Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Mansions shows the journey of Jiafu from prosperity to decline through the continuous change of characters. In fact, the decline of Jiafu is similar to the fate of the Cao family. The Cao family has been in control of Jiangning weaving for 58 years, and the family power is unmatched in the Jiangnan region.
However, after Emperor Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, he regarded the Cao family as a thorn in his side, and finally confiscated all their family property, causing the century-old grand family to collapse overnight. So, how did the Cao family offend Yongzheng, causing the emperor to finally disregard the old feelings and exterminate his family?The history of the Cao family can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty.
When the Manchus ruled the Central Plains, the Cao family chose to submit to the Qing Dynasty and became a courtier of the Qing emperor. From the reign of Emperor Shunzhi, Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather Cao Xi became a second-class guard with a sword, and his honesty and courage were deeply loved by Emperor Shunzhi. The Cao family was officially implicated in the imperial family, and it can be traced back to Cao Xi's wife Sun who was chosen as the nurse of Emperor Kangxi.
Therefore, Cao Xueqin's grandfather Cao Yin became the brother of Emperor Kangxi. Emperor Kangxi lost his parents when he was young, and Sun became his loving mother, teaching him to read and reason, and caring for him. Emperor Kangxi respected her, and every festival or nursing mother's birthday, the emperor personally went to congratulate her. For Cao Yin, the milk brother who grew up with him, Emperor Kangxi attached great importance to it.
After Emperor Kangxi came into power, he planned a bright future for the Cao family. In his eyes, Jiangning weaving has a high status, and it has been in charge of the emperor's trusted people since ancient times. Kangxi attached great importance to the Cao family, increased Cao Xi's official position, and gave additional gardens, laying the foundation for the Cao family to gain a foothold in the Jiangnan region. With the support of the emperor, Cao Xi soon firmly controlled Jiangning Weaving.
The Cao family's talent for business was so limited that their business proposals often failed, but fortunately the emperor never held them accountable. The Cao family was favored by the emperor, and the ministers of the court and the central government also followed suit, resulting in the Cao family being the sole leader in the Jiangnan region, and no one could match it. Cao Yin received the emperor many times, but frequently appropriated the imperial court**.
The expenses for hosting the emperor must have been huge, and Cao Yin himself, like his father, was not good at business. Coupled with the huge expenses of maintaining the family's face, the Cao family is facing huge financial pressure. Kangxi came to Cao's house many times, so that Cao Yin had no choice but to embezzle the imperial court funds to cope.
At first, he may be able to deal with it reluctantly, after all, it is for the emperor's use, but Cao Yin is so bold that he even pins all his family expenses on **. The Cao family was already arrogant and pampered, and their daily expenses were surprisingly high, resulting in a huge deficit in Jiangnan's finances.
Although Emperor Kangxi was aware of it, other **also** had this incident, but out of old feelings, the emperor chose to let it go. even privately found Cao Yin and asked him to take the initiative to make up for the shortfall, giving Cao Yin a glimmer of life. Of course, Cao Yin said that he would try his best to make up for the shortfall, but it turned out that his ability was limited. By the time of his death, there was still a deficit of two million taels that had not been filled.
However, this misappropriation happened in the Kangxi Dynasty, what does it have to do with Yongzheng?Why was Yongzheng so persistent after he ascended the throne and directly raided the Cao family?This starts with the incident of the nine sons seizing the heir. In Kangxi's later years, in order to compete for the throne, the incident of nine sons seizing the heir broke out, and the courtiers stood in line to support their favored heirs, and the Cao family also joined the competition.
However, similar to their ability to do business, the Cao family is not good at seeing people. What they have high hopes for is Yongzheng's younger brother Yinxi, and the Cao family attaches great importance to this. The marriage between the Cao family and the eighth elder brother did not stop there. Not only do they continue to provide funds to the eighth elder brother, but they also hope to improve the status of the family with this wealth.
