Cáo Xuěqín 曹雪芹 (legal name Cáo Zhān 曹沾; courtesy name Mèngruǎn 夢阮; biéhào Qínpǔ 芹圃, Qínxī 芹溪; c. 1715/1724–1763/1764) was a Qīng-dynasty novelist of Manchurian-Han bannerman background, author of the first 80 chapters of Hónglóu Mèng 紅樓夢 (Dream of the Red Chamber). His birth and death dates remain debated in Hóngxué 紅學 scholarship: birth is placed variously in Kāngxī 54 (1715) or Yōngzhèng 2 (1724), and death in Qiánlóng 28 (1763) or 29 (1764).
He was the great-grandson of Cáo Xǐ 曹璽 and grandson of Cáo Yǐn 曹寅 (1658–1712), the imperial bondservant (bāoyī 包衣) superintendent of the Jiāngníng 江寧 and Sūzhōu weaving bureaux and a trusted companion of the Kāngxī emperor. The Cáo family enjoyed high favor under Kāngxī but suffered the confiscation of their estates under Yōngzhèng in 1728, when Cáo Xuěqín was a child. He spent his later years in poverty in the western hills outside Běijīng, where he composed Hónglóu Mèng in the studio he called Dàohóng Xuān 悼紅軒. He died before completing the novel, leaving only 80 chapters (the exact circumstances of the last portion he may have drafted remain uncertain).
No confident CBDB entry under the biéhào 曹雪芹 has been located; the legal name 曹沾 also does not return a clear match in the local CBDB database.
Kanripo works: KR4k0131 Hónglóu Mèng 紅樓夢.