The Background of the Dream of the Red Chamber
The Author was born into one of the richest families in China in 1715
See Part 2 here.
The Dream of the Red Chamber is a Chinese novel, left in an incomplete state at the author’s death in 1764. Published in 1791 in Qing Dynasty China, it grew in popularity as time passed. By 1920, it was judged the best novel in Chinese literature - though to be honest, very few novels were written in Chinese before 1900.
The author, Cao Xueqin, has a mysterious biography though we know roughly who he was and his family. He was the grandson of Cao Yin who was, for much of his life, one of the wealthiest men in China and a personal friend of the Kangxi Huangdi (Emperor).
Cao Yin’s Grandfather: Cao Si Yuan
Cao Yin’s family was Chinese but they had joined the Manchu very early, sometime between 1615 and 1618. In those days, Nurhachi, the Khan of the Manchus, was forging a new kingdom and he was happy to have brave and dedicated men join his growing state, whether they were Mongols, Koreans or Chinese. I am writing a biography of Nurhachi. Here is one part of it. Apparently Cao Yin’s grandfather, Cao Si Yuan, the man who joined Nurhachi, was brave and intelligent because he was given the honor of beating one of the drums for the White Banner - one of the first four banners of Nurhachi’s army.
Note: in Chinese, Manchu, Korean, Japanese, & Vietnamese armies, drums and horns are used to command soldiers in battle. The commander would issue a command and the drummers or horn blowers would play their instruments in accord with the command. Consequently, it was necessary to have brave and completely dependable men beating the command drums because beating the wrong drum sequence could change victory into defeat. Cao Si Yuan was apparently just such a man.
Cao Si Yuan survived the many wars which the Manchu fought against all their neighbors - Ming China, Joseon Korea, and the Mongol clans. Cao Si Yuan had at least one son who was also highly regarded by the Manchu leaderships.
With northern China mostly pacified, the question of how to manage various government-run businesses came before the new Qing Dynasty. Prior to 1644, the Ming government ran a number of businesse-like operations:
The making of weapons for the Chinese army - swords, armor, and cannons. The Ming had adopted a largely decentralized approach to the production of weapons with specific districts of China responsible for making the weapons and armor of specific military formations of the Ming army. As usual, what started out as a clever idea had become corrupted by the passage of 200+ years. By 1610, the Ming army was being supplied with faux-weapons and useless armor. Nurhachi cared deeply about equipping his warriors with the best possible armor and weapons and so he manufactured his military equipment in his capital, under his personal supervision. Later, one of his descendants was always in charge of manufacturing military equipment for the Manchu bannermen. However, the making of weapons was never a profitable business because the only buyer was the Qing government.
Silk production. Making bolts of silk for the court and for government officials as well as the embroidery of clothing for the royal family was a large and profitable operation. In the Ming Dynasty, there were three silk factories: one in Nanjing, one in Suzhou, and one in Hongzhou. The three silk factories made very large profits but how they made profits is unclear to me. Perhaps they were profitable because they made the best silk and they were allowed to sell extra silk to buyers with money? Also, it may be that the Ming government recognized that in order to get the best silk, you had to pay experts to weave it and some profit for the managers was factored into the running of the silk factories?
The Salt factories. From the Han Dynasty onwards, the Chinese government tried to maintain a monopoly on salt production. Because salt is necessary for life, the government could make salt at the oceanside and then sell it at a profit, thus helping to pay for government expenses. Salt production in China was usually done by slaves or prisoners working in miserable conditions and the man in charge of the Imperial salt works usually made a fortune by selling extra salt illegally on the black market.
During the Ming Dynasty, the silk factories and the salt works were run by Imperial Eunuchs. This was done because - it was thought - the eunuchs had no families and they were loyal only to the Ming government. This proved to be wrong and the Imperial eunuchs were - by and large - every bit as corrupt as the typical government functionary in the world before modern methods of accounting.
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The Qing decided they would put the captured Ming silk factories and salt works under the control of trusted and loyal Chinese members of the Banners. The Qing appointed loyal Chinese men to these positions because
The heads of the factories would be dealing exclusively with Chinese suppliers of materials.
They had to have perfect command of the Chinese language, both writern and spoken.
They had to manage Chinese artisans at the silk factories and Chinese salt-making experts at the various salt works.
Such talents were not found among the Manchu princes in 1650. The Manchu princes were warriors at this time, not administrators.
