A brief introduction to Cao Cao, the founder of Cao Wei. The following text materials are collected and published by Xiaoyisou. Let’s take a quick look!
Which dynasty did Cao Cao come from?
Cao Cao, also known as Mengde, was a famous statesman, military strategist and poet during the Han and Wei dynasties. He played an important role in the progress and development of the Chinese nation. made special contributions.
In 155 AD, Cao Cao was born into a large bureaucratic family belonging to the eunuch group. The special background of this family had a great impact on Cao Cao's career and thoughts. In 174 AD, Cao Cao was appointed as the captain of the northern part of Luoyang. In 177 AD, he was appointed as the county magistrate and negotiator of Dunqiu County. In 178, affected by the incident, he was dismissed from office and reinstated in 180.
In 184 AD, during the Yellow Turban Uprising, Cao Cao was promoted to Jinan because of his military exploits. In 1888, he served as the commander of the new army in Xiyuan. In 189, Cao Cao returned to China and joined the Kwantung Allied Forces to attack Dong Zhuo. In 192, Cao Cao became a herdsman in Chongzhou and absorbed 300,000 troops from the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army, forming the main force of Cao's army and starting a annexation war with the warlords.
In 196 AD, Cao Cao met Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and moved to Xuchang, where he was responsible for government affairs. Implementing the two major political and economic strategies of serving the emperor without envoys, cultivating and accumulating troops, using the strategy of disintegration and defeating each other, he successively defeated Yang Feng, Zhang Yang, Yuan Shu, Tao Qian, Yuan Shao, Liu Biao and other tycoons, and accepted the Yellow Turbans The rest of the army and Zhang Yan's Bulakeshan Army thus pacified Wu Heng, the Yellow River Basin was gradually unified, and a new base was established in Yecheng.
In June 208 AD, Cao Cao became prime minister. In September, he went south to occupy Jingzhou. In November, he failed in the battle with Sun Quan and Liu Bei in Chibi and returned to the north. In 211 AD, he sent troops to Guanxi and defeated the rebellion of Ma Chao and others. In 213 AD, he entered Gong Wei. In 215, he attacked Zhang Lu in Hanzhong and forced Zhang Lu to surrender. In 216, Wei. From 2009 to 2017, Chaohu was surrounded, which prevented Sun Quan from committing crimes in the north. In May 219, Liu Bei fought hard in Hanzhong and gave up Hanzhong. In November, he joined forces with Sun Quan to kill Guan Yu in Xiangyang and Jingzhou and stabilize the southwest defense line.
In February 220 AD, he died in Luoyang at the age of 66; in October, his son Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor and succeeded Cao Cao as Emperor Wu of Wei.
During Cao Cao's reign, he represented the interests of small and medium-sized landlord groups and was determined to innovate; inhibited the development of powerful forces and cracked down on anti-Cao forces; advocated meritocracy and reused literati and generals with real talents and practical knowledge; adjusted taxes , restored the salt and iron official camp; built water conservancy projects, and organized military and civilian farming. Increase food and develop the economy; attach importance to education and change customs. It was this chaotic situation that settled down and changed the face of the broken urban and rural areas in the north.
Cao Cao personally participated in and fought nearly 50 battles. These battles were not only difficult, but also fought skillfully, and he accumulated rich practical experience. He compiled Sun Wu's Art of War and wrote a large number of military theory works. His military thoughts mainly include fighting seriously, fighting cautiously, strengthening the army, providing adequate support, running the army according to law, clear rewards and punishments, and flexible use of mobile strategies and tactics. , This is a glorious masterpiece of ancient Chinese military theory.
Cao Cao was highly skilled in martial arts and versatile. He was good at calligraphy, Go, and was familiar with music, dance and engineering technology. In terms of literature, he is famous for his four-character poems, which are sad, generous, and magnificent; his prose is mostly about government orders and military policies, which are concise and bright. He also used his political status to advocate literature, reward writers, respect creative individuality, and conduct literary criticism. He was the leader of Jian'an literature.
Cao Cao's idea of ????governing the country politically is that the law is outside and the law is inside, and various subjects are mixed. Combine power politics with benevolence, righteousness and morality. Ideologically, he is known for his pragmatism.
Cao Cao followed the trend of the times throughout his life and built a monument for himself with his extraordinary martial arts. His character is changeable, so many people, especially scholars, think he is an unparalleled traitor, while others say he is an unparalleled genius. Cao Cao is a name that is always worthy of debate.
Cao Cao has profound attainments in literature, calligraphy and music. His literary achievements are mainly reflected in poetry, and his prose is also very distinctive.
Cao Cao wrote less than 20 poems, all of which were Yuefu poems. Content can be divided into three categories. One is about current events, another is about expressing ideals, and another is about immortal poetry.
