Cao Xueqin (1724-1764), a novelist in the Qing Dynasty. The name is Zhan, the courtesy name is Meng Ruan, the nickname is Xueqin, and also the names are Qinxi and Qinpu. His ancestral home is Fengrun County, Hebei Province. In the early Qing Dynasty, he entered the Zhengbai Banner in Manchuria. He was born in Nanjing.
Cao Xueqin lives in a big bureaucratic landlord family with a "hundred-year-old family". Starting from his great-grandfather, Jiangning weaving has been hereditary for 60 years for three generations. Grandfather Cao Yin served as Kangxi's "attendant", and his great-grandmother was Kangxi's wet nurse. The Cao family had a very close relationship with the royal family. When he was a boy, he was a "dandy in rich clothes", "satisfied and fat", and lived a luxurious life like a rich man. In the fifth year of Yongzheng's reign (1727), his father Cao Fu was implicated in his affairs and was dismissed from his post and his family was confiscated. Since then, the family's power and property have been lost. His family moved frequently and his life was extremely unstable. Sometimes he had to seek help from relatives and friends to make ends meet. He was often discriminated against and humiliated. Experiencing the vicissitudes of life from being a poor man to "eating porridge with the whole family" gave him a personal experience of the declining fate of the feudal ruling class and a comprehensive and profound understanding of the darkness and evil in society.
Cao Xueqin’s great-grandfather Cao Xi was a weaver in Jiangning. Great-grandmother Sun was the nanny of Emperor Kangxi Xuan Ye. His grandfather, Cao Yin, served as Xuanye's companion and imperial bodyguard. Later, he served as a weaver in Jiangning and concurrently served as the envoy to inspect the salt in Huaihe River. He was highly favored by Xuanye. Xuanye made six trips to the south of the Yangtze River, four of which were picked up by Cao Yin and stayed at Cao's house. Cao Yin died of illness, and his sons Cao Yong and Cao Fu successively succeeded Jiangning Weaving. Three generations and four of them have held this position for 60 years. Cao Xueqin grew up in the "prosperous" life of this "Qinhuai Fengyue" place since she was a child.
In the early years of Yongzheng, the Cao family suffered a series of blows due to the involvement in the internal political struggles of the feudal ruling class. Cao Fu was dismissed from his post on charges of "misconduct", "harassing the station" and "deficit", and his property was confiscated. Cao Fu was imprisoned for more than a year. At this time, Cao Xueqin moved back to Beijing with his family. From then on, the Cao family failed to recover and gradually declined.
After experiencing a major turning point in life, Cao Xueqin deeply felt the harshness of the world and had a clearer and deeper understanding of feudal society. He despised the powerful, stayed away from officialdom, and lived a difficult life of poverty.
In his later years, Cao Xueqin moved to the western suburbs of Beijing. Life is even poorer, with "the paths full of basil" and "the whole family eating porridge." With perseverance, he devoted himself to the writing and revision of "Dream of Red Mansions". In the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong's reign (1762), his youngest son died young. He fell into excessive sadness and grief and became bedridden. On New Year's Eve of this year (February 12, 1763), he finally died due to poverty and illness without medical treatment (there are two versions of the year of Cao Xueqin's death in the 28th and 29th years of Qianlong).
Cao Xueqin is "fat, with a broad head and black color". He has an arrogant character, is cynical, and is uninhibited. He is addicted to alcohol, talented and good at conversation. Cao Xueqin is a poet. His poems have novel ideas and their style is close to that of Li He, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. His friend Duncheng once praised: "The poems written by Aijun are full of strange spirit, which can directly catch up with the broken fences of the valleys." He also said: "The poems of "Knowing the Lord" were as bold as iron, and they can compete with the cold light of a sword." But his There are only two lines left in the poem titled "The Legend of Pipa" written by Duncheng: "The spirit of Bai Fu's poetry should be very happy, and he will teach the barbarian ghosts to show off."
