17 Facts About Zhou Ruchang

Zhou Ruchang, was a Chinese writer noted for his study of the novel Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin.

Zhou Ruchang is regarded as among the most renowned and influential redologists of the 20th century.

Zhou Ruchang was born in Tianjin, China on April 14,1918, the youngest of five brothers.

Zhou Ruchang's father was a scholar and a government official.

Zhou Ruchang's first exposure to the novel Honglou meng was through his mother, who he said read it to him when he was a child.

Zhou Ruchang received an excellent early education in the Chinese classics, and then studied English in the Department of Western Languages and Literature at Yenching University in Beijing.

Zhou Ruchang later stated that he read 1,000 books for this study and conducted research in government archives and the Forbidden City.

Zhou Ruchang was associated with the Chinese Ministry of Culture, and a Tenured Researcher in the Art Research Institute of China.

Zhou Ruchang had a major interest in Western perceptions of Honglou Meng and in the English translation history of the novel.

Zhou Ruchang strongly believed that it was very important that Westerners be acquainted with this novel because he thought that reading it was the best and easiest way for them to learn about Chinese culture.

Zhou Ruchang gave several well-received lectures on Honglou Meng to foreigners in Beijing in 2002.

Zhou Ruchang remained passionate about Honglou Meng and to the end of his life closely kept up with the research being done on it.

Zhou Ruchang published more than 60 books, including a massive 10 volume study of the different manuscript versions of the novel, an expanded two volume second edition of his first book Honglou Meng Xinzheng, a Dream of the Red Chamber dictionary, several biographies of Cao Xueqin, collections of essays on the novel, and his own reconstruction of the story's original first 80 chapters.

Zhou Ruchang held that different camps should ultimately compliment and not oppose each other.

Zhou Ruchang published works on calligraphy, several autobiographies, a widely used dictionary to help high school students understand Tang and Song dynasty poetry, a history of Beijing, and special editions of the poems of the Song dynasty poets Fan Chengda and Yang Wanli.

Zhou Ruchang continued to work right up to the end of his long life.

Zhou Ruchang died in his modest, book-cluttered apartment in east Beijing in the early morning of May 31,2012, at the age of 94.