The Drinking Game in The Dream of the Red Chamber: Divination, Prophecy, and Imitation

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the drinking game of lot-drawing as a prophetic device in the novel The Dream of the Red Chamber (Honglou meng 紅樓夢) and a pastiche of it called Shanghai dust (Haishang chentian ying 海上塵天影). In both works, the outcome of the drinking game proves to be prophetic signs that reveal the personalities and foretell the future fates of the participating players. Unlike the other portents featuring in the novels, which tend to elude the characters’ understanding, the result of the game immediately evokes strong ominous feelings in the protagonists, leading us to ponder on the deep significance of the drinking game in the structure of the whole story. In my analysis, I show that the drinking game evokes a sense of the supernatural in the players for a reason: the drinking game resembles the qian 簽 divination (done with oracle sticks) that remains ubiquitous in Chinese communities today. While games and divination are recognized as separate and completely different cultural practices, the easy transition from game to oracle, from silliness to seriousness achieves a high degree of artistic complexity in Honglou meng.