Cao Xueqin's family lineage and raiders

Cao Xueqin's grandfather Cao Yin was a wrapper. "Wrapping" is a Manchu word that originally referred to slaves in private households and was hereditary. Cao Yin's great-grandfather was captured by the Manchu conquerors and became a cloak in the Zhengbai banner. Among the Eight Banners, the descendants of the Upper Three Banners Coat became the household slaves of the royal family, and the descendants of the Lower Five Banners Became the House Slaves of the Prince. In view of the harm of eunuchs' unauthorized power at the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the Qing Dynasty was founded, measures were taken to reduce the influence of eunuchs, and many of the secret or profitable tasks completed by eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty began to be performed by Baoyi, and in this context, Baoyi began to appear on the stage of historical power. It was at this time that the Cao Yin family began to rise.

When Cao Yin was fourteen or fifteen years old, he entered the Ministry of Internal Affairs and took care of the royal ceremonies in luan Yiwei's sixth class. After several job changes, Cao Yin also served as Suzhou and Jiangning Weaving 6 years after the death of his father, who had been a weaver in Jiangning for 21 years. It was an important task, and its responsibility was to manage the Royal Textile Factory in the land of Jiangnan Fuze and to send the silk quotas used for the royal family and the official to Beijing. Later, Cao Yin and his brother-in-law Li Xu took turns serving as inspectors of the Two Huai Dynasties. At the same time, as Kangxi's "secret agent", Cao Yin maintained a single line of contact with the emperor for a long time, and he conveyed various information to Kangxi through secret folds. In the famous Kechang Case of 1711, Inspector Zhang Boxing of Jiangsu and Governor Gali began to refer to each other in a compromise. The investigation team sent by Kangxi initially planned to be perfunctory, but it was quickly recognized. This is partly due to the close folding of Cao Yin and Li Xu. This was the most glorious era of the Cao family.

In the fifty-first year of the Qing Dynasty (壬辰, 1712), Cao Yin went to Yangzhou to supervise the engraving of "Pei Wen Yun Fu" and could not afford to contract malaria, Li Xu rushed to Yangzhou to visit him, Cao Yin knew that this disease was difficult to treat, only the "holy medicine" in the palace could save his life, and pleaded with Li Xu to ask Kangxi to grant him a "holy medicine", Li Xu urgently reported to the Kangxi Emperor, Kangxi specially gave the special medicine for malaria at that time, "Golden Rooster (i.e., Quinine)" imported from the West and the detailed instructions, delivered by fast horse, limited to nine days to Yangzhou, but Cao Yin did not eat this "holy medicine", and on July 23, Cao Yin died of illness in Yangzhou. He was fifty-five years old. After Cao Yin's death, all the aftermath was handled by Li Xu, he played Kangxi, Cao Yin left behind more than 90,000 yuan in arrears over the years, and the silver that should be paid last year because of lack of funds was 230,000 taels, so he asked Kangxi to let him take care of it for another year after the salt gap was full, and pay back this big deficit for Cao Yin, Kangxi was well aware of the inside story of Cao Yin's deficit, and commented on Li Xu's fold: "Cao Yin Yu'er colleagues are one, this is very much played." But as time goes on, if er changes, he will be better off than for himself, that is, a dog and a horse. In September of that year, Cao Yin's nephew and cousin Cao Yin (曹颙) went to Jiangnan and, in accordance with the holy will of the "Liang Governor", asked Li Xu to take care of the salt gap for one year to complete Cao Yin's arrears. (It is said that the "Liang Governor" was the first powerful eunuch around Kangxi, Liang Jiugong, a Fengrun person, who committed suicide after Kangxi's death and was buried in Fengrun.)

At that time, lang Tingji, the governor of Jiangnan, also asked Kangxi to let Cao Yin's son Cao Yin succeed Jiangning weaving at the request of Jiangning's gentry merchants, and Kangxi said "I know" on his recital. In October, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs asked Kangxi to decide on the successor of Jiangning Weaving, and Kangxi criticized: "During Cao Yin's weaving duties, the people in the area said that he had a good reputation, and even the people from the governorship, also played the role of filling the vacancy with his son. Cao Yin has lived there for a long time and has built a property, and it is difficult to relocate now. This deficiency is made up for by its son Liansheng in the weaving lang. "Lian Sheng was Cao Hao, who was only eighteen or nineteen years old at the time.

