Cao Xueqin

Cao Xueqin
Cao Xueqin
	Statue of Cao Xueqin in Beijing
Born	4 April 1710; Nanjing, China
Died	10 June 1765 (aged 55); Beijing
Occupation	Novelist, poet, painter, philosopher
Chinese name
Chinese	曹雪芹
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Cáo Xuěqín
Wade–Giles	Ts'ao2 Hsüeh3-ch'in2
IPA	[tsʰǎʊ ɕɥètɕʰǐn]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	Chòuh Syut-kàhn
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ	Chô Soat-khîn
Tâi-lô	Tsô Suat-khîn
Courtesy name
Traditional Chinese	夢阮
Simplified Chinese	梦阮
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Mèngruǎn

Cao Xueqin ([tsʰǎʊ ɕɥètɕʰǐn] tsow sh'weh-chin; Chinese: 曹雪芹; Pinyin: Cáoxuěqín); (4 April 1710 — 10 June 1765)^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] was a Chinese novelist and poet during the Qing dynasty. He is best known as the author of Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. His given name was Cáo Zhān (曹霑) and his courtesy name was Mengruan (simplified Chinese: 梦阮; traditional Chinese: 夢阮).

^ The precise dating of Cao Xueqin's birth and death is a matter of heated debate amongst Chinese Redologists. It would be fair however to confine Cao's birth date to between 1715 and 1724, as attested by the elegiac poems by his friends – Duncheng (敦誠) and Zhang Yiquan (張宜泉) – which stated Cao was forty and nearly fifty respectively when he died. A much fuller discussion can be found under the relevant sections in Chen Weizhao's Hongxue Tongshi ("A History of Redology"), Shanghai People's Publishing Press, 2005, pp. 194–197; 348–349; 657–662.
^ Briggs, Asa (ed.) (1989) The Longman Encyclopedia, Longman, ISBN 0-582-91620-8
^ Zhou, Ruchang. Cao Xueqin. pp. 230–233.
^ Zhang Yiquan: Hong lou meng volume 1. p.2 cited in the introduction to The Dream of the Red Chamber. by Li-Tche Houa and Jacqueline Alézaïs.La Pléiade 1979