Cao Xueqin, the author of "Dream of Red Mansions", was once the first wealthy nobleman in Jiangnan under the support of Emperor Kangxi. However, in the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), due to the lack of treasury, Emperor Yongzheng ordered the confiscation of the Cao family's property.
Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Mansions depicts the Grand View Garden of Jiafu, which depicts the luxurious life of the ancient aristocracy, and this is the true portrayal of Cao Xueqin's family.
However, what Yongzheng didn't expect was that although the Cao family used to be a big business, the confiscated family property was far from enough to make up for the deficit in the national treasury. The root of this tragedy lies precisely in the Kangxi Emperor.
Cao Xueqin's family was originally a military household in the Ming Dynasty and settled in Tieling, Liaoning Province with the army. After the Liaoshen War at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Cao Xiyuan, the ancestor of the Cao family, surrendered to Nurhachi, and the family was incorporated into the Eight Banners and began to form a relationship with the Qing Dynasty royal family.
Cao Xi was selected by Shunzhi as a palace guard because of his loyalty, and his wife Sun was Kangxi's nursing mother, and after Kangxi succeeded to the throne, the Cao family soared. Cao Yin and Kangxi are compatriots, because Kangxi lost his mother since childhood, he regarded Sun as his biological mother, and every year Sun would come to Cao's family to give generous gifts to him, and his feelings for Cao Yin were like brothers, which was also the reason for the prosperity of the Cao family.
Kangxi once appointed Cao Xi to weave for Jiangning. Jiangning Weaving was a five-grade official in the Qing Dynasty, with a low official rank, but great power. The Qing Dynasty set up three weaving offices in Jiangning, Suzhou and Hangzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, which were nominally managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but in fact directly obeyed the emperor.
They nominally operate the industry in the Jiangnan area for the royal family, but in fact they are responsible for supervising the ** Jiangnan officials, and they are the emperor's eyeliner in Jiangnan, and the monitoring of the tax areas in the Jiangnan area is very important.
Therefore, even the governor of Liangjiang, the highest military and political governor in the Jiangnan region, needs to pay tribute to them. Although Jiangning Weaving is not a high official rank, it has great power and good treatment, which is a good opportunity to make money.
Therefore, Kangxi asked Cao Xi and his nurse Sun and his wife to serve as Jiangning weaving. Kangxi also deliberately added the title of first-class scholar to Cao Xi, so that he could enjoy the treatment of a first-class official, and gave him a python robe.
In addition, Kangxi also asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to reward Cao Xi with many properties in the Jiangnan region, so that the Cao family immediately became a famous nobleman in the Jiangnan region.
Cao Yin, the word Dongting, because he had a relationship with Kangxi, was selected into the court as a teenager to become Kangxi's personal guard. In the historical drama "Kangxi Dynasty", the prototype of Wei Dongting, who is deeply trusted by Kangxi, is Cao Yin.
Cao Yin was four years younger than Kangxi, Kangxi regarded him as his own brother, and later Cao Xi died, Kangxi asked Cao Yin to replace him as Jiangning Weaving, and let Cao Yin's wife Li's brother Li Xu serve as Suzhou Weaving, since then the three major weaving in the Jiangnan region, the Cao family occupies two of them.
Kangxi has a lot of trust in Cao Yin, and his business proposals almost do not need to be reviewed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kangxi will directly approve them, and no matter what the result is, Cao Yin will not be held responsible.
Although Cao Yin's business ability was average, he was the only imperial merchant in the history of the Qing Dynasty to enjoy such treatment.
Emperor Kangxi's trust in Cao Yin led Cao Yin to take over the Southern Tour, but his financial means were not enough to support such a large expense. In order to maintain the dignity of the family, Cao Yin spent a lot of money and even embezzled **.
This extravagant lifestyle eventually led to the Cao family's debt to the treasury and became one of the main crimes of the Yongzheng Emperor. In his book Dream of Red Mansions, Cao Xueqin borrowed the story of the Jia family to reflect the vanity and corruption of aristocratic life at that time, and also hinted at the tragic fate of the Cao family.
