Cao Xueqin’s hometown is Jiangning (now Nanjing).
Cao Xueqin (about May 28, 1715 - about February 12, 1763), whose given name was Zhan, also named Mengruan, also known as Xueqin, also known as Qinxi and Qinpu, was the author of the Chinese classic "A Dream of Red Mansions" "The author's ancestral home is disputed (Liaoyang, Liaoning, Fengrun, Hebei, or Tieling, Liaoning). He was born in Jiangning (now Nanjing). Cao Xueqin was born in the Zhengbai Banner wrapping family of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Qing Dynasty. He was the grandson of Cao Yin, a weaver in Jiangning, and the son of Cao Yong. Extended information
In the first month of the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi (1715), Cao Yong, then a weaver in Jiangning, died of illness while reporting on his duties in Beijing. According to Emperor Kangxi's decree, Cao Yong's cousin Cao Yin was adopted as Cao Yin and took over Jiangning Weaving. On the seventh day of March that year, Cao Fu memorialized: "My sister-in-law, Mrs. Ma, is pregnant in the seventh month." The posthumous son was Cao Xueqin, who was born on April 26 (May 28, 1715). In Jiangning Weaving House, Nanjing.
A few days after Cao Xueqin's full moon, on the third day of June, Cao Fu memorialized: "It has rained heavily for days, and the fields are full." This is the opportunity for Cao Xueqin's name "Zhan". The time, place and people are both favorable. The word "Zhan" is taken from "The Book of Songs·Xiaoya·Xinnanshan" "It is both excellent and rich, it is both rich and sufficient, and it will give me a hundred grains", which means "the world has benefited from the emperor's favor".
The word "Xueqin" comes from the third of Su Shi's "Eight Poems on Dongpo": "The mud celery has perennial roots, and an inch of it is alone; when the snow celery moves, the spring doves will be able to eat it." Cao Xueqin's Great-grandmother Sun served as the nanny of Emperor Kangxi, and grandfather Cao Yin served as Emperor Kangxi's companion and imperial bodyguard. Later, he served as a weaver in Jiangning and concurrently served as the censor of the salt inspection in Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers.
During the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties, three generations of the Cao family were in charge of Jiangning weaving for fifty-eight years. Their family was prominent, powerful, extremely wealthy, and they became the most wealthy family in Nanjing at that time. Regarded as a prominent family. Kangxi made six trips to the south of the Yangtze River, and Cao Yin picked him up four times.
Baidu Encyclopedia—Cao Xueqin (scholar of Qing Dynasty)