“Your discovery indeed seems very valuable, but…” Senior Song stubbornly insisted, “Even if many ancient texts of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ originated from Zhiyanzhai’s edition, if we want to force it, it still doesn’t answer the problem. We can’t use Zhiyanzhai’s comments to say that the last 40 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ were not written by Cao Xueqin. Even if Zhiyanzhai was extremely close with Cao Xueqin, and might have participated in discussions and the creative process, I still have the same thing to say. It is possible that when Zhiyanzhai wrote those comments, ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ was still not completed yet. Later on, Cao Xueqin changed his mind and did not follow his original intentions. You previously refuted me saying that Zhiyanzhai’s tone was very affirmative, and said that he had seen the entire ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’, that still lacks evidence.”
Professor Zeng nodded. Little Song’s sharp question was good. Academic research had to be as such. By continuously picking at flaws in an argument, and continuously searching for problems, only then could you see things clearer.