The biggest achievement of the hundred years of new red science is that several generations of red scholars represented by Mr. Hu Shi used the method of "bold assumptions and careful verification" to verify that the author of "Dream of the Red Chamber" is Cao Xueqin, Cao Xueqin's grandfather is Jiangning weaving Cao Yin, and "Dream of the Red Chamber" is a novel created in the form of "self-narration" based on the Cao family.
The "bold hypothesis" of the red experts of the New Red School is bold enough. But "careful verification" went wrong. Several generations of red science masters have been seeking back and forth on Cao Xueqin's more than twenty pieces of evidence that cannot withstand examination over the past hundred years. However, it is overlooked that the writing process of "Dream of the Red Chamber" is the social background of the Qing Dynasty government's severe suppression of anti-Qing and Revival ideologies. The "literal ridge" policy adopted during the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty was the most severe period in Chinese history.
During the sixty-first year of Kangxi's reign, there were 11 major "literal prisons".
However, Yongzheng reigned for only thirteen years, but there were nearly 20 cruel and large-scale "literal prisons".
In his sixty years of imperial career, Qianlong actually created more than 130 torture "word prisons", creating an unprecedented miracle of more than double the sum of the "word prisons" in Chinese history.
The Nanshan case was a literal prison that occurred in the fifty years (1711) of the Qing Dynasty Emperor Kangxi. The Nanshan Collection, written by Zuo Du Yushi Zhao Shenqiao, was "arrogant and imprudent" and "rebellious in speech", and Dai Nanshan quoted fang Xiaobiao's "DianQian Jiwen" as the annals of the Southern Ming Yong calendar in the "Book of the Rest of the Life" in the "Nanshan Collection". In February of the 52nd year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Dai Mingshi was beheaded for this reason, and many people were implicated in the rebellion.
Another example is the famous "Qingfeng illiterate" case that occurred in the Yongzheng Dynasty.
In this case, the victim's name was Xu Jun. He is from a famous family in Kunshan. His uncle was Gu Yanwu, the great Confucian of the early Qing Dynasty; his father Xu Qianxue had passed the Tanhua Examination, and the official had passed the Examination to the Left Capital Imperial History and the Punishment Department Shangshu; the second uncle Xu Bingyi was also born in Tanhua and was an official to the official Shilang; the third uncle Xu Yuanwen had passed the Examination for the Title, and the official to the Wenhuadian University scholar and the head of the Hanlin Academy. In the eighth year of Yongzheng (1730), Xu Jun mistakenly wrote the word "Majesty" as "狴" in a recital, which annoyed the Yongzheng Emperor. The Yongzheng Emperor dismissed Xu Jun from his post and then raided his home. This copyist copied out the "Untitled" poem in his poetry collection. The full text is: "Mo Dao fluorescent small, still with the heart of the night." Qingfeng couldn't read, so why did he flip through the books? This is a piece of scenery that Xu Jun casually chanted in the dead of night, ridiculing the scene of the wind blowing the book. However, the case-handling personnel believed that Xu Jun was satirizing the Qing rulers for not having culture, and they also had to pretend to have culture. After interrogation, the case-handling personnel formed a report: "The Punishment Department and other yamen deliberative performances, the former Shu Ji Shi Xu Jun, crazy and ulterior motives, rebellious nature, in the poetry manuscript, created a mocking and rebellious remarks, should be in accordance with the great rebellion and disrespect, the manuscript should be burned." The Yongzheng Emperor approved the report, and Xu Jun was beheaded and lost his life. All the manuscripts of his poetry were burned.
If we look at the Qianlong period, from 1751 (the sixteenth year of Qianlong), the "word prison" suddenly revived, an unprecedented and cruel "word disaster" climaxed suddenly, and more than seventy "word prisons" broke out one after another.
