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Cao Xueqin

Cao Xueqin

c. 1715 CEc. 1763 CE · Novelist · Nanjing (Jiangning)

Cao Xueqin was a Qing-dynasty Chinese writer, author of "Dream of the Red Chamber" (Hongloumeng), counted among the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. He was born into a prominent Han Chinese clan that served as bondservants to the Manchu court and held the post of Commissioner of Imperial Textiles at Jiangning for three generations. After the family's properties were confiscated under the Yongzheng Emperor around 1727, the household relocated to Beijing in reduced circumstances. Cao spent his later years in poverty in the Western Hills west of the capital, where he composed his novel, which circulated in manuscript and was left unfinished at his death.

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Nanjing (Jiangning)

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