From a political point of view, Cao Cao's reputation among the people is not particularly good, because of the famous Romance of the Three Kingdoms. That's Cao Cao in the romance, not Cao Cao in history. Cao Cao in history was born at that time, which is not very good for Yuan Shao and Liu Biao who have their own auras. He unified the north in the era of war and heroes. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, he took the advice of his counselor and held the emperor hostage so that he wouldn't be a minister (not the kind we often hear) and crusaded against the West. He has a good soldier like a cloud, and we know five good soldiers. Counselors were even the smartest people in the world at that time (such as Yu Xun, Xun You, Guo Jia, Jia Xu, etc. As we know).
In the magnificent history of the Three Kingdoms, we left the battle of Guandu with fewer victories, and marched to the Yellow Scarf, Dong Zhuo, Liaodong and Xuzhou, and there were also defeated battles, such as Battle of Red Cliffs. In that era of important birth, he was thirsty for talents, which not only won talents from rich families, but also provided opportunities for many poor people to display their talents. Of course, some of his actions to the Han emperor, such as abolishing the queen and killing Dong Cheng, are also his black spots. On the whole, he was an outstanding politician at that time.
From a literary point of view, he is also a great poet. His short songs are the most famous in the previous textbooks, and of course there are such masterpieces as Good Li Xing and Walking Out of Xiamen. Before reading, he said
The mountain is never too high, and the sea is never too deep. The duke of Zhou vomited, and the world returned to the heart.
It is often a fill-in-the-blank question in high school exams.
As a personal life, there are writers Cao Zhi, politicians Cao Pi, talented boy Cao Chong (who died young), and Cao Zhang, the son of a military commander. He is a very awesome father, and his genes are really strong enough. Compared with Liu Bei, Sun Quan, Liu Biao and Yuan Shao, who were famous governors at that time, they were very powerful.
Of course, this is also an important reason why many history lovers have different opinions on him, from killing dragons in Dahan Dynasty to becoming a dragon during his pioneering period.