Cao Xueqin's story began with prosperity and ended with despair. Cao Yin's deficit**, most of them know it. In the forty-eighth year of Kangxi, the governor of Liangjiang, Kali, had ** Cao Yin lost more than 3 million taels of silver in the national treasury.
But Kangxi did not pursue Cao Yin, he understood that Cao Yin's deficit was related to himself. So, he told Cao Yin about this in private, and warned him to think about making up for the deficit as soon as possible, and not to leave a handle.
After that, Cao Yin tried his best to make up for the deficit, but due to his limited ability, the deficit of three million was not an easy task. In the fifty-first year of Kangxi, Cao Yin died of malaria, leaving a deficit of nearly two million to be repaid.
According to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, the household department had the right to confiscate his family property to make up for the shortfall, but in order to keep the Cao family's property, Kangxi did not let the household department confiscate, but let Cao Yin's son Cao Yan take over Jiangning Weaving and pay off the debt on behalf of his father.
Cao Yan is talented, both civil and military, and is deeply loved by Kangxi, and is praised as the most talented person among the old ministers. Kangxi believed that with Cao Yan's talent, he could quickly pay off the deficit in the treasury and reuse him at that time.
Cao Yan lived up to Kangxi's expectations, and repaid more than one million taels of silver after only two years as a weaver in Jiangning, but as fate would have it, he died at the age of only 26, and he didn't have time to see his son Cao Xueqin.
Cao Xueqin was born three months after his death, which can be described as a posthumous child. The death of Cao Yin led the Cao family to decline, and Cao Yin was the only son of Cao Yin, and his son Cao Xueqin was still in his mother's womb at the time.
Even if Cao Xueqin was born at that time, it was impossible for Kangxi to let a newborn child succeed Jiangning Weaving. Kangxi realized that he had to find someone who could protect and inherit the Cao family's estate, so he decided to find a successor among Cao Yin's nephews.
Under the recommendation of Li Xu, Cao Yin's younger brother Cao Xuan's fourth son Cao Xuan (its name is actually a trillion page character, its sound and meaning are all through the word "Zhao", because ** can not display this word, so Cao Zhuo replaces) stood out, he was adopted by Cao Yin since he was a child, so he was selected by Kangxi as Cao Yin's heir, succeeded Jiangning Weaving, and he replaced the Cao family to repay the treasury deficit.
However, after Cao Yan's death, the Cao family still had a deficit of more than 800,000 taels that had not been paid off. In order to protect the Cao family, Kangxi asked Li Xu to serve as the salt patrol envoy of the two Huai in the capacity of Suzhou weaving, and acquiesced in his misappropriation of the two Huai salt taxes to fill the gap in the treasury for the Cao family.
With the help of Li Xu, Cao Qian finally completed the deficit of the treasury, but due to his ignorance of the world, Cao Zhuo had a new deficit after that. Although Cao Zhuo is good at reading and has literary talents, he is a nerd and does not know how to do business and be an official, so in order to maintain the life of the Cao family, Cao Zhuo can only embezzle **.
After Cao Zhuo's new deficit was known to Kangxi, although Kangxi was angry, he tolerated Cao Zhuo because of Cao Yin's face, and severely reprimanded him many times. However, because the nurse Sun and Cao Yin have both died, Kangxi's feelings for the Cao family have gradually faded.
In addition, Cao Qian was not able to become a weapon, so Kangxi gradually alienated the Cao family. The glory of the Cao family is inseparable from Kangxi's support, but after losing Kangxi's love, the Cao family is destined to decline.
Although even if Kangxi alienated the Cao family, he would not move the Cao family because of Cao Yin's face, but his successor Yongzheng was not like this. In fact, Yongzheng is ready to clean up the Cao family not only because of the deficit problem, but also because of the Cao family's political standing.
In the nine-son competition that broke out in Kangxi's later years, both the Cao Yin family and the Li Xu family supported Yongzheng's political rival Lao Bayinxi.
Nine sons competed for the throne, Yinyu, Yinyu, Yinyu, Yinyu formed the Eight Masters Party, which was powerful, Cao Yin and Li Xu supported Yinyu, but in the end, Yongzheng ascended the throne, and they stood on the wrong side politically.
