About the Writer: 曹雪芹/Cao Xueqin资料文件与下载

                                      About the Writer: Cao Xueqin

Cao Xueqin (about on May 28, 1715---February 12, 1763), given name Zhan, courtesy name  Mengruan, was born in Jiangning (Nanjing), but there is a dispute about his ancestral home. His  ancestors distinguished themselves through military service in the Plain White Branch of the Eight Banners and subsequently held posts as officials. And he was the posthumous grandson of Cao Yin, who was the Commissioner of Imperial Textiles in Jiangning, and his father is Cao Yong.

In his early years, Cao Xueqin lived in Jiangning Weaving House in Nanjing, where he lived an extravagant life. Great-grandfather, Cao Xi, as the Commissioner of Imperial Textiles in Jiangning. Great-grandmother, Lady Sun, was Kangxi’s wet nurse. Grandfather, Cao Yin, was a childhood playmate to Kangxi, later, he was appointed as the Commissioner of Imperial Textiles in Jiangning and well liked by Kangxi. However, in 1728, the Cao family reached  its downfall due to political reasons. They went back to their old residence in Peking, then they moved to the western suburb of Peking where they sold calligraphies  and paintings and made a living with the help of friends. Since then, the Cao family has never recovered and declined. Having experienced the transition in his life, he felt the world was indifferent and cruel, and had a more sober and profound understanding of the feudal society. He scorned the powerful, stayed away from officialdom, and lived in poverty. He had a wide range of hobbies, including stone, poetry, painting, garden, traditional Chinese medicine, darning, craft and diet. With his indomitable perseverance, he finally created the best known masterpiece, Dream of  the Red Chamber. In his later years, he  lived a much more impoverished life in the western suburbs of Beijing.

In the twenty-seventh year of Emperor Qianlong’s years (1762), his youngest son died, leaving him bedridden with excessive sorrow and grief. On the 28th New Year's Eve (February 12) of Qianlong, he died of poverty and disease. On the year of his death, different word was on February 1, 1764 or  in the early spring of 1764.

Relevant Materials：

About Dream of the Red Chamber

Dream of the Red  Chamber is a masterpiece of Chinese “Zhang Hui” novels and one of China’s Four Great Classical Novels. The novel is generally considered to be written by Cao Xueqin, a writer in Qing dynasty. Based on the rise  and fall of the four families, from the perspective of Jia Baoyu,  taking the  tragedies of love and marriage among Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai as the mainstream, it describes the  beauties’ lives and shows the real beauty of human nature and tragedy. It is an epic works which presents female beauty from different angles and all aspects of the ancient Chinese society .

The version of  Dream of the Red  Chamber can be divided into two systems, 120 chapters prepared by Cheng Weiyuan  and 80 chapters prepared by Zhi Yanzhai in different periods。

The Dream of  the Red  Chamber is a human feelings novel which has great influence in the world, a masterpiece of Chinese classical novel, an encyclopedia of Chinese feudal society and a master of traditional culture. The novel is encouraged by the “ talking about love and recording the facts”.  Only according to the  thing’s reason, it follows the trails to get rid of the old ways. It’s fresh and unique and has  got outstanding artistic accomplishments. The special style of "the real things are hidden, the false words are spoken" has blown the readers’ mind, and the speculation has lasted for a long time. Since the 20th century, due to the extraordinary artistic achievements, and the rich and profound ideological implication of the Dream of the Red Chamber, the academic circles have produced a special field  knowledge -- redology, which takes the Dream of the Red Chamber as the research object.

About the Romance of the Western Chamber

The Romance of the Western Chamber of Cui Yingying on the Moon (abbreviated as the Romance of the Western Chamber) is one of the most famous Chinese dramatic works which was written by Wang Shifu in the Yuan dynasty. It was written during the reign of Yuanzhen and Dade (1295---1307). 

 It tells the story of a secret love affair between Zhang Sheng, a young scholar, and Cui Yingying, the daughter of a chief minister of the Tang court.With the help of the maid Hongniang, they broke through people's heavy obstruction, finally got married.

The play has a very strong anti-feudal ethics color. The author writes about the young people’s desire for love, and tells that feelings and desires can not be contained because they are reasonable, and also writes about the conflicts between the young people’s own desire and parental will. It expresses the view of love that “love is a force of nature”. The system of the whole play is grand,  and plays a complete story with five books and 21 folios, which is rare in ancient dramas. The plot of the play is fascinating, image  is vivid,  literary grace is brilliant. It is rather poetic.

About Peony Pavilion

The Peony Pavilion is a legendary play written by Tang Xianzu, a playwright of the Ming dynasty. It was published in 1617. 

The heroine Du Liniang was born beautiful and sentimental. When she was in her early teens, it was the first awakening of  love. However, she was imprisoned by the feudal ethics in her family and could not get freedom and love. Suddenly one day, her father Du Bao who was prefecture chief hired a teacher Chen Zuiliang to teach her.When the pedantic old gentleman first explained the Book of Songs “cage osprey”, her heart was touched. A few days later, after Du Liniang took a walk in the back garden, she returned back and fell asleep on the bed. After a while, a scholar came to her with a willow branch and asked her to write a poem. Then he took her to the peony pavilion and enjoyed themselves there. When she woke up, she knew it was a dream. After that, she went to the peony pavilion in order to find her dream, but she did not see the scholar, she was quite sad and depressed. Gradually this yearning became a heart disease, finally she didn’t be cured and died. At that time, his father was promoted to the official in Huaiyang. Before leaving, he buried his daughter under a plum tree in the back garden and built a plum blossom nunnery, telling an old Taoist nun to guard it. After Du Liniang died,  her wandering ghost came to hell. The judge asked the reason of her death and knew about the marriage between Lu Liniang and Liu Mengmei on the marriage book, so he allowed  her to return to the world.

At this point, the scholar Liu Mengmei went to the capital to take his civil exam. On his way to the capital, he got cold and had to live in the plum blossom nunnery. After recovering from his illness, he met the wandering soul of Du Liniang in the nunnery. They fell in love and lived together. Before long, the old Taoist nun perceived it, so Liu Mengmei told the truth and discussed with the nun secretly to ask someone to dig up Du liniang’s corpse. Du liniang came back to life. Then they got married immediately and came to the capital together, liu Mengmei took the exam. After the exam, Liu Mengmei came to Huaiyang. When he arrived at the residence, he was questioned by Du Liniang’s father and told her father he was the son-in-law, Du Liniang’s father was rather angry. He thought Liu Mengmei was somniloquous in the dream  because his daughter died three years ago, how could she come back to life? On hearing that Du Liniang’s  tomb was excavated by the Confucian scholar, he sentenced the scholar Liu Mengmei to death. When Liu Mengmei was interrogated and beaten, people from the court, together with Liu Meng’s  family, found him. They told that Liu Mengmei won the first place in the civil exam. Liu Mengmei was able to get away, but Du Liniang’s father still didn’t believe that his daughter would be resurrected, and suspected that the number one scholar was also a fairy, so he wrote a letter to the emperor and hoped that the emperor could give a fair judge. Du Liniang was summoned to the law court by the emperor. The emperor asked her to stand in front of the mirror to see if she was the real person. Surely enough, she was the girl Du Liniang. So the emperor decreed Du Liniang, her father and Liu Mengmei reunited together. And let Liu Mengmei and Du Liniang get married.The story of love ends in a happy ending.

The play marked the peak of the legendary development of the Ming dynasty. The Return of the Peony Pavilion is highly ideological and artistic, making it an important milestone in the development of Chinese drama literature.