Full of absurd words, a handful of bitter tears. All cloud authors are stupid, who understands the taste? ——Cao Xueqin, "Dream of the Red Chamber"
The Forbidden City, located in the center of Beijing's central axis, is the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties in China, formerly known as the Forbidden City. Purple means that the Heavenly Emperor lives in the Ziwei Palace, and the Heavenly Son who is ordered by the Heavenly Heaven is naturally also in the Ziwei Palace, and the forbidden is because the imperial palace belonged to the forbidden place in ancient times. Therefore, it is called the Forbidden City, and it can be said that this ancient forbidden land, as the residence of the royal family, hides many historical secrets. No, a Kangxi secret will revealed the unique status of Cao Xueqin's family.
Cao Xueqin, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, was born into a family of White Flag Wrappers in the Interior Of the Qing Dynasty. When she was young, she experienced a life of brocade and wealth, but later the Cao family collapsed, and Cao Xueqin had a more sober and profound understanding of feudal society. After years of hardship, he created one of the four famous works - "Dream of the Red Chamber". The Dream of the Red Chamber tells the rise and fall of Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue, and the main line is the tragedy of the love marriage of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochao.
There has always been a view that the Dream of the Red Chamber actually includes Cao Xueqin's life. If he hadn't personally experienced the extravagant life of high society and couldn't have described it so realistically, how great was the Cao family he was in? The Zhengbai Banner was originally under the control of Dorgon, but in the eighth year of Shunzhi (1651 AD), the regent Dorgon was considered guilty of a major crime after his death. Shunzhi then took back the Zhengbai Banner and took care of it himself, so the Cao family changed from the imperial palace to the internal affairs office and became the emperor's household slave.
Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather Cao Xi was thus promoted to the second class bodyguard of the inner court, which was where the emperor lived. So Hu Caoxi had more opportunities to deal with the royal family, he was clever and clever, and quickly won their like and trust. Three years later, Kangxi was born, and the Qing Dynasty system stipulated that after the birth of the crown prince and the imperial daughter, they had to select women dressed in the three banners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as nurses and nannies.
This choice was made by Cao Xi's wife, Sun Shi, which means that the Cao family had a close relationship with the future emperor. In the second year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1663 AD), Cao Xi was appointed as the Weaving of Jiangnan, which was a big fat difference. Twenty-one years later, Cao Xi died on the job, and when Kangxi later toured south to Jiangning, he personally went to comfort Cao Xi's family. This is the relationship between the first generation of the Cao family and the emperor, followed by the second generation of Cao Yin, who became Kangxi's bodyguard at the age of seventeen, and this companion of both literature and martial arts was deeply trusted by Kangxi.
In April of the twenty-ninth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1690), Cao Yin also became a Weaver in Suzhou, and two years later became a Weaver in Jiangning. During his two terms of weaving, he undertook the Kangxi Southern Patrol Ceremony for five consecutive times, and the trust and weight he received far exceeded that of the local inspectors. Of course, this is not only because of his youthful feelings and his excellent work, but also because of a secret between the Cao family and Kangxi, which was revealed by the Kangxi secret that was found in the Forbidden City.
It was written on the secret song that Cao Yin gave to Kangxi, and it was all about the situation in the Jiangnan area, and even how thick the snow was in the local area was. This is the reason why the Cao family can be so beautiful, the Cao family has been weaving in Jiangning for three generations, to put it bluntly, it is the eyeliner that the emperor planted in Jiangnan. Specifically for the emperor to see if there was any rebellion, what was happening in the local area, which was equivalent to providing key information for the emperor's decision-making. In fact, the Manchu Qing dynasty was a nomadic entry, and Jiangnan has never been easy to control.
This is the richest place in the country, and it is impossible to do without its own people. Jiang Ning Weaving also assumed this responsibility, because of the importance of the eyeline, the person who served must be extremely trusted by the emperor. The Cao family had been in contact with the emperor since the beginning of Cao Xi, his wife was Kangxi's grandmother, and Cao Yin was Kangxi's companion. This job, no one more suitable than them, with the emperor's trust Cao family's power in Jiangnan is very great.
Qing officials stipulated that more than four pins could be presented to the emperor, but the Cao family was an exception, and Cao Yin had a lot of them when he was in wupin. Even Cao Yin could open his mouth to ask the emperor for money to do business, but the business failed, and the emperor did not even care about the loss of capital. From this point, it can be seen that the Cao family is not clean, and it is impossible to clean hands and feet in the complicated area of Jiangnan. Of course, it is precisely because of the emperor's trust and the Uncle Cao family that Cao Xueqin can have such a luxurious life.
However, Kangxi could condone the Unclean behavior of the Cao family, and Yongzheng might not be able to condone it, after all, it was a dynasty of heaven and a courtier. Kangxi had a close relationship with the Cao family, but Yongzheng did not, and he promoted the rectification of the bureaucracy. Therefore, in the generation of Cao Xueqin's father, the imperial court began to settle accounts, and in the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), Cao Xueqin's uncle Cao Fu (who said that his father) was dismissed from his post and imprisoned. The Cao family has been in a slump and weakening day by day, and without this, there may not have been a later "Dream of the Red Chamber".
References: Dream of the Red Chamber, Draft History of the Qing Dynasty