The TV series "Kangxi Dynasty" has created many flesh-and-blood characters, and Wei Dongting, who is close to the Kangxi Emperor, is one of them. Wei Dongting was a close confidant of Kangxi' cronies, grew up with Kangxi, was loyal to Kangxi, made a lot of merits, and finally died of illness.
Of course, Wei Dongting is only a fictional character in the TV series, and there is no such person in history, but in history, Wei Dongting has an archetypal character, and this person is Cao Yin. This name is not unfamiliar to everyone, this famous literary scholar and bibliophile of the Qing Dynasty, a famous courtier of the Kangxi Dynasty, because of the relationship between Cao Xueqin and "Dream of the Red Chamber", was often debated in later generations, and has not disappeared from people's sight.
The Cao family ancestors were originally wrapped in the zhengbai flag, and the zhengbai flag was controlled by Dolgun, but then Dorgon died, and the Shunzhi Emperor took the zhengbaiqi under his own banner. The wrapped servants who originally belonged to the regent's palace were naturally converted to the interior ministry. Cao Yin's father, Cao Xi, was no longer a guard of the palace, but a second-class bodyguard of ouchi.
Coupled with the fact that Cao Yin's mother Sun Shi was Kangxi's nursing mother, the Cao family and the Kangxi Emperor were closely related, and as the son of the Sun family, Cao Yin was likely to have established a very close relationship with the Kangxi Emperor since childhood. According to the current person, Cao Yin is likely to become the kangxi emperor's companion when he was about thirteen years old, and did not wait to get along with the kangxi emperor day and night, and established full trust in the perennial companion reading career.
At the age of seventeen, Cao Yin became the personal bodyguard of the Kangxi Emperor, and Cao Yin and the young monarchs of Kangxi established a good relationship at an early age, which was one of the main reasons why Cao Yin was deeply trusted by Kangxi during his life.
Kangxi served as a weaver in Suzhou for twenty-nine years, moved to Jiangning weaving three years later, Kangxi and Li Xu alternated the next year to manage the two Huai salt affairs, and Kangxi's last four southern tours lived in Cao Yin's house.
Just behind this prosperity, there is already a lurking crisis, because of Cao Yin's daily pomp, social gifts, especially the Kangxi four southern tours, etc., in the economy to Cao Yin caused a huge deficit, it can even be said that Cao Yin has planted the bane of decay for the Cao family.
In the forty-eighth year of Kangxi, someone secretly reported to Kangxi that Cao Yin and Li Xu owed three million taels of tax and silver, and requested that he be publicly impeached. Kangxi regarded Cao Yin as a "family member", and some people demanded that Cao Yin be publicly impeached, but Kangxi certainly did not approve it. But the stakes are high.
The relationship between Kangxi and Cao Yin is no longer a simple relationship between the prince and the companion, and after a long time together, Kangxi has regarded him as a relative, but in private, he has warned Cao Yin that he must try to make up for the privately swallowed silver.
Cao Yin is faced with a vast sea of debt, which is irreparable and incapable of recovering the situation. In July of the 51st year of the Kangxi Dynasty, he fell ill and died in Yangzhou.
Later, it was found that the deficit of silver was more than 370,000 taels, and Kangxi had to be repaid by Li Xu on his behalf, and it took two years to make up for the account.
Later, Cao's family was also taken care of by Kangxi many times, and Cao Yin's son Cao Yong succeeded him to Jiangning Weaving; two years later, Cao Yin died of illness, and Kangxi personally presided over the succession of Cao Yin's fourth nephew Cao Fu and took over the position of Jiangning Weaving. At the same time, Kangxi also asked Cao Yin's brother-in-law Suzhou to weave Li Xu to manage the two Huai salts for one year, and used the silver obtained to make up for Cao Yin's deficit during his lifetime.
For the Cao family, the death of the favored Kangxi, the patron and able Cao Yin (Xueqin's grandfather) and his son Cao Yan, was undoubtedly a very deep blow. To make matters worse, Cao Fu (who may have been Cao Xueqin's uncle), who succeeded Cao Yan as a Weaver of Jiangning, did another trick.
Originally, Yongzheng's will to the Cao family was not severe, and he also instructed Cao Fu to listen to Prince Yi (Yin Xiang, who was the minister in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at that time, that is, the top boss of Baoyi), "Don't look for a way out." ”
However, Cao Fu was unable to make up for the deficit at first, and second, he provoked Yongzheng to be greatly annoyed by such things as "harassing the station" and "fading of the dragon robe", And Cao Fu was convicted, dismissed from his post and raided his home, and his family members were ordered to enter the capital and return to the flag. The Cao family declined, failed, and their descendants were scattered.
It can be said that during the reign of Kangxi, he was already benevolent and righteous to the Cao family. After Cao Yin's death, in order to make the Cao family survive, the eldest son of Cao Yin was promoted to inherit the family property. However, during the Yongzheng period, Kangxi's sentiments had no restrictions on Yongzheng, and Yongzheng hated corrupt officials very much, and while vigorously rectifying corrupt officials in the imperial court, he also wanted officials to make up for the embezzled public funds.
Kangxi forgave the Cao family because it was based on the love of Cao Xi's father and son, but Yongzheng and the Cao family did not have any affection to talk about, so when Li Xu, who was corrupt and perverted the law, directly dismissed Cao Yin's brother-in-law Li Xu from his post and confiscated the family property, and since then the Cao family has fallen to Cao Xueqin's generation.