Cao Xueqin is also a painter who likes to paint abrupt and steep rocks. . Dun Min's "Painting Stones in Qinpu" said: "It is strange to be as proud as a king in this world, and it is even more fragmented in this rugged world. When I am drunk, I sweep like a rafter pen. When I write about the pain in my chest." It can be seen that when he painted the stones, he placed the stagnation in his chest. The feeling of injustice. Cao Xueqin's greatest contribution lies in the creation of novels. His novel "A Dream of Red Mansions" is rich in content, profound in thought, and exquisite in art. It pushed the creation of Chinese classical novels to the highest peak and occupies a very important position in the history of literary development.
About the fifteenth year of Qianlong's reign, he left Beijing and moved to the countryside in the western suburbs. Cao Xueqin's life in his later years was even more desolate and miserable. "The whole family often ate porridge and wine on credit," he was poor and sick and had no medical treatment. In addition, his youngest son died in infancy. Before the novel "A Dream of Red Mansions" was completed, he passed away, leaving us with Many regrets.
Cao Xueqin has been influenced by literature and art since he was a child. His grandfather Cao Yingong was good at poetry and calligraphy and was a famous bibliophile at that time.
Cao Xueqin was deeply influenced by his grandfather. He was good at poetry and painting, and had various artistic talents. After moving to the western suburbs of Beijing, he worked hard in the difficult situation, "reading it for ten years, adding and deleting five times", and created the immortal realist masterpiece "Dream of Red Mansions". The current version of "A Dream of Red Mansions" contains 120 chapters, and the last 40 chapters are generally considered to be continuations by Gao E.
Cao Xueqin's "Dream of Red Mansions" is well known to the world, and his other work "Collected Manuscripts of Fei Yi Zhai" is a work that records the technology of Chinese crafts, so it is only known among those who love crafts. spread. In this book, Cao Xueqin broke the old concept among Chinese literati of "a man of many kinds of craftsmanship is looked down upon by a gentleman", and recorded in detail eight crafts including stonework, kites, weaving, printing and dyeing, cooking, and garden design. Disabled people can maintain their health and make up for their congenital and acquired deficiencies. Cao Xueqin once enthusiastically taught Yu Shudu, a disabled person, to tie a kite and help him support his family in this industry. He said in the preface to "Southern Yuan and Northern Harrier Kao Gongzhi": It was New Year's Eve, Laoyu came in the snow, with duck, wine, fresh vegetables, and a donkey's back. He was very happy and announced: "I didn't expect that the three or five kites would win a big prize." Remuneration; enjoy whatever you get..." This not only reflects the friendship between Cao Xueqin and Zishudu, but also reflects Cao Xueqin's noble feelings of helping the weak, helping those in need, and helping others.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" is based on the life materials of aristocratic and feudal families, and uses the love tragedy of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu and the marriage tragedy of Jia Baoyu and Xue Baochai as its meridian to vertically analyze the profound social roots of the tragedy; at the same time, Taking the rise and fall of the Jia family as a weft line, and through the conflicts between defenders and rebels among the four major families of Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue, it horizontally displays the broad social living environment composed of many characters. This exposes the evils of feudal society and its insurmountable inner contradictions. It extensively and profoundly reflected the social reality of China at that time, effectively criticized the dissoluteness and corruption of feudal families, and showed the historical trend that the feudal system was on the verge of collapse and inevitable destruction.
A brief biography of Cao Xueqin
Born on the 26th of leap April in the second year of Yongzheng (Jiachen 1724).
On April 26th, the third year of Yongzheng's reign (Yisi 1725), he turned one year old on the Ear Grain Festival, so he took the Ear Grain Festival as the symbol of his birthday.
In the sixth year of Yongzheng (Wushen 1728), his father Cao Fu was convicted and his house was ransacked and interrogated, so he returned to Beijing. Live in Suanshikou.
