In memory of Cao Xueqin , a literary master who wrote A Dream of Red Mansions , "Red Mansions In Dreams -- Exhibition of Hand-Painted Pictures from A Dream of Red Mansions painted by Sun Wen of the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911)," was held at the National Museum on September 1-22, around the 240th anniversary of Cao's death. Top scholars and experts on A Dream of Red Mansions also attended the exhibition.

According to the experts, the huge-scale hand-painted album, which has been sealed up for 45 years, features 230 pictures. It is the largest painting collection on A Dream of Red Mansions and an important resource for the research on this great literary work as well as the history of Chinese painting .

  Mysterious album unveiled

The 230-picture album has 24 volumes with creamy yellow covers. Except for one volume with blank pages, each of the other 23 has 10 pictures, each 43.3 cm long and 76.5 cm wide. Mounted on the Cambridge blue glossy damask, the pictures are well preserved, vividly in their original bright shining colors.

The most striking feature upon opening the album is the panorama of the Grand Garden containing all the sceneries of the garden. From the second page onwards, the pictures vividly and concretely narrate the story of A Dream of Red Mansions in chapters, such as "Daiyu Steps into the Jia Family", "The First Meeting Between Baoyu and Daiyu", "Yuanchun Goes Home to Visit Her Family", "Daiyu Buries Fallen Flowers", "Four Beauties Enjoy Fishing" and "Grandma Liu Strolls in the Grand Garden", etc.

The first 80 chapters have 154 pictures in total while the remaining 40 chapters, 76. Some chapters have more than one picture, with couplets as captions. Chapter 17 has the most pictures of all -- 16 in total -- reflecting a beautiful and elegant grand garden from different angles.