In the book "Dream of Red Mansions", the author Cao Xueqin described that the Jiafu was once very noble, but in the end it was still hula like a mansion. Speaking of which, this "seeing him feasting guests, seeing his building collapse" is actually a true portrayal of the rise and fall of Cao Xueqin's family.
Stills from the TV series "Dream of Red Mansions".
Stills from the TV series "Dream of Red Mansions" Jia Baoyu
When the Cao family used to gain power, the position was "Jiangning Weaving", during the Kangxi Dynasty, Jiangning Weaving was powerful, and the wind and rain were to be rainy, and later the Cao family declined, the direct reason was also to lose the official position of Jiangning Weaving, look at the literal meaning, Jiangning Weaving is not weaving, why can there be so much power? Why is it so trusted by the emperor? Today, let's talk about the story of Jiangning weaving.
In ancient China, silk brocade was not only a raw material for precious clothes and textiles, but also a kind of physical currency, so all dynasties treated it as a national strategic material. According to historical records, the brocade of Shu is famous all over the world, and the imperial court set up bureaucrats in Chengdu to supervise the production of Shu brocade in the Western Han Dynasty, and Chengdu is also known as "Jinguan City".
Shen Yishi, a silk merchant in the TV series "Daming 1566".
Subsequently, China's economic center slowly moved to Jiangnan, and the silk brocade in Jiangnan gradually developed, becoming the most developed region in the country. By the Ming Dynasty, the weaving industry in Jiangnan centered on Nanjing had become the pillar of national taxation, and the imperial court often sent cronies and eunuchs to Jiangnan to supervise this matter.
After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, in the second year of Shunzhi, there was still a large area of Nanming forces in Jiangnan, but the court that was short of money was impatient, and set up the Jiangning Weaving Department in Nanjing, which was renamed Jiangning, and the Suzhou Weaving Department and the Hangzhou Weaving Department were set up together, collectively referred to as the Jiangnan Three Weaving Bureau, the three weaving departments were directly responsible for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the stewardship was the five products, and each weaving department also had its own weaving factory, called the Weaving Bureau.
Qing Xu Yang, "Prosperous Picture of Gusu" (detail).
According to the records of the Great Qing Huidian, there is a clear division of labor in the three weavings in the south of the Yangtze River, and the big red python satin used in the royal ceremony is undertaken by Jiangning Weaving. The general silk and other items were undertaken by Hangzhou Weaving and Suzhou Weaving, and all expenses were provided by the imperial court. Because the items in charge of Jiangning Weaving are directly linked to the face of the imperial court, Jiangning Weaving is the most valued by the imperial court, and the people who can be in this position are all candidates who are very trusted by the emperor.
In the early years of Kangxi, the person who served as Jiangning Weaver was named Cao Xi, and his wife Sun was a nurse for Emperor Kangxi, and his son Cao Yin was Emperor Kangxi's playmate, so it can be said that he was close to the emperor, so from the second year of Kangxi, Cao Xi served as Jiangning Weaving, and he did it for 22 years, until Kangxi died of illness in 23 years.
However, Cao Xi's work in Jiangning weaving was not only to provide various brocades and silks to the imperial court, but also to rely on his relationship with the emperor to provide the emperor with various intelligence information.
Cao Xi (about 1619-1684), the word Wanbi (take the canon of "Wanbi to Zhao"), formerly known as Cao Eryu, later because Kangxi wrote Eryu Lian as a seal, changed his name to Xi, a native of Shenyang.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth years of Kangxi, Cao Xi went to Beijing twice to face the saint, and the history contains "Chen Jiangnan officials, prepared in great detail", a pipe weaving **, can tell the emperor about the officialdom of Jiangnan, on the one hand, it reflects the trust of Emperor Kangxi to Cao Xi, on the other hand, it also reflects the power of the Manchu Emperor to rule Jiangnan, that is, to use his most trusted Han people to spy on the spy.
Jiangnan is a heavy place for taxation, and the local ** and people's sentiments are directly related to the economic lifeline of the Qing Dynasty, and the emperor is very distrustful of the ** who came out of the imperial examination, and feels that they may be colluded to deceive the upper and lower levels, thinking about it, or only Jiangning, who is his confidant, is the most powerful weaver Cao Xi. And Cao Xi reported to Emperor Kangxi twice, and the emperor was also very satisfied, giving python clothes, adding a product of Sikong, the Ministry of Works, and the imperial book 'Jing Shen' plaque.
Cao Yin (1658-1712), the word Ziqing, the name Lixuan, also known as the Neem Pavilion, Manchuria is the white flag coating. Opera writer, writer, imperial businessman. used to be Xuan Ye's companion, and later served as a guard.