However, what is unexpected is that in the end, it was the fourth child who won the succession of the nine sons, that is, the later Yongzheng Emperor!Emperor Yongzheng has hatred in his heart, how can he give up on those who obstructed his accession to the throne in the first place?In particular, the Cao family has provided funds to the eighth elder brother many times, which is even more unbearable for Yongzheng. After ascending the throne, Yongzheng's first task was to clean the court and rectify it.
Hundreds of ** were sent to prison and exiled overnight. In the process of the investigation, Yongzheng accidentally discovered the Cao family's misappropriation of **. Although Emperor Kangxi chose to forgive, Yongzheng was not Kangxi, and the original Sun was not Yongzheng's nurse, so he was ruthless. After Yongzheng discovered the Cao family's illegal behavior, the head of the Cao family, Cao Zhuan, had no choice but to admit the family's initial deficit.
After counting, it was found that the Cao family owed more than one million taels of silver to the national treasury. Yongzheng simply couldn't tolerate it, thinking that these scum of the court dared to harm his interests. Just as he was about to send the Cao family to the frontier, the thirteenth elder brother stood up. He said to Yongzheng: "When my father was on his southern tour, I had contacts with the Cao family, and asked the emperor to give the Cao family a chance.
Yongzheng attaches great importance to this younger brother, because since he won the heir, he has always been accompanied and helped by his younger brother. Faced with this situation, Yongzheng had to agree: "If the Cao family can make up for the deficit within three years, I will forgive them once." "The Cao family collapsed, and the family went into decline. With the assistance of the Thirteenth Elder Brother, the Cao family seemed to have survived, but this was only a superficial phenomenon.
Cao Qian, the current head of the family, is an incompetent person who has almost no talent except for good words and excellent articles. Despite this situation, they still live in luxury, with no intention of paying their debts.
This made Emperor Yongzheng, who advocated frugality, very dissatisfied, coupled with Cao Zhuan's lack of political achievements, during his tenure, Jiangnan almost did not make any reports on **, which was far from his duties. The contradiction between the Cao family and Emperor Yongzheng has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and just waiting for the time to come, Emperor Yongzheng will not hesitate to eliminate the black sheep of this country.
Soon after, the long-awaited opportunity of the Yongzheng Emperor finally came. Initially, the emperor asked the Cao family to fill the gap in the treasury within three years, but the Cao family did not care at all. Therefore, after three years, the Cao family not only did not repay the old debts, but owed more debts, which made the treasury even worse. The imperial power is unquestionable, and the treasury is not coveted by others.
Emperor Yongzheng couldn't bear it anymore and officially dismissed Cao Zhuo from his official position and returned all the property of the Cao family to the state treasury.
Emperor Yongzheng originally thought that cleaning up the Cao family would make the treasury rich, but in the process of processing, he found that the most was not gold, silver and jewelry, but countless pawn tickets!This fully proves that even without the emperor's intervention, the Cao family is already surrounded by four walls, and there is only one way to despair.
Fortunately, the emperor still missed the old love of the Kangxi period and kept their real estate in the capital for the Cao family, so the Cao family moved to the capital, including the young Cao Xueqin. The Cao family began to sell all kinds of property and seek help from all sides, hoping to pay off their debts to the imperial court. However, the amount of debt is too large for them to do anything.
Cao Qian has been decadent and depressed, and all the pressure has been transferred to the young Cao Xueqin. Although Cao Xueqin worked very hard, he was only a half-grown child after all, how could he deal with such a huge disaster?Until the death of Emperor Yongzheng, the Cao family still failed to completely repay their debts to the imperial court.
It wasn't until Qianlong ascended the throne that he let go of the Cao family in the face of his grandfather and forgave them of their debts. Subsequently, Cao Xueqin relied on teaching to support her family, living in poverty and often needing financial support from relatives and friends.
There are many reasons for the decline of the Cao family, such as the extravagance and extravagance of the family, the many times to spend huge sums of money to entertain the emperor, and most importantly, they stood on the wrong side in the process of the nine sons seizing the heir, directly offended the Yongzheng Emperor, and finally went to extinction. If the Cao family had stood on the opposite side in the process of seizing the heir, it might have been able to continue the glory of the Kangxi Dynasty and continue to occupy an important position in the Jiangnan region.