Qing novelist who wrote 红楼梦 (Dream of the Red Chamber), the story of a great family's decline, after his own family lost its fortune. Its study, 红学, is a field of its own.
Cao Xueqin did not live to see the novel published.
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He wrote in poverty west of Beijing; a friend's poem shows his household with 举家食粥酒常赊, 'the whole family eats porridge, the wine bought on credit'. Only about 80 chapters are his; who wrote the last 40 is still debated.
