學界對曹雪芹祖籍的爭論一直不曾平息，雖然許多人接受南宋末年知江西隆興府(今南昌市)的曹孝慶為其先祖，但對孝慶的籍貫及其世系也仍眾說紛紜。有譜牒以孝慶是宋靈壽曹彬玄孫曹實之子，也有指其是唐豫章曹端禮第十三世後裔應龍之姪孫，而此兩支曹氏似無直接血緣關係。由於曹彬、曹實、曹應龍與曹孝慶均為史書中可考之人物，筆者遂透過新出的幾個大型數位資料庫，從多達四十幾億字的文史典籍中，嘗試去梳理相關人物的生平事跡，並以之做為甄別各曹譜記述正確與否的參校點。發現孝慶絕不可能是曹實之子，亦不可能是應龍控孫。亦即，先前以孝慶為曹彬或曹端禮後裔的說法，均有嚴重缺陷。倒是，筆者在乾隆＜湖口縣志＞中新發現孝慶乃列在該縣的進士名錄，並進而考出其家族唐宋時期的移居路徑應是從安徽南陵→江西彭澤→都昌→湖口，入赣後大致不出鄱陽湖周遭地區，而武陽和進賢等江西曹譜或是因名人效應而攀附孝慶為其先祖。

The ancestry of the novelist Cao Xueqin 曹雪芹 has been in constant debate. Although some scholars accept Cao Xiaoqing 曹孝慶 of the late Southern Song as Cao Xueqin's ancestor, there has yet to be an agreement on Xiaoqing's regional origin and his ancestral lineage. Some genealogy records show Xiaoqing as the son of Cao Shi 曹實, a fifth-generation descendant of Cao Bin 曹彬 from Lingshou in the Song Dynasty. Other records point to Xiaoqing as a grandnephew of Cao Yinglong 曹應龍, the thirteenth-generation descendant of Cao Duanli 曹端禮 from Yuzhang in the Tang Dynasty. However, after checking many available historical records on Cao Bin, Cao Shi, Cao Yinglong and Cao Xiaoqing, we have found that these three Cao families seem to have no direct blood relation. This study makes use of several new digital databases to search over 4 billion words of ancient Chinese textual material in an attempt to clarify the identities of these personages in order to elucidate key points in the Cao family genealogy. I have also found from the gazetteer of Hukou in Jiangxi that Xiaoqing was among the jinshi 進士 degree holders from that county, allowing us to trace that family's migration from Nanling, Anhui to Pengze, Jiangxi; then to Duchang, Jiangxi; and finally to Hukou, Jiangxi, where they remained in the area around Boyang Lake. In fact, the previous confusion was caused because other Cao families of Wuyang and Jinxian claimed to be descendants of Xiaoqing in order to connect themselves to a more eminent lineage.