After finishing, Zhang Ye said, “The five ancient manuscripts describe it differently. We all know that every manuscript of the ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ has a validated source. Is this a mistake during the copying process? Clearly not. If the first four manuscripts were copied wrongly due to an error, then the fifth manuscript can’t be a result of erroneous copying, considering that it’s such a long line. That is impossible. The only explanation that results in this confusion is that Cao Xueqin was repeatedly under deliberation. He kept modifying it, because he had not decided on it nor finalized it. This resulted in several completely different manuscripts. I believe this is without a doubt unquestionable!”
Professor Zeng nodded slightly.
Teacher Yang and Ma Hengyuan remained expressionless as they sat there quietly.
Zhang Ye said, “Then with this foundation and knowledge, the questions posed by everyone can be easily solved. Wasn’t Cao Xueqin writing improperly after he fell ill? But the so-called logical errors everyone mentioned are all at the beginning. Was he seriously ill right from the beginning? His brain was in a mess? Hence, this is actually because Cao Xueqin was not done with his editing. He had not fully finalized his manuscript. The problems with Lin Ruhai’s time of death, Qin Keqing’s death from illness and the fifth chapter’s Register, to put it bluntly, are just side issues. It is a result of tweaking the ending of individual characters, as well as some simple text changes!”