or Ts'ao Chan
born 1715?, Jiangning, Jiangsu province, China
died Feb. 12, 1763, Beijing
Chinese novelist.
He is the author of Dream of the Red Chamber (1791), generally considered China's greatest novel. A partly autobiographical work written in the vernacular, it describes in lingering detail the decline of a powerful family and an ill-fated love between cousins. Cao finished at least 80 of its 120 chapters; it was completed after his death, probably by Gao E, about whom little is known.