A New Exploration of the Underlying Mysteries in Ten Nostalgic Poems in "Dream of the Red Chamber"

In Chapter 51 of *Dream of the Red Chamber*, titled "Xue's Young Lady Composes New Poems on Historical Themes, and an Ignorant Physician Misuses Harsh Medicines," there are ten riddle-like poems on historical themes composed by Xue Baoqin. The book begins this section by stating: "Everyone heard that Baoqin had taken the ancient sites she had visited in various provinces as subjects and composed ten quatrains on historical themes, which concealed ten objects within them. All agreed that these were naturally ingenious. As they all vied to take a look, it was written thus..."

The solutions to these ten historical theme poems have been the subject of deep and meticulous research by many well-known scholars of *Dream of the Red Chamber*. Among those who made significant contributions are Zhou Chun, Xu Fengyi, Huahua Master Wang Xilian, Taiping Hermit Zhang Xinzhī, and Chen Yupi. In July 1980, the ninth issue of *Lucheng Riddle Garden* from Wenzhou published the article "Ten Poems on Historical Themes from *Dream of the Red Chamber*" and included a piece titled "Guessers of the Riddles in the Historical Theme Poems of *Dream of the Red Chamber* and Their Solutions," which was jointly compiled by the late riddle expert Wei Rongxian from Shenyang and Mu Renlong.