If you think that the glory is endless now, and do not think about the future, it will not be a long-term strategy. Seeing that there is another very happy event in the near future, it is really a fiery cooking oil, and the flowers are full of gold. You know, it is only a momentary prosperity, a momentary joy, and we must not forget the saying that "the feast will be scattered". This is if you don't worry about it early, and you are only afraid that regret will be useless. ——Cao Xueqin, "Dream of the Red Chamber"
In the feudal imperial society, the existence of the hereditary system made it possible for some high-ranking officials and ministers to inherit the positions from generation to generation, which seemed very beautiful.
But this is not the case, Cao Xueqin's "Dream of the Red Chamber" has given us the answer: the imperial family, since ancient times, has been very ruthless and cruel, no matter what kind of extremely popular subjects were at that time, after all, they could not survive for a long time, and there would always be a day when they fell off the altar.
The Cao family began to make a mark on the hands of Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather Cao Xi, and when it reached the hands of Cao Xueqin's grandfather Cao Yin, it began to decline, and when it came to Cao Xueqin, the bottom of the family was copied.
Judging from the family property confiscated by the Cao family, there were few huge assets left, and when Yongzheng got the list, he was even extremely disappointed.
Cao Xueqin also knows this, so we can see his inner helplessness in "Dream of the Red Chamber". In fact, behind the disappointment of both Yongzheng and the Cao family, it profoundly shows the helplessness of the feudal dynasty for the king.
The love affair between the Cao family and Kangxi
At Cao Xi's time, his wife Sun Shi took care of Kangxi in the palace and was Kangxi's nurse, and Cao Xi's son Cao Yin also served as Kangxi's attendant in the palace when he was young. Speaking of which, it can be said that it is a small hair of the Kangxi Emperor.
Therefore, the Kangxi Emperor was very close to the Cao family and had special feelings.
After the Kangxi Emperor succeeded to the throne, in the second year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor sent Cao Xi out to serve as a Weaver of Jiangning.
You know, at that time, Jiangning Weaving was not an ordinary official, but a well-deserved beauty. I don't know how many people are hungry for this position and hope to get money from it.
In the end, because of the relationship between the Cao family and the Kangxi Emperor, they got this beautiful difference, and the Cao family also took advantage of this position to handle countless amounts of money every year, and since then the Cao family has begun to develop and slowly developed.
And how developed was the Cao family at that time? If you use the rich and noble scene of the Jia family described by Cao Xueqin in her work "Dream of the Red Chamber": "Jia is not fake, white jade is a golden horse" to describe the Cao family at that time, it is not at all exaggerated.
As the Cao family developed, its prestige and power slowly developed.
It is said that at that time, four of the six southern tours of the Kangxi Emperor were carried out by the Cao family, which shows the great prestige of the Cao family at that time. After all, others were more or less aware of the special relationship between the Kangxi Emperor and the Cao family.
However, at that time, the Cao family, which was once beautiful, was not able to continue to be beautiful, and when it came to Cao Yin, there were already some crises.
According to historical records, Cao Yin liked literature and art, and also loved opera, calligraphy and other arts. To a certain extent, it has made a lot of contributions to the cultural and artistic atmosphere of the Cao family, but behind the superficial brilliance, it has also brought about a hidden crisis.
Cao Yin is very atmospheric in the economy, and his daily use, venue, and gift-giving are very generous. Especially when receiving the Kangxi Emperor's southern tour four times, the preparation of the pick-up was even more expensive.
So, of course, the Cao family has a huge deficit economically. The real turning point was because when the Kangxi Emperor died and the Yongzheng Emperor took the throne, the Cao family began to go downhill.
In the early years of Yongzheng, in order to rectify the atmosphere of officials, the Cao family was rectified. The Cao family relied on Jiangning weaving to develop and gain benefits from it, and during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, they could turn a blind eye, but when they arrived at Yongzheng, it was not good.
In the end, the Cao family was convicted of the deficit in Jiangning weaving, the Cao mansion was raided, and the Cao family was forced to move out of the place.
The Cao family's turbulent choice in the Kangxi Crown Prince's conquest
I believe that the story of the nine sons and wives is not unfamiliar to everyone, and the two biggest forces at that time were the forces of the four brothers and the eight brothers.
And the officials in the DPRK, in order to be able to dip a little light after the new lord takes office, will choose to take sides, that is, which force to support. This is similar to gambling, a big gamble at the cost of your future future and life.
The final result we also know is that the fourth brother Yinchen inherited the throne, that is, the Yongzheng Emperor.
After the Yongzheng Emperor succeeded to the throne, he began to liquidate the forces that stood in the wrong line and stood against him in the process of taking the throne. Unfortunately, the Cao family took the wrong side in the process of taking the concubine and chose to stand in the team of the Eight Brothers.
At the time of Yongzheng's liquidation, it was not spared, after all, it was the Cao family itself who stood in the wrong line.
However, for the Cao family, Yongzheng did not make it too difficult, but only raided the Cao family, and their residence in Beijing and other things were preserved, which made the Cao family not return to the pre-liberation period overnight. At least some of the family has been retained.
When the Cao family was raided, it was extremely miserable, and the prosperity of the past was only the appearance
After the Yongzheng Emperor succeeded to the throne, he raided the Cao family, but when all the family property of the Cao family was liquidated, Yongzheng saw the list and was disappointed for a while.
The Cao family was not as rich as he imagined, and now there were only a pitiful amount of silver left, and they were not worthy of the identity of "famous and prestigious family" at all.
At that time, Cao Xueqin was only 13 years old, he personally witnessed the whole process of raiding the family, the Yongzheng Emperor after reading the list, and then ordered someone to carefully count it again, perhaps in his opinion, the Cao family's family property is not so small, maybe there is a private collection.
Therefore, he also gave the Cao family a crime of transferring family property, put the Cao family owner in prison for questioning, and ordered the Cao family to make up for the deficit caused by the previous Jiangning weaving within the prescribed period of time.
In the past, the prosperous Cao Mansion is no longer there, and now there is only a deficit and a lost Cao family.
All the prosperity of the Kangxi Emperor during his reign, when he died, all became a bubble, and the prosperity of the past only existed in the memory of the Cao family. With the passage of time, it is gradually buried in the river of years.
As a famous and prestigious family, the Cao family did enjoy a period of glory and wealth, but they could see the prosperity in front of them and did not realize that it was not permanent.
When the Kangxi Emperor died, they suddenly woke up from their dreams, and the prosperity of the past was already a cloud of the past.
epilogue
The Cao family did not clearly understand that the crisis behind the apparent prosperity was caused by the loss of Jiangning weaving time and again, and at the same time, they stood in the wrong line in the nine sons and wives, which was also one of the triggers for the final outcome.
They only see the surface, do not look at things deeply, and eventually suffer the consequences.
We should also realize from the Cao family's experience that this was the case in the past and is true now.
As Cao Xueqin said in the dream of the Red Chamber, don't just see the prosperity in front of you, but know the truth that the feast will be scattered. No matter how powerful a courtier was at that time, there was always a day when he fell off the altar.