Cao Xueqin
"Dream of the Red Chamber"s textual history is involved and complex, and has long been the subject of debate and conjecture. It is known that Cao Xueqin, a member of an eminent family that had served the Qing dynasty emperors but whose fortunes had begun to decline, began writing "Dream of the Red Chamber" during the 1740s. Cao had completed the first 80 chapters by the time of his death in 1763 or 1764, and he may have made early drafts of the remaining chapters.