Cao Cao is one of the few great military strategists in history. Cao Cao’s military strategy is comparable to that of Han Xin and Bai Qi. Therefore, there is a saying that "no one can talk about military affairs better than Sun Wu, and no one can use military force better than Han Xin and Cao Gong." , and created his own art of war, wrote the "New Book of Meng De" and annotated "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. It can be said that he was both civil and military, integrating theory with practice.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang said, "Cao Cao's wisdom and planning are second to none, and his use of troops is just like that of Sun and Wu." are connected", "majestic, generous and tragic, a real man, generous"...
In addition, Cao Cao was a politician, strategist, and writer, one of the "Three Cao and Seven Sons" of Jian'an First of all, his all-powerful military ability and calmness in the face of danger, his majestic political ambitions, his direct expression of feelings and majestic poetry and prose, etc., throughout the ages, few have matched him except *** .
The more familiar evaluation is:
"A capable minister in times of trouble is a traitor in times of trouble."
The so-called "treacherous hero" means "one who is traitorous and yet masculine".
Like Yan Song and Qin Hui, those who are sneaky, sneaky, treacherous but not treacherous can only be called "traitors"; like Dong Zhuo, who are domineering, unreasonable, treacherous but not treacherous, can only be called "traitors". It's called "Hong Kong".
The word "hero" also has many interpretations.
The original meaning of Xiao is an owl, which is extended to mean a leader, a leader, and a powerful person, such as a salt owl and a drug lord; it is also extended to mean a brave, heroic, and rebellious person, such as an owl rider and an owl general.
Therefore, the "Modern Chinese Dictionary" explanation of "hero" is "a strong and ambitious person; a person with outstanding wisdom and courage; a leader".
Lu Su said that "Liu Bei is a powerful hero in the world" ("Three Kingdoms? Biography of Lu Su"), and Huang Quan said "Liu Bei is a powerful hero in the world" ("Book of the Later Han Dynasty? Biography of Liu Yan"), both of them can see Liu Bei. He is a "person of outstanding wisdom and courage" who is brave, heroic and unruly; and when we regard Dong Zhuo as a hero, we refer to him as "tyrannical and ambitious".
The hero is "tyrannical and ambitious", the traitor is "treacherous and ambitious", and the traitor is "treacherous and ambitious".
A traitor is both cunning and heroic.
So, is Cao Cao such a character?
Yes.
Cao Cao has been cunning since he was a child.
He had a bad background, a bad upbringing, and his performance as a child was not good.
In fact, Cao Cao was born and raised in a eunuch family.
His father, Cao Song, was the adopted son of Cao Teng, and Cao Teng was a well-known eunuch at that time. He was granted the title of Marquis Feiting and served as a long-term emperor.
Dachangqiu was a high-ranking official among the eunuchs, with a rank of two thousand stones. In today's terms, he was "provincial and ministerial level".
Cao Teng's conduct was quite good among eunuchs, and his relationship with scholars was also relatively good.
He has done some disgraceful things, as well as many good and important things, so there is a biography in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty".
But no matter what, Cao Cao is the son of the eunuch's adopted son.
At that time, it was considered a bad background.
But the family background should be good, at least there is no shortage of money to spend.
Cao Cao’s father, Cao Song, later became a Taiwei (nominally the highest military officer in the country), and he paid 100 million to buy it.
Since the Cao family is so rich, it is entirely possible that Cao Cao lived the life of a playboy when he was a child.
Cao Cao’s family education may not have been very good either.
Cao Song probably had little involvement in his son's education.
Cao Cao's own poem said: "There are no three migrations, and there is no court talk." The so-called "three migrations" means that Mencius' mother wanted to ensure that her son had a good environment and was not exposed to bad things. influence.
Moved three times.
The so-called "passing the court" means that Confucius' son walked through the courtyard twice, and Confucius stopped him to educate him. Once he asked him to learn poetry, and once he asked him to learn etiquette.
Such a thing has never happened in Cao Cao’s family.
It seems that when Cao Cao was a child, his father and mother did not discipline him very much.
Cao Cao became a "problem boy" because his parents were undisciplined and his family was well off.
Pei Songzhi's annotation in "Three Kingdoms" quoted "The Biography of Cao Man" as saying that when Cao Cao was young, he "liked flying eagles and lackeys, wandering around without restraint."
His uncle couldn't stand it anymore and often reminded Cao Song that he should discipline his son.
