Cao Yanqin, the ancestor of Cao Xueqin, was originally a junior officer stationed in Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty, and joined the army when he attacked Liaoyang about six years later. Cao remained neutral in the Ming-Jin War and the Rebellion War after entering the Shanhaiguan Pass, and successively served in Shanxi Zhiming, Jizhou, Zhejiang Yanfadao and other places. The rise of Cao family really began with Cao Yan array.
Cao's daughter-in-law, the wife of Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather, became the nanny of Emperor Kangxi. In the second year of Kangxi, Cao xi became Jiangning Weaving, which lasted for ***2 1 year and finally died in Jiangning Weaving. After Cao's death, Kangxi appointed his son to weave in Suzhou, and later succeeded Jiangning Weaving and Huai Shui Salt Inspection. Cao Yin and Kangxi had a deep friendship since childhood. When Kangxi was five years old, Cao Yin was in Bandu. Later, Cao Yin chose to hold a funeral for Kangxi, and the relationship between them became closer.
The Cao Yin generation was the heyday of the Cao family, and both of her daughters were chosen as princesses. Kangxi made six expeditions to the south, five of which took Cao Shi Jiangning Weaving Department as his palace, and the last four were during his tenure, which showed Cao Shi's prominent position in the city and his close relationship with Emperor Kangxi. Cao Yin was a famous scholar at that time, good at poetry and prose, and also a famous bibliophile. He once presided over the publication and engraving of "All Tang Poems" and "Pei Yunwen Fu". This family tradition has played a good role in cultivating Cao Xueqin's literary talent. After the death of Cao Yin, Kangxi ordered his son Cao Yong to inherit Jiangning weaving. Cao Qing died after three years in office. Kangxi appointed Cao Fu, the son of Cao Yin's younger brother Cao Quan, to adopt Cao Yin and succeed him in weaving. Cao Jiazu served as Jiangning Weaving for four generations for more than 60 years.
After Yongzheng came to power, he laid hands on Cao Fu's uncle Xu Li, copied his home, and sent him to the most desolate and cold place in Heilongjiang, where he froze to death and starved to death. In the fifth year of Yongzheng, Cao Fu was arrested for "harassing a post station" and was dismissed for "misbehaving, losing a lot of money in weaving" and "moving home belongings privately in an attempt to hide it". Cao Fujin went to prison and was shackled, so Cao Cao moved to Beijing.
Cao Xueqin said that he was Cao Yong's posthumous son and that he was Cao Fu's son. Cao Xueqin was born in the 54th year of Kangxi (17 15) or the 2nd year of Yongzheng (1724). Born in Nanjing,
Cao Xueqin was still young when he moved back to Beijing after his family was copied. He was born in 13 years old. The specific situation of Cao's family after returning to Beijing is rarely recorded in the literature, but it is a fact that Cao's family has declined sharply since its property was looted. In the early years of Qianlong, the Cao family seemed to have suffered another greater disaster and failed completely from then on.
Cao Xueqin's life happened to experience the rise and fall of Cao Shi family. Before he was thirteen, he had lived a life of "rich in fine clothes" and "rich in sweets" in Nanjing. /kloc-after moving to Beijing at the age of 0/3, he first engaged in religious work for a period of time, during which he met the Dunmin Duncheng brothers. In his later years, in the western suburbs, his life was even more difficult. He fell from the top of the nobility to the bottom of the society in great changes, suffered from the indifference of the world, observed the sharp opposition between the rich and the poor in society, and clearly saw the decay and sin of his birth class. The hardships in life did not kill Cao Xueqin's ambition, but made him addicted to alcohol and showed his unyielding attitude towards reality.
Cao Xueqin's greatest contribution is his masterpiece A Dream of Red Mansions, which was written in Cao Xueqin's miserable old age, and the creative process was very difficult. For the first time in the novel, Cao Xueqin said, "Cao Xueqin mourned for Hongxuan for ten years, with five increases and five decreases." It is really "every word is like blood, and ten years of hard work is extraordinary." It's a pity that he died, because his youngest son died, and he became sentimental and died of poverty and illness. Cao Xueqin died on New Year's Eve in the 27th year of Qianlong (1763). Another said that he died on New Year's Eve in the 28th year of Qianlong (1764), and the other said that he died in Shen Jiachu in the 29th year of Qianlong (1764). After Cao Xueqin's death, only the piano and sword went up the wall and the bride fell, and several friends buried the great writer in a hurry.
