In this highly praised book, Jonathan D. Spence recounts the story of Ts'ao Yin, hereditary bond-servant to the Manchu emperors. Ts'ao Yin, whose great-grandfather was captured and enslaved by the Manchus and whose descendant wrote Dream of the Red Chamber, China's most famous novel, becomes the focal point of a fascinating study that shed important light on the social and political life of the early Manchu period.