The sun and the moon are illuminated on the throne, and the smoke in front of the hall is glowing. --Wing Hee Tang
In the classical novel "Dream of the Red Chamber", Rongxi Hall is the central building of Rongguo Mansion, and the three characters of "Rongxi Hall" are written by the emperor himself "Book to Jia Yuan, Duke of Rongguo", and there is also the emperor's seal below: "Treasure of Wanji Chenhan". It can be seen that Jia Fu was favored by the emperor, and the historical prototype of Jia Yuan and his brother Jia Yan in the book is Cao Yin's father Cao Xi, that is, Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather.
Cao Xi's original name was Cao Eryu, and later because the Kangxi Emperor wrote Eryu Lian as a seal, so it was named, Cao Xi went through the late Ming Dynasty, his grandfather Cao Xiyuan was the commander of the Ming Dynasty's Shenyang Zhongwei, when the Qing army captured Shenyang, the young Cao Xi and his family were captured by the Qing soldiers, and later taken to the Imperial Taiji Mansion as a "wrapped Aha (house slave)".
Cao Xi also entered the army when he grew up, and gradually emerged, his wife Sun Shi was the nanny of the Kangxi Emperor, and later Cao Xi was instrumental in suppressing the Shanxi rebellion, so he was sent by the Kangxi Emperor to supervise Jiangning Weaving, an imperial merchant who set up a bureau in Nanjing to manufacture silk fabrics needed for the palace, Cao Xi became the first langzhong, and his descendants all served in Jiangning Weaving.
From his great-grandfather Cao Xi and grandfather Cao Yin to his father, cao Xueqin's three generations of raiders lived in Jiangning Weaving Province, and according to relevant literature, Cao Xueqin was also born in Jiangning Weaving Province. After Cao Yin entered the palace at the age of 16, he became the Kangxi Luan Yiwei, because Cao Yin's mother was the nanny of the Kangxi Emperor, and his father also had merits for the Qing, so Cao Yin was quite valued by the Kangxi Emperor.
And Cao Yin is also both literate and martial, erudite and versatile, in his 20s was promoted to the second class of the imperial bodyguard and the leader of the white flag, if Cao Xi laid the foundation for the prosperity of the Cao family, then Cao Yin is the icing on the cake, adding glory to the Cao family, etc., becoming one of the few rich nobles in the Jiangnan region.
In the 29th year of Kangxi (1690), the Kangxi Emperor promoted Cao Yin to Suzhou Weaving, also an imperial merchant who supplied fabrics to the court, and two years later, Cao Yin was transferred to Jiangning Weaving, and the Kangxi Emperor made six southern tours, of which 4 were living in Cao Yin's house, which also directly reflected Cao Yin's position in the heart of the Kangxi Emperor.
However, it was paid special attention to by the emperor, and as far as the Cao family was concerned, was it good or bad? Probably only the Cao family themselves know, but the Cao family did live a very luxurious life of poor luxury, cao Xueqin still lived a rich life from childhood to youth, so she can write the magnificent details of Jia Fu in "Dream of the Red Chamber".
However, when Cao Xueqin was 13 years old, the Cao family experienced changes, and in the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), Cao Fu, the uncle of the then Jiangning weaver Wailang, was dismissed from his post and imprisoned for harassing the station, weaving deficits, transferring property, etc., and the following year, the Cao family was raided before the First Moon Cloud Festival.
After Cao Yin and his own sons died in Jiangning Weaving, the Kangxi Emperor passed on his younger brother Cao Quan's fourth son Cao Fu as his son, and in Cao Fu's generation, the emperor gradually became estranged from the Cao family, and in the late Kangxi period, Cao Yin lost 373,000 taels of weaving silver during his lifetime.
To cause such an ending, the Kangxi Emperor was to pay a great responsibility, the Kangxi Emperor went to Jiangnan six times, lived in Cao Yin's house four times, and the Yin family also had to prepare excellent things for the Kangxi Emperor everywhere, the cost was not small, and the Kangxi Emperor could bring the supreme glory of the Cao family, but also brought a heavy burden to the Cao family.
After the Yongzheng Emperor took the throne, he made a nationwide publicity to check the money and grain and make up for the deficit, yongzheng five years, the Cao family was raided, Yongzheng saw the Cao family's family property was raided, but also inhaled a cool breath, only to see that the book on the raid list wrote: "His houses and family houses are thirteen, a total of 483 rooms, eight places totaling nineteen acres and sixty-seven acres, a total of 19 acres and 667 acres of land, a total of 114 men and women of family size, yu is tables, chairs, beds, old clothes and more than 100 pieces of pawn tickets, and there are a total of 32,000 taels owed to Cao Yin. ”
It turned out that the Cao family, the first magnate in Jiangnan, only had such a little thing.