Cao Yen’s Father: Cao Chen Yen
Cao Chen Yen was one of Cao Si Yuan’s sons. By luck or skill he managed to successfully navigate the dangerous succession crisis which followed Hong Taiji’s death in 1643, as well as the campaign to conquer northern China (1644 to 1650). As a member of the White Banner, he was near the apex of political power in the Qing State for seven years, because the leader of the White Banner - Prince Dorgon - was the defacto ruler of the Qing government until his assassination at the end of 1650. I describe something of Dorgon’s life in this essay: the Strange Story of Prince-Regent Dorgon.
When Dorgon was killed, many of his supporters in the White Banner were removed from power and killed but Cao Chen Yen survivied this internal purge of the White Banner. My guess is that being Chinese was an advantage as few Chinese would have dared to advise Dorgon on matters of political power.
We can assume that Cao Chen Yen was a warrior like his father before him. My guess is Cao Chen Yen was an officer in the Qing army as that was the essentially the only way to gain status within the new Qing leadership. There were very few academics among the Manchu in those days.
Cao Chen Yen’s life changed dramatically in 1654, likely due to his wife, Lady Sun. The reason is because that was the year Xuanye was born. Xuanye - now famous as Huangdi Kangxi - was the 3rd son of Shunzhi Huangdi. As a baby, Xuanye was assigned three milk-mothers and three nannies, one from each of the Banners which the Huangdi personally controlled. Lady Sun was selected as the nanny from the White Banner. (The other two banners which contributed women were the Bordered Yellow, and the Plain Yellow).
My guess is that Lady Sun risked her own life to take care of Xuanye when he fell sick from smallpox, in 1656. Smallpox was often fatal for the Manchu; it killed Kangxi’s granduncle Prince Dodo in 1649 and it would kill his own father Shunzhi in 1661.
As a reward for her service, Lady Sun’s husband, Cao Chen Yen, was placed in charge of the large Salt Factory of Zhejian province in 1656. The rule the Qing imposed was that no man could stay in that post for more than three years (later the rule was two years) so he left that job in 1659. Lady Sun gave birth to a son, Cao Yin, in 1658. Four years laters, Cao Chen Yen was given a new job: head of the silk factory of Nanjing (1663). He kept that job for the next 21 years, until his death in 1684.
Cao Yin - the Lucky Son
At some point, Lady Sun brought her son, Cao Yin, to the Palace - perhaps when he was still a baby. My guess is that as the chief nanny for Kangxi, she was able to bring her son into the palace from an early age. The result was Cao Yin became one of Kangxi’s playmates, even though he was four years younger than the future Huangdi.
By 1661, Kangxi had a group of young men who he trusted and who swore an oath of loyalty to Kangxi. The situation for Kangxi in 1661 was fraught with real danger. The reason is that Kangxi was nearing the age when he would officially take over the government from the regent or else the regent might kill him and replace him with one of his other brothers - or perhaps the regent would seize control of the state and declare he was the new Huangdi of China. Being a regent was a dangerous job and no matter what the regent did, he made enemies. Kangxi both hated and feared his regent, though he concealed his feelings skillfully.
The powerful regent standing in Kangxi’s way was Oboi. During the preceding eight years, Regent Oboi had executed two of the other four regents appointed by Shunzhi and one had died, leaving Oboi as the sole regent and defacto ruler of China.
Kangxi played a very dangerous game in the years 1660 to 1661. He pretended to be carefree and uninterested in the government, letting Oboi run things without much comment. Secretly, Kangxi was using his young companions to gather both information and supporters under the noses of Oboi and his allies. One of Kangxi’s trusted friends was Cao Yin, perhaps the youngest of Kangxi’s followers. Being only 11, Cao Yin was able to deliver messages while attracting the least suspicion.
In the middle of 1669, Kangxi struck. Kangxi arranged to have a group of his bodyguards arrest Oboi and charge him with treason. Kangxi had the support of his grandmother and (I assume) his nanny, Lady Sun. This internal coup d’etat was successful and all of Oboi’s men were removed from their positions of power; many were executed, including Oboi who died in prison after being “pardoned” by the new Huangdi. Kangxi then rewarded his youthful band of followers with important positions in his new government.
Cao Yin was made a member of Kangxi’s personal bodyguard and he was promoted over the years till he was in charge of several hundred men.
In 1690 Cao Yin was given a similar job to his father: superintendant of the Silk Factory of Suzhou. Three years later, he was transferred to the bigger factory in Nanjing, which his father had run for 21 years. By 1700, Cao Yin was one of the richest men in China.
See Part 2 here - to read more about Cao Yin’s Life and the Dream of the Red Chamber