A Dream of Red Mansions manuscript refers to a handwritten version. The earliest manuscript of A Dream of Red Mansions was JOE, that is, the 19th year of Qianlong (AD 1754). This edition is called "Comment on Stone by Red inkstone". There is also a "Bazaar Book" called "Red Yanzhai Re-evaluation of the Stone Story Bazaar Dongding Yueben"; Geng Chen Ben is called Re-evaluation of Stone by Zhi Yanzhai. The printed version of A Dream of Red Mansions is the printed version. The earliest printed copies were Cheng Jiaben and Cheng Yiben, which were printed by Cheng Weiyuan. At that time, the title was A Dream of Red Mansions in Xiu Xiang.

This version of "JOE Edition" is also called "Fat Residual Edition" or "Fat Complete Edition". It is because this version of the manuscript was first published with a version of Zhi Yanzhai's comment on writing, only 16 times, and there was a defect in the middle, so it was called "fat-damaged edition".

The Bazaar Book is also called Red Yanzhai Re-evaluating the Stone Story, and this version is also called Red Yanzhai Book and Red Yanzhai Book. It only exists 40 times now. Different from the JOE edition, the title of the second volume of A Dream of Red Mansions has the words "Four Readings and Four Comments by Zhi Yanzhai". It is worth mentioning that all the approved versions of A Dream of Red Mansions by Zhi Yanzhai are titled "The Story of the Stone", but in the Mao Yi edition, the words "A Dream of Red Mansions ends on page 34" appeared for the first time.

Geng Chen Ben, also known as Re-evaluation of the Stone by Zhi Yanzhai, is the only remaining 80 copies that were copied earlier and more completely.

The "Cheng Jiaben" still preserved today has a photocopy of Qingshi Villa. The printed edition is also called 120 back edition, because it was written by Gao E with the first 80 chapters and then supplemented with the last 40 chapters.