Introduction: From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century -- pt. I. Contiguities: Women, fiction, and print culture circa 1830. The women of Jinghua yuan ; Hou Zhi and "Women's Tanci" ; Fiction in three prominent women's lives ; Fiction as women's literature: the view circa 1830 -- pt. II. Continuities: Honglou meng ying in its nineteenth-century setting. Honglou meng ying in biographical and literary perspectives ; Honglou meng sequels and their female readers ; Women, publishing, and late Qing literary currents -- Afterword: Women and "The rise of the novel" in China -- Appendixes: A. Three generations of women ; B. Three poems in translation.