Freud's "dream work" with the writing techniques of the Guiyou edition of The Story of the Stone, discovering a corresponding relationship between the two, illustrating the fulfilment of desires and creative functi