At the beginning of the 20th century, the question of "Who is the original author of A Dream of Red Mansions" once caused a debate in China academic circles, and this debate continues to this day. However, most scholars believe that the first eighty chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions were written by Cao Xueqin, followed by Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan. However, there are also views that it was continued by an anonymous person after eighty chapters, and Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan were just editors.
Cao Xueqin
Cao Xueqin's Chinese painting "The Portrait of Cao Xueqin"
Manchu, a great writer in China in Qing Dynasty, was named Zhan, whose real name was Qin Pu. His ancestral home is Tangshan, Hebei (Tieling, Liaoning, Liaoyang, Liaoning). Born in 1724 and died in 1763. Cao Xueqin grew up in splendor. Its predecessor was the Han nationality, and later it was the Manchu Zhengbaiqi (domestic slave). Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather won an official position because of his meritorious service in entering the customs with the Qing army. 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. Therefore, Cao Jia became a "century-old family" with rich resources at that time; In the early years of Yongzheng, due to the intervention of the internal struggle of the ruling class, the Cao family suffered many blows, was dismissed and imprisoned, and their property was confiscated, and their family 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 realize the essence of the social system. From then on, he lived in poverty, but he was good at writing and devoted himself to the writing and revision of the novel A Dream of Red Mansions. He read it for ten years, added and deleted it five times, and wrote this literary masterpiece that pushed China's classical novel creation to the peak. In the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong (1762), the youngest son died young, and Cao Xueqin was heartbroken. This year's New Year's Eve (1763 February 1) was filled with poverty and illness (Cao Xueqin died in the twenty-eighth year of Qianlong (1763) on New Year's Eve, and Qin died with tears. I cried tears, and the funeral expenses were funded by my friends. The earliest existing manuscripts can be traced back to the reign of Xu Jia in Qianlong (1754), but there are only 16 discontinuous manuscripts. Later, a number of manuscripts were discovered, the most important of which was that of Gan Long Chen Geng (1760), which is now 78 times. These manuscripts are titled "The Story of the Stone", and there are many comments signed by "Zhi Yanzhai" and others, so they are also called "Fat Comments" or "Fat Books" for short. Why fat books appear and spread is still controversial.
Gao E, Cheng Weiyuan.
Gao E: Date of birth and death: about 1738—— about 18 15, a writer in Qing Dynasty. The word uncle LAN is a word cloud scholar. Because of his love for the novel A Dream of Red Mansions, he was nicknamed "The History of the Red Chamber". The Han army is a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with a yellow flag. Originally from Tieling (now Liaoning), he lived in Beijing in the early Qing Dynasty. Cheng Weiyuan: a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, spent several years in Beijing collecting the remnants of A Dream of Red Mansions, and invited his friend Gao E * * to undertake the editing work of "refining and refining, learning from each other's strong points and copying them into one" for three times. In the fifty-sixth year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty (179 1 year), the preface to the movable-type printed version of A Dream of Red Mansions (Cheng Jiaben) by Cui Wen Bookstore was based on Zhang Wentao's poem Zhoushan Poem, a gift to Gaolan Book: "After eighty chapters of the legendary Dream of Red Mansions, it was supplemented by Julan Book." It is generally believed that the last forty chapters of the novel A Dream of Red Mansions were written by Gao E. On the one hand, Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E continued to write together. On the other hand, according to the preface and introduction of Cheng Weiyuan, it is said that 40 books of A Dream of Red Mansions extracted by Gan Long from the study room were successively purchased and continued, and it is believed that Cheng and Gao, who continued to write, only did the repair and sorting work. But in any case, elevation is the hero of A Dream of Red Mansions, and they are of great significance to the spread and research of A Dream of Red Mansions.
Author's correction
In the first text of A Dream of Red Mansions, the author is called "Stone", which is naturally said by the novelist. Then I mentioned that Cao Xueqin read this book for ten years, added and deleted it five times, compiled it into a catalogue and divided it into chapters. However, a large number of fat reviews in early manuscripts pointed out that Cao Xueqin was the author. For example, there was a comment in the JOE edition for the first time: "If Yun Xueqin reads it and adds or deletes it, who wrote it after opening the book?" It shows that the author's pen is very cunning. "According to the research of some redologists, Zhifu has said many times that many stories in A Dream of Red Mansions are based on the historical facts of Cao Cao and can also be used as circumstantial evidence. The Fat Review reveals that the author is closely related to Cao Xueqin and his family, and is familiar with and even partially involved in the creation of A Dream of Red Mansions, so the Fat Review can be said to be the most direct evidence that Cao Xueqin is the author of A Dream of Red Mansions. However, some factions believe that the fat criticism is purely fabricated by later generations and cannot be used as research evidence. Fu Chashi, a poet in Qing Dynasty, said in the preface to tihongloumeng: "Cao wrote A Dream of Red Mansions to record the prosperity of romantic life, and his ancestor was Jiangning Weaving House. Its so-called Grand View Garden is the former site of today's garden. It's a pity that his book has not been circulated, and little-known people in the world will see his manuscript. Yong Zhong, another poet of the imperial clan in Qing Dynasty, wrote a poem "Dream of Red Mansions" in the thirty-third year of Qianlong (1768), in which he wrote: "Looking at the novel" Dream of Red Mansions "with mo Xiang, there are three quatrains. This is probably the earliest record that Cao Xueqin is the author of A Dream of Red Mansions besides A Dream of Red Mansions itself and Zhi Pi. Ming Yi and Yong Zhong are both Cao Xueqin's contemporaries. Although there is no evidence that they know Cao Xueqin, they have close contacts with Cao Xueqin's friends Duncheng and Dunmin, so their statements are considered highly reliable.