In the first year of Qianlong (Bingchen 1736), various "crimes" were pardoned, and the family became well-off. Thirteen years old (in the book, the Lantern Festival lasts until New Year's Eve. Baoyu is also thirteen years old). April 26th of that year coincided with the Mangzhong Festival (the flower farewell party in the book).
In the first month of the second year of Qianlong (Dingsi 1737), Kangxi’s concubine died. The concubine Chen is the biological mother of Prince Yinxi of Shen County (the "old concubine" in the book died).
In the fifth year of Qianlong's reign (1740), Hongxi, the eldest son of the Kangxi Prince Yin still, attempted to establish the imperial court and secretly assassinate Qianlong, but failed. Xueqin's family was again implicated and confiscated again, and the family was ruined. Xueqin is impoverished and homeless. He once served as a pen-sticker in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In the 19th year of Qianlong's reign (Jiashu 1754), "Zhiyanzhai's Re-evaluation of Stone Records" was originally copied and finalized by the Qing Dynasty (unfinished).
The 20th year of Qianlong's reign (Yihai 1755) was a sequel to "The Story of the Stone".
In the 21st year of Qianlong's reign (Bingzi 1756), Zhibiao wrote before the 75th chapter: "In the 21st year of Qianlong's reign, on the seventh day of the fifth lunar month, Bingzi, I wrote to the Qing Dynasty. If there is a lack of Mid-Autumn poems, it will be snowy. "Qin." refers to the progress of the manuscript at that time. Zhi Yanzhai actually assisted in writing it.
In the 22nd year of Qianlong's reign (Ding Chou 1757), my friend Duncheng wrote the poem "Regarding Cao Xueqin". Looking back on the right-wing Zongxue's night talk, he advised not to be a hanger-on from a wealthy family, "it is better to write a book about Huangye Village". At this time, Xue Qin had arrived at Xishan and left Dunhui Bo Fuliang's home (Shihu Hutong, Xicheng).
In the 23rd year of Qianlong's reign (Wuyin 1758), my friend Dun Min wrote Xia Cun's poems until the Guiwei year, and wrote many poems about Xueqin.
In the 24th year of Qianlong's reign (Ji Mao 1759), the "Ji Mao version" of "The Story of the Stone" has been preserved, and the "Zhi Inkstone" commentaries began to record the date.
In the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong's reign (Gengchen 1760), the "Gengchen version" and "The Story of the Stone" have been preserved, both of which have been "reviewed and reviewed by Inkstone Studio four times".
In the twenty-sixth year of Qianlong's reign (Xinsi 1761), he returned to Jinling and returned to Beijing. Every line in his friend's poem "The old dreamer of Qinhuai is still there" and "The official's decayed building dreamed of his old home" all implicitly refer to "A Dream of Red Mansions" writing.
In the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong's reign (Renwu 1762), Dun Min wrote "Song of Drinking with a Knife Quality", which records Xueqin's visit to drink wine at the end of autumn. Zhi Pi: There is a saying in "Ren Wu Double Ninth Festival" that "it is very urgent to ask for books". There are no more comments after the Double Ninth Festival. When there is a story.
In the late spring of the 28th year of Qianlong's reign (Guiwei 1763), Dun Minshi invited Xueqin to meet him in early March (for Duncheng's birthday). Not yet. In autumn, my beloved son suffered from acne and became sick due to sadness. Zhi Pi: "...before the book was finished, Qin died because her tears had run out; I cried for Xue Qin, but her tears were still waiting to be exhausted..." It was recorded that he died on "Renwu New Year's Eve". After examination, it was found that it was written on "Guiwei New Year's Eve" error. He died at the age of forty.
In the 29th year of Qianlong's reign (Jiashen 1764), he wrote a sincere elegy: "The dawn breeze blew yesterday," and "I was too thin to be born in my forty years", which are all historical evidence.