In July of the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), Lu Lusheng, the general of Jiangxi Qian, conspired with liu Shida, the garrison, to fabricate a draft accusing the Qianlong Emperor of error, pretending that it was written by Sun Jiagan, with the intention of stopping Qianlong's first southern tour of laboring and hurting the people. In June of the sixteenth year of Qianlong (1751), when the "pseudo-Sun Jiagan manuscript" was circulated in Yunnan, it was discovered by the Qianlong Emperor, and the author of the forgery manuscript was traced throughout the country. By November of that year, more than 280 criminals had been arrested in Sichuan alone, and more in Huguang and Jiangxi. In February of the eighteenth year of Qianlong (1753), the Qianlong Emperor ordered that the so-called criminal Lu Lusheng be executed using the most cruel Ling Chi, and Liu Shida was beheaded.
After the matter was handled, the Qianlong Emperor was still restless and suspicious of ghosts, and at one moment suspected that the forged manuscript was created by Zeng Jing and Zhang Xiyu Dang, and at the other time suspected that it was written by those literati who had lost their minds in reading, and suspected that it might be the relatives and friends of Zhang Guangsi, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, who had been killed, who had been resentful and rumor-mongering. Therefore, Qianlong creatively proposed that in order to improve the "imperial autocracy," it is necessary to strictly rule over cultural ideas; and burn all forbidden books. Qianlong originally used the grandiose reason of "collecting ancient and modern group books" to investigate and deal with banned books, in order to sweep away all the authors, publishers, and collectors of the old engravings and new editions of "anti-Qing writing" works.
In the Qianlong period, there were many cases of writing prisons because they sang praises and praises to the rulers of the Qing Dynasty and offered books and suggestions, but because the horse ass was not taken out of the law, it was taboo and would also be killed.
At present, it is recognized that the time when "Dream of the Red Chamber" was written was in the Kang, Yong, and Qian periods, when the text was the most severe, and the anti-Qing ideas and texts were full of books, and in the social context of that time, it was absolutely impossible for the author's real-name book to express dissatisfaction with the imperial court.
We don't have to look for too many anti-Qing sentences or content from "Dream of the Red Chamber", just by virtue of the novel's first almost well-known "full of absurd words", this is a great insult to the Manchu Qing government! A neutral word nature of "Qingfeng illiterate" will invite the disaster of killing, so what kind of disaster will "full of absurd words" bring to the Cao family?
In fact, the New Red School tested that Cao Xueqin was the grandson of Cao Yin, the weaver of Jiangnan, and the author of "Dream of the Red Chamber", the evidence was nothing more than Yuan Ming's claim that his own Garden was the Grand View Garden according to Mingyi. Mingyi's statement of Cao Xueqin's family lineage is not an affirmative language at all, using "cover", that is, a rough or probable meaning. Therefore, the assertion of explicit meaning cannot be used as evidence.
The most direct evidence that Mr. Hu Shi found was only one. It is a small note under the "Yangzhou Old Dream Has Long Been Realized" in the "Collection of Four Pines": "Xueqin once woven with his ancestor Yin". Originally, there was no claim that Cao Xueqin was Cao Yin's grandson, but this statement comes from a note added to the "Four Songtang Collection" (for engraving and printing): "Xueqin once went with her ancestor Yin to the weaving mission."
These twelve words do not say who wrote it, whether it is true, even if it is true, it is full of loopholes, the logic is confused, and rigorous scholars cannot cite evidence.
Cao Yin died in 1712, and Cao Yin's grandson "Cao Xueqin", who was studied by Hu Shihong, was first born in 1715. Since "Cao Xueqin" was born after Cao Yin's death, how could he "go with his ancestor Yin to the task of weaving"? Moreover, Cao Xueqin wrote "Jinling Twelve Nobles", nor "Yangzhou Twelve Plates", so it can be seen that this sticker is also wrong. Mr. Hu Shi also recognized this, and he could only say that people had made a "small mistake". Since people are mistaken, can we still cite evidence?
In short, it is necessary to start from the political background of the early Qing Dynasty, to study the red science is the right way, do not do useless work on the "self-narration" style novel of "Dream of the Red Chamber", if you do not consider the political background at that time to study the real author of "Dream of the Red Chamber", you can only be a "fool's dream"!