Nearly two thousand years after his death, Cao Cao is still very busy, working as a "life mentor" in various books. People are no longer entangled in whether he is a good person or a bad person, but focus on how to "use" this person. The speed of change and strong utilitarianism can also be regarded as a microcosm of this impetuous society. Needless to say, Cao Cao himself couldn't think of this scene, and I'm afraid even Guo Moruo, who wrote an article about Cao Cao's conviction decades ago, wouldn't have thought of it.
Among the historical figures in China, Cao Cao is one of the most controversial. The evaluation of him has always wavered between treacherous court officials and lean men. Words like "I'd rather be negative to the whole world than to the whole world" have attracted countless criticisms for him, and his hard achievements in politics, military affairs and even poetry creation have won him respected capital. As a famous figure, the evaluation of him in past dynasties also reflected the political ecology at that time, which is worth studying. Before 1958, Cao Cao was a traitor, and the representative figure of "white face" historical reasons: the image of traitor in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms had a far-reaching influence
In people's impression, