| Cao Xueqin | |
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 Statue of Cao Xueqin in Beijing |
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| Born | ca. 1715 ? Nanjing |
| Died | ca. Year 1715 ( MDCCXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a ( Chinese: 南京 Romanizations Nánjīng ( Pinyin) Nan-ching ( Wade-Giles 1763 Beijing suburbs |
| Occupation | Novelist, Poet, Painter |
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Influences
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Cao Xueqin (Chinese: 曹雪芹; pinyin: Cáo Xuěqín; Wade-Giles: Ts'ao Hsueh-ch'in, ca. Year 1763 ( MDCCLXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e Li He ( 790–816 Courtesy name Changji (長吉 was a short-lived Chinese poet of the late Tang Dynasty, known for his unconventional and Li Yaotang ( November 25 1904 &ndash October 17 2005) Courtesy name Feigan (zh 芾甘 is considered to be one Cao Yu ( September 24 1910 — December 13 1996) born as Wan Jiabao (萬家寶 was a renowned Chinese Playwright Lin Yutang ( October 10, 1895 &ndash March 26, 1976) was a Chinese writer and inventor Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use Wade-Giles (ˌweɪdˈʤaɪlz) sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization system (phonetic notation and Transcription) for the Mandarin 1715? —1763) is the author of Dream of the Red Chamber, believed by many to be the greatest novel written in the Chinese language. Year 1715 ( MDCCXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Year 1763 ( MDCCLXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Dream of the Red Chamber (also Red Chamber Dream, Hung Lou Meng or A Dream of Red Mansions) ( originally The Story of the Stone A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story His given name was Cao Zhan (曹霑) and his courtesy name is Mengruan (夢阮). A Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name ( zì) is a given name to be used later in life
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Family
Cao belonged to a Han Chinese clan which later became part of the Plain White Branch (正白旗) of the Manchu Banners. Han Chinese ( are an Ethnic group native to China and by most modern definitions the largest single Ethnic group in the world. The Manchu people ( Manchu: Manju;, Mongolian: Манж Russian: Маньчжуры are a Tungusic people who originated in The Eight Banners (In Manchu: jakūn gūsa, In Chinese: 八旗 baqí were administrative divisions into which all Manchu families were placed Although forced into slavery (包衣) to Manchu royalties in the late 1610s, his ancestors distinguished themselves through military campaigns and subsequently held posts in officialdom.
Under the Emperor Kangxi the clan's prestige and power reaches its height. The Kangxi Emperor ( Mongolian Enkh Amgalan Khaan, May 4, 1654 &ndash December 20, 1722) was the third Emperor of Cao Xueqin's grandfather, Cao Yin (曹寅), was a former playmate to the Emperor Kangxi, and Cao Yin's own mother was the wet nurse to the infant Emperor Kangxi. A wet nurse is a woman who breast feeds a baby that is not her own Two years upon his ascension, Kangxi appointed Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather, Cao Xi (曹玺), as the Commissioner of Imperial Textiles in Jiangning (江宁织造).
When Cao Xi died in 1684, Yin, as Kangxi's personal confidante, took over the post. Cao Yin was one of the era's most prominent man of letters and a keen book collector. An intellectual (from the adjective meaning "involving thought and reason" is a person who tries to use his or her Intelligence and analytical thinking, By the early 1700s, the Cao clan had become so rich and influential as to be able to play host four times to the Emperor Kangxi in his six separate itinerant trips down south to Nanjing region. ( Chinese: 南京 Romanizations Nánjīng ( Pinyin) Nan-ching ( Wade-Giles
When Cao Yin died in 1712, Kangxi, still in power, passed the office over to Yin's only son, Cao Yong (曹颙). Yong himself died in 1715. Kangxi then allowed the family to adopt a paternal nephew, Cao Fu (曹頫), as Cao Yin's posthumous son to continue in that position. Hence the clan held the office of Imperial Textile Commissioner at Jiangning for three generations.
The family's fortunes lasted until Kangxi's death and the ascension of Emperor Yongzheng to the throne. The Yongzheng Emperor (雍正帝 → yōngzhèngdì) (born Yinzhen (胤禛 → yìnzhēn) December 13, 1678 - October 8 Yongzheng was much less tolerant of the debts the family chalked in office. By 1727, after a series of warnings, he decided to confiscate the entire Cao house properties, including their mansion, and put Cao Fu under arrest. Year 1727 ( MDCCXXVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Many believe this purge was politically motivated. When Cao Fu was released a year later, the family, totally impoverished, was forced to relocate to Beijing. Cao Xueqin, still a young child then, followed the family in this odyssey.
Life
Cao Xueqin was either the son of Cao Fu or Cao Yong. If his father was Cao Yong he must be born in 1715, posthumous to Yong's death. Redology scholars are still debating Cao Xueqin's exact date of birth, though he is known to be around forty to fifty at his death. Redology ( is the study of the novel Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the Four Classics of China Almost nothing has survived which records Cao Xueqin's early childhood and adulthood.
Most of what we know about Cao Xueqin was passed down from his contemporaries and friends. Cao himself eventually settled in the Western suburbs of Beijing where he lived through the larger part of his late years in poverty selling off his paintings. South San Jose (cropjpg||thumb|A suburban development in San Jose California. Friends and acquaintances reported an intelligent, highly talented man who spent a decade working diligently on a work that must have been Dream of the Red Chamber. Dream of the Red Chamber (also Red Chamber Dream, Hung Lou Meng or A Dream of Red Mansions) ( originally The Story of the Stone They praised both his stylish paintings, particularly of cliffs and rocks, and originality in poetry, which they likened to Li He's. Chinese Poetry is the most highly regarded literary genre in China. Li He ( 790–816 Courtesy name Changji (長吉 was a short-lived Chinese poet of the late Tang Dynasty, known for his unconventional and Cao Xueqin died some time in 1763 or 1764, leaving his novel in a very advanced stage of completion. He was survived by a wife and at least one son.
Cao Xueqin achieved posthumous fame through his life's work. The novel, written in "blood and tears", as a commentator friend said, is a vivid recreation of an illustrious family at its height and its subsequent downfall. A small group of close family and friends appears to be transcribing his manuscript when Cao died quite suddenly in 1763-4. Extant handwritten copies of this work – some 80 chapters – had been in circulation in Beijing shortly after Cao’s death and scribal copies soon became prized collectors' items.
In 1791, Cheng Weiyuan (程伟元) and Gao E (高鹗), who claimed to have access to Cao’s working papers, published a complete, edited 120-chapter version. Year 1791 ( MDCCXCI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common This is its first moveable type print edition. Movable type is the system of Printing and Typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual letters or punctuation Reprinted a year later with more revisions, this 120-chapter edition is the novel's most printed version. Modern scholars generally think the 1791 ending – the last 40 chapters – to be a forgery.
See also
References
- Liu, Shide, "Cao Xueqin". Chinese literature extends back thousands of years from the earliest recorded dynastic court Archives to the mature fictional Novel that arose during the Ming Dynasty Chronological list Antiquity and Qin Dynasty Gan De (fl 4th century BC Gongsun Long (ca Encyclopedia of China, 1st ed. The Encyclopedia of China ( "China Great Encyclopedia" is the first large-entry modern Encyclopedia in the Chinese language.
External links
Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural worksDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic