《种芹人曹霑画册》考实

An Evaluation of Album of Paintings by the Celery Grower Cao Zhan

2016年,失踪多时的《种芹人曹霑画册》在贵州省博物馆库房中被重新找回,此文根据笔者实地目验的结果,以及从文献中新发现的一些信息量丰富且环环相扣的证据链,强有力地说明"种芹人曹霑"与《红楼梦》作者曹霑不可能是同名同姓之巧合,且册中所出现曹霑与《红楼梦》两者间的有机连结,更是曹雪芹拥有《红楼梦》著作权的一个新的重要旁证。亦即,《种芹人曹霑画册》很可能是曹雪芹现存唯一诗、书、画、印俱见的真迹。而其上钤盖的字号印"闰周",或可证明雪芹生于康熙五十五年闰三月。

This paper documents the rediscovery of Album of Paintings by the Celery Grower Cao Zhan in the Guizhou Provincial Museum in 2016 and argues that the author of this album and the writer of Dream of the Red Chambers are one and the same. In other words, this is likely the only surviving original manuscript by the famous Cao Xueqin（his first name is Zhan） that preserves his paintings, calligraphy, poetry, and seals. Textual evidence forms a strong chain of evidence that proves this album＇s close association with Cao Xueqin and his masterpiece-the inscriptions present numerous references to the Dream of the Red Chambers and the colophon writers have close social ties to Cao. Furthermore, the author＇s seal ＂run zhou＂ points to the fact that Cao may be born in the third intercalary month of the fifty-fifth year of Kangxi reign（1716）.