Below are a couple of interesting excerpts from Steelman’s introduction:
On the Jia Xu (甲戌) Manuscript (the earliest-known manuscript copy of the novel):
"The name Jia Xu MS. is derived from the fact that this manuscript contains a line in the text of chapter one saying, 'When ZhiYan Zhai copied and annotated for the second time in the year jia xu (1754), the title Story of the Stone was again used.' Some object to using the appellation Jia Xu for this manuscript on the grounds that it suggests that the MS. dates from 1754, however, the name is widely used and probably will continue to be, so it is perhaps sufficient to note that there are no grounds for assuming that this MS. or its exemplar date from 1754."
On the Ji Mao (己卯) Manuscript:
"This is a 38 chapter version of the ZhiYan Zhai Re-annotated Story of the Stone held in the Beiping Library. [...] At the end of chapter 34 is written, 'End of chapter 34 of the Dream of the Red Chamber' (紅樓夢三十四回終) showing that the Dream of the Red Chamber was once the title of the book during the lifetime of Cao XueQin."
Thank you for compiling this!
It's important to highlight that the manuscripts may not date to the years they're commonly associated with.
Two additional resources on this topic:
English: David L. Steelman’s Introduction to Editions of the Red Chamber, available at https://cti.lib.virginia.edu/HLM/hlmitre2.htm
Chinese: Wikipedia has a comprehensive list detailing the various manuscript copies at https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/红楼梦抄本列表
Below are a couple of interesting excerpts from Steelman’s introduction:
On the Jia Xu (甲戌) Manuscript (the earliest-known manuscript copy of the novel):
"The name Jia Xu MS. is derived from the fact that this manuscript contains a line in the text of chapter one saying, 'When ZhiYan Zhai copied and annotated for the second time in the year jia xu (1754), the title Story of the Stone was again used.' Some object to using the appellation Jia Xu for this manuscript on the grounds that it suggests that the MS. dates from 1754, however, the name is widely used and probably will continue to be, so it is perhaps sufficient to note that there are no grounds for assuming that this MS. or its exemplar date from 1754."
On the Ji Mao (己卯) Manuscript:
"This is a 38 chapter version of the ZhiYan Zhai Re-annotated Story of the Stone held in the Beiping Library. [...] At the end of chapter 34 is written, 'End of chapter 34 of the Dream of the Red Chamber' (紅樓夢三十四回終) showing that the Dream of the Red Chamber was once the title of the book during the lifetime of Cao XueQin."
Appreciate the clear and concise way you have laid out all this info!