After Yongzheng came to power, he first took Li Xu under the knife, and the whole country checked the deficit, and Li Xu's family was assigned to Ningguta. When Li Xu's deficit was checked, it was found that he had embezzled two Huai salt taxes to make up for the Cao family's losses, Yongzheng was furious, and Cao Qian admitted the misappropriation.
The 800,000 taels that Li Xu helped the Cao family repay were recovered, and the Cao family had another 800,000 taels of deficit, plus the previous new deficit, the Cao family owed more than one million to the national treasury. Yongzheng originally wanted to raid the Cao family, but Prince Yi Yinxiang came out as a bodyguard.
During Kangxi's southern tour, Yinxiang and Cao Zhuo got acquainted, and although the age difference was nine years, they appreciated Cao Zhuo's literary brilliance very much. Even after Yinxiang left Jiangning, they still kept writing and became pen pals.
As a supporter of Yongzheng's succession, Yinxiang was loved and trusted by Yongzheng. When Yinxiang asked Yongzheng to give Cao Zhuo a chance, Yongzheng readily agreed, allowing Cao Zhuo to continue to serve as Jiangning Weaver, and asked him to pay off the treasury deficit within three years.
Cao Zhuan's handwriting is beautiful and his writing is brilliant, which even made Yongzheng think that he was a usable talent for a while. However, Cao Zhuo's true face was soon revealed, he could not do business, the business proposals submitted caused losses to the Internal Affairs Office, and he could not be an official and could not fulfill the duties of Jiangning weaving, that is, to monitor and **Jiangnan** for the emperor.
Despite Yongzheng's desire to rectify the rule of officials, Cao Zhuo did not offer any help, and he had almost nothing during his tenure.
Yongzheng's dissatisfaction with Cao Zhuo was that he could not make money for him economically, and he could not rectify the rule of officials for him politically, and after advocating the style of diligence and thrift, Cao Zhuo was still extravagant, which further aggravated Yongzheng's dissatisfaction.
The three-year period that Cao Qian promised to Yongzheng had arrived, but he failed to pay off the deficit in the treasury, but the deficit was even greater, and he even played the method of transferring property, which was recognized by Yongzheng and dismissed from office and put in a flail for a year.
Among the confiscated properties of the Cao family, the number of pawn votes is the largest, which indicates that the Cao family has long been in decline. Although after the Cao family's accident, Yinxiang interceded for Cao Zhu in front of Yongzheng, but Cao Zhuo was still flailed to show the public, and Yongzheng only retained part of the Cao family's real estate and land in Beijing and confiscated its property in Jiangnan.
Cao Zhuo and 13-year-old Cao Xueqin came to the capital accordingly.
Although the Cao family's property in Jiangnan was sold, it still could not fill the deficit in the national treasury. Cao Qian was dismissed from office, lost his economy, and had to rely on drinking to kill time. Cao Xueqin took over the responsibility of repaying the debt, but even if she sold her old mansion and land in the capital, she still couldn't pay off all the deficits.
This led to the sparse smoking of the Cao family, leaving only Cao Xueqin to live a difficult life. After Yongzheng's death, the Cao family still had more than 300 taels of silver left unpaid off, which was a huge amount of money for the Cao family.
However, fortunately, after Qianlong succeeded to the throne, considering that the Cao family could not repay, he ordered the Internal Affairs Office to pay the remaining more than 300 taels of silver to fill the gap in the treasury for the Cao family.
Cao Xueqin was grateful to his cousin Pingjun Wang Fupeng for helping him with his living needs, and portrayed them as the kings of Beijing and Xiping in "Dream of Red Mansions".
Although life was difficult, Cao Xueqin relied on teaching to make ends meet, while also having more time to focus on writing "Dream of Red Mansions". He was born in the glory days of the Cao family, but when he was down, the Cao family also went into decline.
It can be said that Cao Xueqin's life has gone from prosperity to depression.
There are many reasons why Cao Xueqin's family was raided by Yongzheng, first of all, because of the huge expenditure when receiving Kangxi, secondly, because of the wrong political position, and finally because of Cao Zhuan's own mediocre ability, these factors together led to the downfall of the Cao family.