In February of the fifty-second year of the Kangxi Dynasty (癸巳, 1713), Cao Yong (颙颙) was formally inaugurated, and Kangxi commented on a piece of internal affairs: "Lian Sheng is also known as Cao Hao, and thereafter he wrote about Cao Hao. Cao Yong took office in the autumn of many troubles, after Cao Yin's death in the previous year, Kangxi conveniently imprisoned the crown prince Yin rong in Xian'an Palace in October, and the party disputes between the princes arose, as a weaving official, they needed to be paid by all sides, and a little carelessness was a disaster, and in the year that Cao Yin took office, Li Xu was dismissed from his post and left behind, and Kangxi commented on one of Li Xu's pieces: "Er has always played too many points, too many and useless, and he did not know it. "It is not unrelated to the dispute with the princes. In this year, Li Xu paid off all of Cao Yin's arrears, and there were more than 36,000 pieces of surplus silver, and handed them over to Cao Yuan, who wanted to honor Kangxi with these remaining silver two, and Kangxi approved: "On that day, Cao Yin was in Japan, but I was afraid that I would not be able to complete the two short silvers ( advance ) , and after I was gone, I had to clear it, and this mother and son were fortunate." The remaining silver, Erdang pay attention, the weaving cost is quite a lot, the family's private debt, I think there is, as long as six thousand two horses. "

Cao Yong only did weaving for two years, and died of illness at the beginning of the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi (Yi Wei, 1715) or at the end of the previous year, after his death, there were strangely many deficits, which caused Kangxi to order others to clean up on his behalf, and it is very likely that The deficit Li Xu before Cao Yin's death was not completely completely completed.

After Cao Yin's death, Kangxi Gu Nian's widows of the Cao family (Cao Yin's wife Li Shi and Cao Yin's wife Ma Shi) were left unsupported (Cao Yin was only a brother), and ordered Li Xu to choose among Cao Yin's brother Cao Xuan's sons, Cao Yin, who was "a reliable person who must be able to raise Cao Yin's mother as a birth mother", to succeed Jiangning Weaving, Li Xu chose Cao Xuan's fourth son Cao Fu (fu), and after asking Kangxi's approval, he came to Jiangning in the first month of the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi, and this Cao Fu was Cao Xueqin's biological father, who had been weaving for thirteen years. It was not until the fifth year of Qing Yongzheng (Ding Wei, 1727) that he was dismissed from his post and raided his home. At that time, Cao Xue was five years old, that is, he suffered the disaster of raiding his family.

Cao Yin's mother was Kangxi's nanny (nursing mother), and Kangxi played with Cao Yin from an early age, so Cao Yin became Kangxi's companion. Kangxi and Cao Yin were small, intimate, and deep feelings, so Cao Yin gradually became Kangxi's confidant. So after Cao Yin became an adult, Kangxi sent Cao Yin to the very wealthy Jiangnan region and made Jiangning weaving.

When Kangxi lived in Cao Yin's weaving office during his southern tour, he once took Cao Yin's mother's hand and said to people: "This old man in my family is also", and also personally inscribed the plaque "Xuanrui Hall" where Cao Yin's mother lived. The large deficit left by Cao Yin was related to Kangxi's several southern tours. Kangxi began to tour the south after quelling the Rebellion of San Francisco, six times in his life, Cao Yin and Li Xu jointly took over four times, these four times were different from others, others were only in their own place, they were in Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou four times each, a total of twelve times. At that time, some people described the extravagant scene of Jiangnan greeting the "holy car" and said that "the Three FenHe River is dry to build the imperial family, and the abuse of money is worse than mud and sand", which is similar to what Grandma Zhao said in "Dream of the Red Chamber" that the Zhen family in Jiangnan "imitated Shun's patrol" in order to welcome the emperor, "don't say that silver has become mud, by virtue of what is owned in the world, there is nothing that is not piled up in the mountains and the sea, and the four words of 'sin and pity' cannot be taken care of", which is like a mouthful.

These deficits left by Cao Yin directly sowed the seeds of defeat for posterity, and Kangxi let Cao Yong succeed him in weaving, which was related to such a large number of deficits, although this cannot be explicitly stated, but from Kangxi to Li Xu and Cao Hao were tacit.

Kangxi Yi has always adopted a closed-eye attitude toward the corruption of officials, and he once said that those poor scholars were all on foot when they were showmanships, and after they became Chinese-style officials, they immediately had servants on horses, "Why don't you ask them all about where they came from?" This attitude directly leads to corruption in the administration of officials. Immediately after Yongzheng came to power, he began to rectify the trend of corruption, and after his death, Qianlong pushed the wind of corruption to the extreme, and the Cao family, as a weaving official, was in this whirlpool of everyone's attention and everyone's hand, which can be said to be like approaching the abyss, like walking on thin ice, and living in fear all day long, so Cao Yin has a poem "The heart is absurd, and the old article is afraid of becoming", which should be regarded as a true portrayal.

When Cao Xueqin was born, the Cao family was already in the last days, and it was in the midst of wind and rain, and the patron Kangxi died, and Yongzheng ascended to the pole. It is said that Yong Yong usurped the throne by trickery, and after ascending to the pole, one was not at ease with the old emperor's cronies, afraid that they would know a little detail, and the two were not at ease with those who were in contact with his political enemies and other princes, and they wanted to straighten out. The Cao family and Li Xu (Li Xu's mother is also Kangxi's nanny) happen to be the two of them. From the first year to the fifth year, Yongzheng repeatedly issued edicts to rebuke Cao Fu, and everything that was given to people privately, sold ginseng cheaply, and the royal clothes they woven fell off, and so on, all of them had to be severely reprimanded, and Cao Fu was copied sooner or later, and Cao Fu also knew that he was difficult to protect.

