Revisionary Textual Criticism of LU Xianluo’s Life and Family History and the Composition Time of Zhuzhi Ci on A Dream of the Red Mansions

LU Xianluo, a literatus from Anhui during the mid-Qing Dynasty, authored Xunlanguan Collection of Poetry and Zhuzhi Ci on A Dream of the Red Mansions (ZCDRM).Further research is needed while existing scholarship has addressed his life and the publication of his works. Understanding the author and his age is essential to reconstructing the creative background of these works. It also illuminates the circulation and reception of A Dream of the Red Mansions during the Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns. With newly discovered archives, private collections, and Imperial Examination Candidate Registers, this study verifies the years of LU’s birth and death, his family background and official career. Furthermore, it definitively establishes the time of composition of ZCDRM.