This poem was composed by Cao Cao in the twelfth year of Jian'an (207) after he led his army to conquer Wuhuan in the north and passed by Jieshi Mountain in today's Changli County, Hebei Province to climb the Jieshi Mountain and watch the sea. There is a description of this expedition in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms": Guo Jia persuaded Cao Cao to spare no effort in the expedition to Wuhuan to eliminate the remaining forces of Yuan Shao's two sons and stabilize the north. However, in the end Guo Jia himself died of illness on the way to Cao Cao's northern expedition. On the way.
This description in the novel is generally not very different from the historical facts. This battle can be regarded as the end of the Battle of Guandu in 200. After seven years of battle, Cao Cao completely pacified the land of Yan and Zhao in Hebei. Unify northern China except northwest and Hanzhong. After pacifying Hebei, Cao Cao used Yecheng as his seat of government for a long time. Yexia was also the most important literary and artistic activity center in China for a long time. Here we need to do some historical vindication for the two previous rulers of Hebei, Han Fu and Yuan Shao. They may not be good at strategic battles, but their results in developing and governing Hebei are outstanding.
The 52-year-old Cao Cao's military career reached its peak at this time. Subsequently, whether it was the Battle of Chibi after conquering Jingzhou or the Battle of Hanzhong after pacifying Liangzhou, Cao Cao made major strategic and tactical moves. This mistake resulted in the loss of the opportunity to unify the country, resulting in a situation of three kingdoms that existed for nearly a hundred years.
But at least at this moment, Cao Cao must have seen the hope of reunifying the world with great ambition. At this point in the campaign, Cao Cao must have begun to think about the direction and way out of this country. The chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty was closely related to the rigidification and collapse of the Confucian classics ideological system of the Han Dynasty, with national ideology as the main body. Starting from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, China's economy, society, politics, culture and other aspects began a process of reconstruction and continuous change and evolution that took hundreds of years. Cao Cao and the Cao Wei Group led by him are undoubtedly very important initiators and participants in this process.
By the way, the subsequent suspicion of Xun Yu's death was actually rooted in the differences between Cao Cao and Xun Yu on the national line, not just about loyalty to the Han Dynasty.
Cao Cao lived in an era when the Confucian classics of the Han Dynasty collapsed and at the same time the gentry and wealthy families rose. The culture of scholar-bureaucrats developed a style that pursued elegance and individuality, which was later called the "Wei and Jin Dynasties". From a literary perspective, this style can be said to have originated from the Jian'an literature led by Cao Cao and his son, and this poem can also be said to be a reflection.
This poem is originally the first chapter of Cao Cao's Yuefu poem "Stepping out of Xiamen". This group of poems praises the scenery and people of Hebei and Cao Cao's ambitions. The name of "Guan Cang Hai" comes from later generations After editing and adding, another famous piece "Gui Sui Shou" is the fourth chapter of this group of poems. (The complete poem can be found on Baidu)
The Han Yuefu was originally an institution used by the palace and the government to collect folk and literati poems and make them into music. After a large number of collections and sorting, the Yuefu poems were elaborately compiled. Divided into categories, "Yuefu Poetry" developed into a regulated and large-scale poetry style.
Cao Cao himself should have had the experience of being nurtured in the palace. His father, Cao Song, was adopted as the adopted son of Cao Teng, the eunuch’s constant servant. Cao Song later bought an official position and became a senior official. Taidang Wei, one of the three princes. Cao Cao first entered officialdom at the age of nineteen when he served as the Northern Wei of Luoyang and had many contacts with the princes and nobles of the capital.
Cao Cao created Yuefu poetry many times in his life and made corresponding changes. This also led Yuefu poetry to literati creation from official literature to a certain extent.
The 52-year-old Cao Cao is at his peak. At this point, his practice of his own route has reached the pinnacle of his achievements. This route is that after the collapse of the Confucian classics ideological system of the Han Dynasty that we mentioned earlier, Cao Cao abandoned the traditional Confucian route and adopted Legalist thought as its basis. He is now almost invincible and invincible.
But that was all. His Legalist line and political tactics encountered certain setbacks again and again in the process of fighting and rebuilding the country. So after that, he no longer had the ambition and spirit to write such poems as "The journey of the sun and the moon is as if it were within it. The stars are as brilliant as if it were outside of it" and "The old man is in trouble, and his ambition is thousands of miles".
In particular, the Yuefu Poetry Book contains music, and chimes were often used at that time. The sound is loud, distant, and majestic. When paired with such verses, it will definitely stir people's hearts. CCTV's old version of Three Kingdoms once arranged music for another Yuefu poem "Dan Ge Xing" by Cao Cao, which was sung by Yang Hongji. I have always loved listening to it.