Hung Lou Meng, or Dream of the Red Chamber , composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Chinese literature and is generally acknowledged to be the pinnacle of Chinese fiction. Red Chamber is believed to be semi-autobiographical, mirroring the rise and decay of author Cao Xueqin's own family and, by extension, of the Qing Dynasty.