Cao Xueqin's life

Cao Xueqin (1715/1724 ~1763/1764/1765) was a novelist in Qing Dynasty. The word "Zhan under the rain" is the name of learning the piano, and it is also called Qinpu. My ancestral home is Liaoyang, Liaoning (Tieling, Shenyang, and rich Hebei). I was originally a Han nationality, and later I was a "coating" person in Zhengbaiqi, Manchuria ("coating" is a Manchu transliteration, meaning domestic slave).

Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather Cao Xi was a weaver girl in Jiangning. Great-grandmother Sun Shi was the nanny of Emperor Kangxi Michelle Ye. Grandfather Cao Yin used to be the squad leader and bodyguard of Michelle Ye, and later served as Jiangning Weaving, and also served as the inspector and supervisor of salt affairs in two Huai provinces, which won the respect of Michelle Ye. He went to Jiangnan six times, four of which were taken back, and all lived in Cao's home. After Cao Yin's death, his sons Cao Qing and Cao Fuxian succeeded him as Jiangning Weaving. Their three generations and four grandchildren have held this position for 60 years. Cao Xueqin grew up in the "prosperous" life of this "romantic land of Qinhuai" since childhood. In the early years of Yongzheng, due to the political struggle within the feudal ruling class, the Cao Shi family suffered a series of blows. Cao Fu was accused of "misconduct", "harassing the post" and "deficit" and was dismissed, and his property was confiscated. Cao Fu was imprisoned and punished, and the "cangue" lasted for more than a year. At this time, Cao Xueqin moved back to Beijing with his family. Since then, the Cao Shi family has been devastated and declining. After experiencing a major turning point in life, Cao Xueqin felt that the world was cold and had a clearer and deeper understanding of feudal society. He despised powerful people, stayed away from officialdom and lived a poor and hard life. In his later years, Cao Xueqin moved to the western suburbs of Beijing. Life is poorer, "full of wormwood" and "family porridge" He devoted himself to the writing and revision of A Dream of Red Mansions with perseverance.

In the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong (1762), his youngest son died young, depressed and bedridden. On the New Year's Eve of this year (1763 February 12 or 1724 February 1), he finally died of poverty and illness (there are two versions about the year of Cao Xueqin's death, the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth years of Qianlong). Cao Xueqin is "fat, with a wide head and black color". He is arrogant, cynical and unconstrained. Alcoholic, brilliant, articulate. Cao Xueqin is a poet. His poems are novel in conception and close in style to Li He, a poet in the Tang Dynasty. His friend Duncheng once praised him and said, "The poem that loves you is wonderful, catching up with the long valley broken fence fan." He added, "I know your poems are as bold as iron and as cold as the shadow of a knife." However, there are only two lines in Duncheng's Pipa Story: "Bai Fuji Mausoleum should be very happy, and he will definitely teach savage ghosts to put on airs." Cao Xueqin is also a painter. He likes to paint abrupt and steep stones. Dunmin's "Painting Stone in Qinyuan" said: "Proud as a gentleman, it is even more uneven. Drunkenness swept away like a pen. Write a thunder in your chest. " It can be seen that when he painted stones, he pinned his chest on injustice. Cao Xueqin's greatest contribution lies in his novel creation.

His novel A Dream of Red Mansions is rich in content, profound in thought and exquisite in art, which pushes China's classical novel creation to a peak and occupies a very important position in the history of world literature development. A Dream of Red Mansions is the product of his "ten years of reading, five additions and deletions" and "meticulous words, ten years of hard work is unusual". Unfortunately, the whole book was not finished before his death. He wrote a part of the first draft of A Dream of Red Mansions after eighty times, but it didn't come down for various reasons. There is a sequel to Gao E (or just a modified sequel).