Dream of the Red Chamber

Dream of the Red Chamber

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Is It Fate?

What's the deal with all the negative poetry?

Daniel Evensen's avatar
Daniel Evensen
Jul 21, 2025
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Is It Fate?

The wording in the Chinese version of yesterday’s post was a little bit odd:

後面又畫著一塊美玉,落在泥汙之中。其斷語云:

Below that was a painting of a beautiful piece of jade that had been dropped into the mud. Its poem read:

Now, my translation here is a bit deceptive. Actually, the word 斷語 in Chinese means “judgment” or “verdict.”

But that brings up an interesting question. Are these predictive poems verdicts? In other words, does this represent the inescapable fate of all 12 girls?

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