By understanding the brief introduction of Cao Rong’s life, we learned that Cao Rong was born in 1613 AD and died in 1685 AD at the age of 72. Cao Rong's life experiences are mentioned in the books introducing the biography of Cao Rong. In terms of today's place names, Cao Rong was from Jiaxing, Zhejiang. In 1637 AD, Cao Rong took the imperial examination and later became an official in the court because he passed the imperial examination. During the Shunzhi period, Cao Rong successively held many positions such as the censor of Henan Province and the academic administration of Shuntian.
Cao Rong not only has his own unique insights in the economic field, but also has outstanding attainments in the literary field. Cao Rong had a rich collection of books in his home and was a famous bibliophile at that time. In addition, Cao Rong also has his own unique insights in poetry creation. Cao Rong's poetry works inherited Du Fu's age-old spirit. Because Cao Rong's poetry creation characteristics were similar to those of Gong Dingzi from Hefei, the world called Cao Rong and Gong Dingzi together as Gong Cao. Cao Rong is the author of many works such as "Collection of Jingti Tang Poems", "Biography of the Fifty Prime Ministers of Chongzhen", "Inscriptions on Ancient Forests", "The Deeds of Liu Yu", "Biographies of Ming Dynasties", "Chuan Phu Planting Records", etc.
Among them, Cao Rong told the stories of characters from the Hongwu to Chongzhen years of the Ming Dynasty in "Biographies of Ming Dynasties". The book contains stories about celebrities and loyal ministers from all walks of life in the Ming Dynasty. When future generations study the stories of people in the Ming Dynasty, they will regard "Biographies of Ming Dynasty" written by Cao Rong as a reference book. It is worth mentioning that Cao Rong had a very rich collection of books, and most of the books he collected in his later years were purchased and collected by Nalan Xingde. In addition, the book collection theory proposed by Cao Rong had a profound impact on later book collectors. Moreover, Cao Rong's book collection theory had a positive impact on books in the Qing Dynasty.