Cao Xueqin's grandfather had been the Jiangning Weaving Office superintendent. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Jiangning had been called Nanjing; during the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had renamed it Yingtian Prefecture. After Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing following the Jingnan Campaign, Yingtian's status as the capital became Nanjing.
By the Qing dynasty, Nanjing had become Jiangning, the seat of the Viceroy of Liangjiang.
The outfit Miss Raucourt wore had come from the Suzhou Weaving Office. It had originally been intended for a certain princess, but after that princess died, the clothes made for her remained in storage. Later, Mr. China Expert bought them and gave them to Miss Raucourt.
Jiangnan not only supplied the emperor with silk and other luxuries; it was also an important source of tax revenue. The post of Suzhou Weaving Bureau superintendent had always been filled by officials trusted by the Imperial Household Department. At the time, the Suzhou Weaving Bureau superintendent was the Manchu Sa Zai, a distant branch of the imperial clan. He had become a provincial graduate through a Manchu-language examination. Whenever Kangxi and Qianlong made southern tours, they stayed at the Weaving Office residence in Suzhou.
There was an idiom, "wearing bright clothes to entertain one's parents." According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn period there was an elderly son who was exceptionally filial. Even at seventy, he dressed in colorful clothes and pretended to be a child, making his hundred-year-old parents laugh as though he were playing like a fledgling beside them.
Filial piety depended on the person. Originally, the search for sorcerers had nothing to do with stonemasons, but there was a farmer in Deqing County named Shen Shiliang who sought help from a stonemason surnamed Wu who repaired bridges. Shen Shiliang could no longer