The prologue to the great Chinese autobiographical novel of the eighteenth century, Dream of the Red Chamber , contains the following passage, in which the author sets the scene for the story: Chen Shih-Ying was without aspirations to fame or fortune. He devoted his time to planting bamboo and watering flowers and sipping wine and writing poems. He led an idyllic life. Unfortunately he lacked one thing to complete his happiness: he was over half a hundred years of age and had no son. Only a three-year-old daughter named Lotus filled his bosom (p. 9).
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