Cao Xueqin's unfinished manuscript, entitled "The Story of the Stone", was basically finalized only eighty times. Some manuscripts after the 1980s were "lost" before they were sorted out. These eighty chapters began to spread among a few friends for thirty years. In the fifty-sixth year of Qianlong (179 1), Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E printed and published in movable type for the first time, and the title of the book was changed from 120 times. The last forty chapters are generally considered to be continued by Gao E.
Taking A Dream of Red Mansions as the clue and the love between Bao and Dai as the tragic ending, the novel became a literary masterpiece with complete structure and story, and it has had a great social impact since then. Some chapters and paragraphs in the sequel are wonderful and vivid, such as the death of Daiyu. But as far as the overall ideology and art are concerned, there is still a considerable distance from assistance. Some characters have lost their individuality, and some plots have obviously deviated from the original spirit, such as the resurrection of Jia Fu and the description of Gui Lan Qi Fang.
Cao Xueqin is "fat, with a wide head and black color". He is arrogant, cynical and unrestrained. Alcoholic, talented and talkative. 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, "Love your poem is wonderful, and you can catch up with the long valley broken fence fan." He added, "I know that your poems are as bold as iron and as cold as the Taoist camp." However, there are only two lines in his sincere poem Pipa Xing: "The White Fuji Mausoleum should be very happy and will teach barbarians to put on airs."
Cao Xueqin is also a painter and likes to paint abrupt and steep stones. Dunmin's "Painting Stone in Qinyuan" said: "Proud as a strange monarch, more jagged. Drunk as a pen swept away. Write a thunder in your chest. " It can be seen that when he painted stones, he put his chest on the grievances. 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 literary development.
After fifteen years of Qianlong, he left Beijing and moved to the western suburbs. Cao Xueqin's life in his later years was even more bleak and miserable. "The whole family often eats porridge and drinks on credit." He is poor and has no medical care. In addition, his young son died, and his novel A Dream of Red Mansions was not finished, so he died, which left us with many regrets.
Cao Xueqin was influenced by literature and art from an early age. His grandfather, Cao Yingong, was a famous bibliophile at that time because of his poems and calligraphy. Influenced by his grandfather, Cao Xueqin is good at painting and has many artistic talents. After moving to the western suburbs of Beijing, under difficult circumstances, he "studied for ten years, added and deleted five times" and created the immortal realistic masterpiece A Dream of Red Mansions. The current version of A Dream of Red Mansions *** 120, and the last 40 chapters are generally considered as Gao E's sequel.
Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Mansions is world-famous, while his other work, Collection of Waste Art Studio, is a record of China's technology, so it is only circulated among people who love skills. In this book, Cao Xueqin broke the old idea of China literati that "those who work hard are despised by gentlemen", and recorded in detail eight major techniques, such as epigraphy, flying kites, weaving, printing and dyeing, cooking and garden design, so as to enable the disabled to keep healthy and make up for their congenital and acquired deficiencies. Cao Xueqin once enthusiastically taught the disabled to tie kites in Shudu and helped him to support his family with this industry. In the prefaces of Kite Flying in the South and Kite Flying in the North, he said: It's New Year's Eve, and I always braved the snow. Full of ducks, wine and fresh vegetables, I happily said to the sun, "I didn't want to fly three or five kites, but I got a heavy reward;" The income is * * * exclusive ... "This not only reflects the friendship between Cao Xueqin and his uncle, but also reflects Cao Xueqin's noble feelings of helping the weak and helping the poor.
A Dream of Red Mansions takes the aristocratic feudal family life as the material, takes the love tragedy of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu and the marriage tragedy of Jia Baoyu and Xue Baochai as the warp, and vertically analyzes the profound social roots that caused the tragedy. At the same time, taking the rise and fall of Jia Fu as a parallel, through the conflict between Jia, Shi, Wang, Xue and other defenders and rebels, the broad social living environment composed of many characters is horizontally displayed. This reveals all kinds of evils in feudal society and their insurmountable internal contradictions. It broadly and profoundly reflected the social reality of China at that time, strongly criticized the debauchery and corruption of feudal families, and showed the historical trend that feudal system was on the verge of collapse and inevitable demise.