Cao Xueqin

Cao Xueqin ( Chinese 曹雪芹 , Pinyin Cáo Xuěqín , W.-G. Ts'ao Hsueh-ch'in , * between 1715 and 1724 ; † 1763 (?)) Was a Chinese writer and author of the Chinese novel The Dream of the Red Chamber .

Life

Cao came from a Han Chinese family that had been integrated into the Manchurian banner system. Cao Xueqin's grandfather Cao Yin was considered a companion and confidante of the Qing Emperor Kangxi , which brought the family to great prosperity. The luck of the Caos only turned when Kangxi's successor, Yongzheng , took office . Xueqin was only nine years old at the time.

Comparatively little is known about Cao Xueqin's own life. He spent most of it in great poverty in the west of Beijing, where he kept himself afloat by selling his own paintings. In addition, he worked temporarily as a teacher at an imperial school for the children of Manchurian nobles and banner people.

plant

Cao is known for one single work, which has, however, found its way into world literature: the novel The Dream of the Red Chamber . According to friends, he wrote it for over ten years, probably just before the middle of the century. When Cao's death in 1763, only 80 of the planned 100 chapters had been written. The manuscript was supplemented by Gao E and published in 1791 in a 120-chapter version.

Unabridged editions

Cao, Xueqin / Gao, E (Tsau, Hsüä-Tjin / Gau, Ë): The Dream of the Red Chamber or The Story of the Stone , transl. Rainer Schwarz / Martin Woesler, European University Press, ISBN 978-3-86515-010- 3 , 3 volumes, hardcover bound, LXXXVII, 2188 S., 2007–2009
Cao, Xueqin / Gao, E (Tsau, Hsüä-Tjin / Gau, Ë): The Dream of the Red Chamber or The Story of the Stone , transl. Rainer Schwarz / Martin Woesler, European University Press, ISBN 978-3-89966-500- 0 , Paperback, XXVI, 2195 S., xxi, 2009

Abridged edition; Extracts

The dream of the red chamber. Translated by Franz Kuhn . Insel, Frankfurt 1932 a. ö. ISBN 978-3-458-33472-9 (heavily abbreviated, by approx. two thirds)
Two excerpts: Pao Yü's Dream & The Wind-and-Moon-Mirror, in P'u Sung Ling : Guest Tiger. The library of Babel , 21st Gutenberg Book Guild , Frankfurt 2007 ISBN 9783763258215 (also as TB in several other publishers) p. 97ff. & 101f.

Web links

Literature by and about Cao Xueqin in the catalog of the German National Library
http://www.seraphim.my/ch/c-index%20redchamber.html (engl.)
http://www3.sympatico.ca/ccsr/truelove.html (engl.)

Individual evidence

↑ The year of birth differs in the literature: 1715 is e.g. B. in Zhang Yiquan: Hong Lou Meng , Volume 1, Page 2; 1716/18 Wolfgang Kubin: Introduction , in: ders. (Ed.), Hongloumeng. Studies on the “Dream of the Red Chamber”, (= Swiss Asian Studies; Volume 34), Bern, Berlin, etc. 1999, page 8; In the same volume, Marián Gálik ( Melancholy and Mechlancholics ) gives the year 1715 on page 193, the index of the volume, however, has “approx. 1716 ". With reference to Yu Pingbo ( Yu Pingbo Lun "Hongloumeng" [Yu Pingbo on "Hongloumeng"], Shanghai 1988, page 611), Tong Yao The Diversity of Literature , Berlin 2006 offers the year 1723 in the introduction. 1724 according to Zhou Ruchang: Cao Xueqin , pp. 230-233

personal data
SURNAME	Cao, Xueqin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Cáo, Xuěqín; 曹雪芹 (Chinese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Chinese author
DATE OF BIRTH	between 1715 and 1724
DATE OF DEATH	1763

[1] The year of birth differs in the literature: 1715 is e.g. B. in Zhang Yiquan: Hong Lou Meng , Volume 1, Page 2; 1716/18 Wolfgang Kubin: Introduction , in: ders. (Ed.), Hongloumeng. Studies on the “Dream of the Red Chamber”, (= Swiss Asian Studies; Volume 34), Bern, Berlin, etc. 1999, page 8; In the same volume, Marián Gálik ( Melancholy and Mechlancholics ) gives the year 1715 on page 193, the index of the volume, however, has “approx. 1716 ". With reference to Yu Pingbo ( Yu Pingbo Lun "Hongloumeng" [Yu Pingbo on "Hongloumeng"], Shanghai 1988, page 611), Tong Yao The Diversity of Literature , Berlin 2006 offers the year 1723 in the introduction. 1724 according to Zhou Ruchang: Cao Xueqin , pp. 230-233