After Cao Xi's death, his son Cao Yin inherited the position of Jiangning weaving, and Emperor Kangxi's trust in the Cao family was greater than that of Cao Xi's time. Kangxi went to Jiangnan six times in his life, five times lived in the Cao family, and Cao Yin received four times, when Cao Xi's wife Sun was still alive, Emperor Kangxi saw Sun, held her hand and said, "This old man of my family is also", as if he did not treat the Cao family as an outsider.
Cao Yin later contracted malaria, and Emperor Kangxi also specially ordered the foreign medicine in the palace to be sent to Jiangning for treatment, which shows the status of the Cao family in the emperor's mind. Of course, these few times in the south of the Yangtze River, Emperor Kangxi ate the Cao family's Cao family, and the Cao family relied on the emperor's trust to eat a deficit of three million.
Emperor Kangxi trusted and connived at the Cao family so much, and the Cao family must also be full of brains, do their best to serve Kangxi as the eyes and ears of Jiangnan, and even assisted the imperial court in cracking several major cases involving the enemy.
Portrait of Emperor Kangxi.
For example, Kangxi's 50-year Xinmao Kechang case, Suzhou local township test admitted thirteen people, five people spent money to open up the joints, on the day of the list, the candidates were angry and carried the statue of the God of Wealth to the house**, the causes and consequences of this matter, including who spent the money, which person in charge of **, which feudal officials knew but did not report, or neglected, were all understood by Cao Yin through various means, and reported in detail, Kangxi got the report and arrested them one by one according to what Cao Yin said, and after the interrogation, it was found that what Cao Yin said was not bad at all, Jiangning Weaving's grasp of local information in the south of the Yangtze River can be seen from this.
After Cao Yin's death, his son Cao Hao and adopted son Cao Fu succeeded Jiangning Weaving, and at this time, Long Live Ye was also changed from Kangxi to Yongzheng. In addition to providing various silk brocade clothes to the palace, the Cao family still continued to play the role of the emperor's imperial agents, such as the price of rice on the market and the information of locust plagues, all of which were played by the Cao family.
Portrait of Cao Hao. Of course, for the Cao family at this time, the most important task is to find a way to make up for the deficit left by Kangxi in the south of the Yangtze River when Cao Yin, as a result, the quality of the weaving has declined, and Emperor Yongzheng has long seen that the Cao family is not pleasing to the eye, he wants to control everything, this Cao family is the coat slave left by the first emperor, before the Cao family also gave the eighth master they have offered maids, in his opinion, this is the remnants of the eight master party, with no worries, must be replaced.
So, after Yongzheng perfected the secret folding system, he found an excuse, saying that the brocade that the Cao family offered to the palace was not good, and it could not be delivered on time, so he ordered to go to the Cao family's Jiangning weaving post and copied their house.
Historical records record that after the seizure of the house, the Cao family because of these years to fill the deficit, there is no property, only a few taels of silver, thousands of money, and pawnshop bills, Emperor Yongzheng knew that the Cao family, which was rich in the past, fell to this, and he was moved by compassion, just put Cao Fu in prison, and did not kill him, and waited until Emperor Qianlong ascended the throne, Cao Fu was released from prison, at this time the Cao family had no power and powerless, and tasted the bitterness of the world, and one of Cao Fu's nephews saw the Cao family's prosperity like rain and wind, and wrote these into ** in his later years, This is what everyone knows as "Dream of Red Mansions".
The Cao family fell, but the position of Jiangning weaving was still there, and starting from Emperor Yongzheng, the emperor had more ways to secretly understand the best everywhere, and Jiangning weaving's function as a spy slowly disappeared, and he returned to the old profession of supervising weaving, and all the grace of the former royal family no longer existed. In the Xianfeng period, the Taiping army entered Nanjing, burned down a large number of buildings, and all kinds of mansions and loom factories in Jiangning were also reduced to ashes.
A model of the Jiangning Weaving House in the Jiangning Weaving Museum.
Even so, Jiangning weaving is still tenaciously surviving, because the face of the Qing Dynasty royal family is still there, at the time of the wedding of the Tongzhi Emperor, Jiangning weaving was ordered to pay tribute to 80,000 horses of cloud brocade satin, at this time the weaving bureau has no loom in a short time to produce so many finished products, can only coordinate the scheduling, let the looms in Suzhou, Anhui Province work together, in order to hand over before the wedding date, and this is the last glory of Jiangning weaving.
In the days to come, the Qing Dynasty court is not as good as a day, no longer need to use silk satin to show their wealth and majesty, at the same time, a large number of overseas silk cloth into China, the quality is far better than the official made, ** is also very low, in this way, it is no longer meaningful to continue to maintain Jiangning weaving, so in the thirtieth year of Guangxu, that is, in 1904, Jiangning weaving was revoked and entered history.
A few years ago, Nanjing built a museum on the original site of the Weaving House, from which you can get a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg of the grand occasion of the Weaving House, and more details of the Weaving House can only be glimpsed from the "Dream of Red Mansions".