Though the drift of Red Inkstone's remarks does not amount to a total disavowal of Honglou meng as a work of fiction, Red Inkstone certainly tends to single out certain parts of the novel for praise because 'there was really such a person' or 'this was what actually happened.' The commentary, valuable as it is, thus also serves to convert fiction to history, and the modern student should use it with discretion.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Though the drift of Red Inkstone's remarks does not amount to a total disavowal of Honglou meng as a work of fiction, Red Inkstone certainly tends to single out certain parts of the novel for praise because 'there was really such a person' or 'this was what actually happened.' The commentary, valuable as it is, thus also serves to convert fiction to history, and the modern student should use it with discretion." in the context of "Anthony C. Yu, as quoted in Wandering Between Two Worlds by Ronald R. Gray (Peter Lang, 2014), footnote on p. xix" to mean that wisdom is timeless.