Cao Cao's exquisite hard-pen calligraphy work "Two Short Songs" is two poems about ancient Yuefu written by Cao Cao, a politician and writer at the end of Han Dynasty. The whole poem is profound, solemn and elegant, and full of emotion. It gives full play to the specialty of poetry creation, uses metaphor accurately and skillfully, and achieves the goal of being sensible and touching. It has always been regarded as the representative work of Cao Cao.
Cao Cao's beautiful calligraphy appreciation of hard-pen short songs; The first poem of two short songs expresses the poet's desire for virtue and ambition to unify the world in a calm and cadence style through the singing at the banquet; The second poem shows that in his lifetime, the author only imitates Zhou Wenwang, but never Jin Wengong and Zhong Er, and shows his true feelings to his domestic and foreign officials and the world, making his domestic and foreign political opponents impeccable. Both poems are highly politicized works, and their political content and significance are completely integrated into rich lyrical artistic conception.
Background of short song creation: There are two opinions about the writing period of the first poem: one is before Battle of Red Cliffs. Chapter 48 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms describes Cao Cao's poems. After Cao Cao pacified the north, he led millions of heroes, drank horses from the Yangtze River and fought a decisive battle with Sun Quan. It was a bright moon night, and he put wine and played music on the river to celebrate the generals. When the wine was warm, Cao Cao stood at the bow with a spear and sang generously. Second, after Battle of Red Cliffs. The first statement is based on Zhang Hui's novel, which is not reliable. The second statement has no history or politics. Therefore, the creative background of this poem is still inconclusive.