How does Dream of the Red Chamber end?

How does Dream of the Red Chamber end? That's a question that has haunted readers for centuries, and the answer is as complex as the novel itself. While Cao Xueqin's masterpiece remains unfinished (he reportedly completed only 80 chapters), the ending we have - believed to be based on Cao's original outlines - presents a profoundly poetic yet devastating conclusion. The final chapters depict the tragic fates of the Jia family and the three central characters in ways that make that opening line from The Mistake of a Lifetime resonate with heartbreaking clarity: "All men say gold and jade make the perfect match, But I alone recall the bond of wood and stone."

The tragic convergence of three destinies

The ending unfolds like an intricately choreographed dance of sorrow. Daiyu, the "goddess in her lonely bower," dies heartbroken during Baoyu's wedding preparations - a cruel irony as the wedding procession's music masks the sounds of her final moments. Baochai, that "purest snow on mountain height," enters into a marriage devoid of true love. And Baoyu himself, caught between memory and duty, ultimately rejects this "gold and jade" union, choosing instead to become a monk - fulfilling his earlier promise to "turn into ashes" rather than accept a marriage not of his heart.

What makes this ending so powerful isn't just the individual tragedies, but how they interlock. The novel's structure mirrors traditional Chinese opera, where the climax comes not from sudden action but from the inevitable convergence of long-established patterns. When Baoyu looks at his new bride and realizes it's Baochai, not Daiyu (who he believed he was marrying), it's not just a plot twist - it's the final, brutal confirmation of the "mistake of a lifetime" foretold in chapter five.

Beyond the love triangle: The Jia family's collapse

The personal tragedies unfold against the backdrop of the Jia family's complete ruin. The magnificent Prospect Garden - that paradise where the young characters indulged in poetry and youthful romance - stands abandoned, its beauty literally crumbling. The family's political fortunes collapse, their mansions are confiscated, and the once-powerful clan scatters. This dual collapse of personal happiness and family prestige reinforces one of the novel's central themes: the impermanence of worldly glory and the illusion of human attachments.

Yet for all its tragedy, the ending contains a strange kind of spiritual transcendence. Baoyu's final act of leaving the secular world suggests not just escape, but enlightenment. After experiencing the ultimate "mistake" of being forced into a marriage that betrays his true feelings, he comes to understand the emptiness of worldly pursuits - a realization that echoes Buddhist themes present throughout the novel.

The brilliance of Dream of the Red Chamber's ending lies in how it transforms personal heartbreak into universal insight. That final image of Baoyu walking away in monk's robes, leaving behind both his family and his grief, continues to haunt readers precisely because it resists simple interpretation. Is it a victory? A surrender? A tragedy? A release? Like the novel itself, the ending contains multitudes.