The works related to current affairs include Lu Luxing, Hao Li Xing, Bitter Hanxing, Out of Xiamenxing, etc. The two poems "Guoyu Xing" and "Hao Li Xing" were written in the early years of Jian'an. The former article reflects the failure of the eunuchs and the crisis of Dong Zhuo's entry into Luoyang; the latter article writes that all the counties in the Guandong states are fighting for Zhuo, each with their own ambitions, fighting with each other, and closely following the content. The poem writes this historical process in concise language, so it is called the true record of the poetic history of the late Han Dynasty. What is particularly valuable is that in Journey to the West, he described the profound suffering of the vast number of people in the war: armor was infested with lice, thousands of people died, bones were exposed in the wild, there was no rooster crowing for thousands of miles, and every creature was alive. Bitter Cold Brigade was written in the eleventh year of Jian'an, when the conquest was at its peak. This poem describes the coldness, desolation and rigor of winter in the Taihang Mountains very vividly. At the same time, it also describes the poet's inner complex emotions.
"Stepping out of Xiamen" was written in the twelfth year of Jian'an, when Wu Huan was conscripted into three counties. The poem includes colors and four interpretations. Yan concentratedly expressed the poet's complex mood during the war. Understand looking at the sea and write down the impression of walking through Jieshi; the second plan is October in winter, the third plan is He, write what you saw on the way home; the fourth explanation is about winning this battle Ideological activities after important battles. Among them, Guan Bohai describes the scene of the sea. The autumn wind is bleak, the waves are rushing, the sun and the moon are traveling, if it comes out; Xinghan, with its unexpectedness and magnificent momentum, reflects the poet's broad mind of embracing the universe and absorbing the sun and moon. Gui Yanshou used a series of vivid metaphors to express the poet's views on his life and career: the old man is eager to travel far, but the martyrs are in their twilight years. This is a true embodiment of the poet's positive and enterprising spirit throughout his life.
Poems that mainly express ideals include Dugu Mountain, Dugu, and Tanke. The poet's political ideals in the first two articles. His vision for a prosperous new era was a politics of virtuous, virtuous, and good ministers that combined Confucianism and law with kindness and prestige. In the realistic background of social destruction in the late Han Dynasty, this is undoubtedly of progressive significance. The theme of the short song is the pursuit of talents, expressing the mood of pursuing talents and recruiting talents to realize their great cause. In the poem, there are mountains that never get too high and waters that never get too deep. The Duke of Zhou sprays rice and the world returns to his heart. There are poems about wandering immortals, such as Hu Chu, Qiu Hu Xing. Cao Cao did not believe in the alchemist's theory of immortality, so he should not send these poems, nor should he equate him with the pursuit of immortality by Emperor Qin and Wu of Han Dynasty. In terms of artistic style, Cao Cao's poems are simple and unpretentious, not gorgeous. They win with deep affection and deep charisma. In poetry, it is characterized by generosity and sadness. Generous sadness is the common theme of Jian'an literature, but in Cao Cao's poems, generosity and sadness are the most typical and prominent. In terms of poetry genre, Cao Cao's Yuefu poems did not copy the rules of Han Yuefu, but developed somewhat. For example, "Guo Luxing and Li Xing make peace" is an elegy in Han Yuefu, but he uses the old title to express new content. Cao Cao initiated the tradition of writing about current affairs in Yuefu, which had a profound influence. From the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, Jian'an literati and many poets proposed to write a large number of Yuefu poems, which can be said to be the inheritance and development of this tradition.
Cao Cao's prose is mostly practical and can be roughly divided into three categories: tables, prefaces, and books. His representative works include please add to the list of Guo Jia's city seals, let the county learn local chronicles, show books and kings, and worship Taiwei Bridge. The common characteristics of these characters are simplicity, straightforwardness and smoothness, which creates Cao Cao's unique voice. For example, Let the County Seat speak for itself, tell the story of his struggle experience for most of his life, analyze the situation at that time, and analyze his own heart. Among them, so that the country is not lonely, I don’t know when several people called themselves emperors, and several people called themselves kings. The words are written very frankly and boldly. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, there has been a trend of parallel prose, which gradually emerged in the late Han Dynasty. Generally, prose writers begin to emphasize duality and the use of allusions. Cao Cao was unique at the time because his style was simple, practical and practical. Lu Xun once praised Cao Cao as the father of articles.
Cao Cao's literary achievements are also reflected in his constructive role in Jian'an literature. The reason why Jian'an literature can flourish in the context of long-term war and social fragmentation is inseparable from his attention and promotion. When Liu Xie discussed the reasons for the prosperity of Jian'an literature, he pointed out that Wu Wei was similar to Cao Cao in terms of Wang Zhizhi and refined poetry. ). The annotations on Cao Cao's works mainly include the Poems of Emperor Wen of Wei, Huang Jie of Wei Wu, which was published by Peking University Press in 1925 and revised and rearranged by People's Literature Publishing House in 1958, which was later renamed the Poems of Emperor Wu of Wei and Emperor Wen of Wei.