Cao Cao found out and came up with a clever idea to deal with his nosy uncle.
One day, Cao Cao saw his uncle coming from a distance, and immediately made a crooked mouth.
When my uncle asked him why, he replied that he had a sudden stroke.
The uncle immediately went to report to Cao Cao.
When Cao Song called Cao Cao over to take a look, nothing happened.
Cao Cao took the opportunity to say, how could I have a stroke? Just because my uncle doesn't like me, he talks bad things about me.
There is such a "Wolf Crying" story at the bottom. Naturally, Cao Song will not believe anything his uncle says about Cao Cao in the future, and Cao Cao will act even more mischievously.
Cao Cao’s buddies Yuan Shao, Zhang Miao and others are probably the same type of characters.
They often get together to fool around and do very outrageous things.
"Shi Shuo Xin Yu" written by Liu Yiqing, King of Linchuan in the Southern Song Dynasty, said that once, a family was getting married. Cao Cao and Yuan Shao went to watch the fun and actually wanted to steal the bride.
The two of them first hid in someone else's garden. When it got dark, they suddenly shouted: There is a thief! The people attending the wedding ran out of the house one after another, and Cao Cao took advantage of the chaos and got into the bridal chamber and snatched away the bride.
In a hurry, Yuan Shao failed to walk properly and fell into a thorny bush, unable to move.
Cao Cao was quick to think and shouted again: The thief is here! Yuan Shao was so anxious that he jumped out.
Obviously, Cao Cao in his youth was a typical young man who was idle, not doing his job properly, and had endless tricks and bad ideas.
What does this mean? It shows that Cao Cao is a naughty and unruly person, but also a cunning and scheming person.
Therefore, "Three Kingdoms" said that he was "little alert and powerful, but allowed the knights to be debauched and did not rule the industry." Therefore, many people did not take him seriously (which is surprising to the world), and even despised him. (Think of him as a human being).
For example, Zong Shilin, a famous scholar in Nanyang, claimed to have "the ambition of pines and cypresses" and refused to associate with him (see "Shishuo Xinyu? Fangzheng").
However, there was one person who was very optimistic about Cao Cao. He was the then Taiwei Qiao Xuan.
Qiao Xuan believed that Cao Cao was a rare talent, and in the future he would be the one to bring peace to the world, so he entrusted him with his wife and children.
Qiao Xuan said: "The world is about to be in chaos, and we cannot save it without the resources that were destined to save the world.
Who can bring peace to the world? Does it belong to you?" This is recorded in the main text of "Three Kingdoms" It should be reliable and reasonable, because Cao Cao is not an ordinary gangster or a dandy.
Sun Sheng's "Miscellaneous Words of Similarities and Differences" said that he was "extremely talented and capable of inflicting harm, well-read, and very good at war." When he was assassinating the eunuch Zhang Rang, he was able to dance a short halberd. Get away intact.
This shows that Cao Cao is a ambitious and ambitious man.
He is both ambitious and cunning, and fits the definition of "treacherous hero" very well.
So, what does Cao Cao himself think?
Cao Cao himself seems to agree with the evaluation of "treacherous hero".
This evaluation was given by Xu Shao, and it was Qiao Xuan's suggestion to make friends with Xu Shao.
Xu Shao, courtesy name Zijiang, was born in Pingyu, Runan (now Pingyu, Henan Province). He was the most famous connoisseur and critic at that time.
On the first day of each month, he often published his comments on the people of that time, which was called "Yuedan Comments", also called "Runan Yuedan Comments".
No matter who you are, once you write a question, your worth will be a hundred times higher, and you will enter the upper class society.
Cao Cao naturally hopes to get Xu Shao's praise.
But whether it was because Cao Cao was not very favorable or because the secret must not be leaked, no matter how much Cao Cao requested, Xu Shao refused to speak.
In the end, Xu Shao was forced to have no choice but to say this: You are a "capable minister in the world and a traitor in troubled times."
After hearing this, Cao Cao laughed and left.
This is Cao Cao.
He is grand, deep, open-minded, forthright, free and easy, funny, smart, easy-going, cunning, cunning, cold and cruel. He is actually an extremely rich, multi-faceted, very individual and very dramatic character. figure.
Therefore, Cao Cao has both a cunning side and a frank side.
His treachery and sincerity are unified in "male", and his good and evil are also unified in "male".
There is evil in Cao Cao's human nature, so I don't call him a "hero" but a "treacherous hero".