In the fifth year of Yongzheng, Yongzheng personally issued an edict and copied Cao Fu's home. Prior to this, Yongzheng first removed the yellow belts of YunQi and Yuntang, which meant that he was removed from the clan room, Yunqi was imprisoned in Beijing, and Yuntang was sent to other places, and he died almost at the same time without knowing it. He also ordered Yun Qi's wife to commit suicide, burn his corpse and raise ashes, and even Long Keduo, who had made great contributions to supporting Yongzheng to come to power, was also dismissed from the post of Shangshu, and soon after he was sentenced to forty-one felonies, Yongzheng "extrajudicial grace", ordered Long Keduo himself to exempt him from the Fa, built three houses in the open space near Changchun Garden, and should be chased after the number of dirty silver photos, his wife was exempted from the Xinerku, and one of his two sons was dismissed from his post and one was sent to Heilongjiang as an errand boy. Long Keduo was an important in-law of the Cao family, Cao Fu's wife was the "grandmother" of the Long family, and another in-law of the Cao family, Wang Narsu of Ping county, was also dismissed from his post and imprisoned, accused of "greed", in fact, Narsu was the deputy of the fourteenth prince Yunti before the Xining Army, and Yunti was recalled to Beijing by Yongzheng and sent to the Qing Dongling Tomb to see the grave, and his position was replaced by Narsu. At this point, all the patrons of the Cao family have all fallen, and it is inevitable that the Cao family will be fired. The reason for the copy was ostensibly because on the way from Hangzhou and three other weaving places to the capital to transport the "dragon clothes", in Changqing, Shandong Province, "harsh and burdensome, bitter and tired station", the Inspector of Shandong Sai Leng'er reported a copy to Yongzheng, and Yongzheng immediately approved: "The weaving messenger is now in the Beijing Division, and the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will strictly examine and approve the various items that Selen's forehead has participated in. So Jiangning Weaving Cao Fu and Hangzhou Weaving Sun Wencheng resigned together, followed by raiders.

Selen's instructions were sent to Yongzheng on the fourth day of December, Cao Fu was dismissed from his post on December 15, and on December 24, Yongzheng issued a raid order, and the speed of the work was amazing and admirable. Yongzheng's edict is very interesting, which can be quoted down: "Fengzhi: Jiang Ning weaves Cao Fu, misbehaves, weaves money, and has a lot of deficits. Grace has been repeatedly granted to make up for it. If one is grateful for the grace of fulfillment, one should do one's best to serve, but instead of being grateful for the reward, He secretly moved the belongings of the family to other places in an attempt to conceal them, which was contrary to the grace of the emperor, which was very hateful. Fan Shixuan, the governor of Jiangnan, took Cao Fu's family property and immediately took care of his important family; the family's property was also secured and guarded, and the new weaving official Sui Hede was dealt with after he arrived. When Yi Wen knew that the weaving officials were changing hands, they might have secretly sent their families to Jiangnan to deliver letters and transfer the family wealth. If a person sent to The Place of Iraq is to be taken seriously, and the person is interrogated for the sake of his going, he must not neglect to do so. From this family raid order, it can be seen that Yongzheng only had two counts of copying Cao Fu, one was "misbehaving," the other was "a lot of deficits," "misconduct" was a political issue, and "a lot of deficits" was an economic issue.

The act of raiding the family was already popular in the official struggle in the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty followed the Ming system and intensified, reaching the peak of Yongzheng. However, the Qing Dynasty still had some differences in the grasp of the objects of the raids, for the Manchu ministers, the raiders were still cautious, some ministers did not necessarily raid the house when they got to kill the head, and the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were very casual, And Mr. Zhu Jialu, a famous old expert of the Palace Museum, mentioned in his "Records of the Forbidden City", for the people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, sometimes because you are too rich, you will copy it if you find a ballast, and after copying, you may not be punished, and you may also be rewarded with errands.

The act of raiding the house was very cruel, all the large and small families were driven out of the house and locked separately, all the belongings were entered into the government, and the young women also had to strip and search themselves, strictly preventing the abduction, so some children were scared to death on the spot, and some women died after hearing the news.

According to Sui Hede's later manuscript, the Cao family copied out a total of thirteen houses and family houses, a total of 483 rooms, eight places, a total of 19 acres and 67 acres, a total of 19 acres and 67 acres, a total of 114 men and women of family size, and Yu "tables, chairs, beds, old clothes and other pieces and more than 100 tickets and no other items." According to the Yongxian Record, Yongzheng also "heard it with pity" after seeing the list of the Cao family's copy of the family.