Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather Cao Xi, his grandfather Cao Yin, and his parents Cao Qing and Cao Fu worked as Jiangning weavers for more than 60 years, which was highly prized by Emperor Kangxi. Cao Xueqin grew up in splendor. In the early years of Yongzheng, due to the internal struggle of the feudal ruling class, the Cao family suffered many blows, was dismissed from office and imprisoned, and their family property was confiscated and returned to Beijing. Since then, his family has been going downhill. This turning point made Cao Xueqin deeply feel the coldness of the world and more clearly understand the essence of the feudal social system. From then on, I stayed away from officialdom, ignored powerful people and lived in poverty.
He can draw and write, and devotes himself to the writing and revision of A Dream of Red Mansions. He studied 10 years, added and deleted five times, and wrote this literary masterpiece that pushed China's classical novel creation to the peak. A Dream of Red Mansions, with its rich content, tortuous plot, profound ideological understanding and exquisite artistic techniques, has become a great realistic work in China's classical novels.
In the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong (1762), the youngest son died prematurely, and Cao Xueqin was plunged into excessive sadness and grief. On New Year's Eve (1764 February 1), he died of poverty due to illness (there are two versions about the year of Cao Xueqin's death), and the burial expenses were funded by friends.