Xueqin Cao

Although little is known of his personal life, Cao Xueqin (or Ts'ao Hsueh-ch'in) is considered to be China's greatest novelist, and Hong Lou Meng ("A Dream of Red Mansions" sometimes "The Story of the Stone") is regarded as the greatest novel in the Chinese language. As with the family portrayed in the novel, Cao's own family fell from eminence and wealth, and was forced to flee from south to north China, to live out its days in poverty. While making a living selling his paintings, Cao spent about ten years writing his novel at his modest home in a village near what is now Beijing. The novel was not published until 1791, nearly three decades after his death, and some scholars believe the last 40 of its 120 chapters were completed by someone else, although this is in dispute. What is not questioned however, is the book's status as a masterpiece.