Yü P’ing-po and the Literary Dimension of the Controversy over Hung lou meng

Abstract

On 30 September 1954 an article criticizing Yü P’ing-po’s “ Hung lou meng chien-lun” appeared in the Wen-yi pao. 10 days later an article highly critical of Yü’s Hung lou meng yen-chiu, a revised edition of that scholar’s earliest work on the novel, Hung lou meng pien appeared in the Kuang-ming jih-pao. With the publication of these two articles by Li Hsi-fan and Lan Ling, recent graduates of Shantung University, the first attack in over 30 years was launched on what Mao Tse-tung at the time termed “the erroneous views of a so-called authoritative writer in the field of study of the Dream of the Red Chamber.”