"The path is full of basil, and the family often eats porridge and wine on credit." This is a poem written by Duncheng to Cao Xueqin in the twelfth year of Qianlong, and this poem vividly depicts Cao Xueqin's encounter with poverty. Why did the former rich man's son, the Duke of Qi, end up in such a field, everything must start from the time when Yongzheng copied the Cao Mansion.
Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather Cao Xi can be said to be an important figure who laid the foundation for three generations of the Cao family's wealth and nobility, he was originally the coat of dolgun Zhengbai, because of dolgun's death, the Shunzhi Emperor took the zhengbai banner into the imperial family, and Cao Xi also became the emperor's domestic slave. With this identity, Cao Xi himself has also been reused.
In the second year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Cao Xi was credited with suppressing the Shanxi rebellion and served as a weaver in Jiangning. His wife was the nanny of the Kangxi Emperor, who attached great importance to the Cao family. Cao Xi's son Cao Yin became the kangxi emperor's companion from birth, and has been accompanying the kangxi emperor since he grew up.
Those who have watched "Kangxi Dynasty" know that Wei Dongting is the real confidant of the Kangxi Emperor, and the prototype of Wei Dongting is Cao Yin. However, after Cao Xi's death, Kangxi still sent Cao Yin to Nanjing to inherit Cao Xi's official position and serve as a weaver of Jiangning. This also led to the Cao family becoming one of the top magnates in Jiangnan, with the Kangxi Emperor making six southern tours, five hosted by Cao Yin, and four directly living in Cao Mansion.
In his early years, Cao Yin served as the kangxi emperor's imperial bodyguard, and he was both literate and martial, and he and Kangxi were friends who grew up together. Therefore, Kangxi was very fond of Cao Yin, even if Cao Yin wanted to do business, asked Kangxi to borrow 100,000 taels of silver, and finally lost all of it, Kangxi did not blame him, and even did not let him return the silver.
After learning that Cao Yin was seriously ill, Kangxi even personally ordered people to bring first aid drugs to save Cao Yin overnight. According to the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", the Kangxi Emperor not only sent cinchona cream, but also wrote a detailed description by hand, asking Cao Yin to carefully use the medicine and recuperate well. Unfortunately, Kangxi's medicine had not yet reached Cao Mansion, and Cao Yin was killed.
After Cao Yin's death, his son Cao Yong took over his father's position, and it was from Cao Yin's generation that the Cao family began to decline. However, Cao Yin also died of illness after two years of service, and was succeeded by Cao Yin's nephew Cao Fu. It can be said that Kangxi took great pains to preserve the property of the Cao family.
Jiangning Weaving itself is a mobile official position, unlike the title that can be hereditary. However, Kangxi was worried that the Cao family's wealth would be lost due to relocation, so he successively appointed the descendants of the Cao family to weave for Jiangning, even though the descendants of the Cao family were not good at being officials, and it was precisely because of this that the Cao family was later buried in the disaster of raiding the family.
During the kangxi emperor's lifetime, although the Cao family had many deficits and owed more than 3 million taels of silver, Kangxi still turned a blind eye and did not ask the Cao family to return it. But after Yongzheng ascended the throne, it was different, and the fierce Yongzheng looked at Kangxi's face, did not directly slap him to death, and gave the Cao family 3 years to let them return the deficit.
But Cao Fu was really powerless in the face of millions of taels of silver. Finally, he thought of a trick, that is, to transfer family property and harass the station for money. After Yongzheng learned of the results, Long Yan was furious and directly imprisoned him, and ordered him to raid his home. For a time, the Cao family, which was known as the first big person in Jiangnan, became the past.
Cao Xueqin and other cao children were forced to move to Beijing and continue to repay the deficit. It is also these inexhaustible deficits that made Cao Xueqin live a poor life, until the Qianlong period was not finished. Or the Qianlong Emperor waved a big hand, saving the Cao family from repaying the deficit, and Cao Xueqin's life was a little better, otherwise I am afraid that there would be no birth of the legendary classic "Dream of the Red Chamber".
As for how much property Yongzheng copied from the Cao family, it is clearly recorded in the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty". According to official statistics, the cash of cash, antiques, field products, etc., a total of only more than 20,000 silver, compared with the deficit of more than 3 million two, not even one-tenth is enough. It should be known that in the most prosperous period of the Cao family, the total assets of the family were also several hundred million.
Therefore, after Yongzheng got the list, he couldn't help but take a breath of cool air, a good Jiangnan family, but in the hands of the three generations of the Cao family, it became tattered. However, Yongzheng also knew that the reason why the Cao family had become so poor was probably related to his old son Kangxi. Kangxi stayed in Cao Mansion four times, spent hundreds of millions of taels of silver on the Cao family, and wasted everywhere, and when the Cao Mansion naturally became sloppy during the Yongzheng period.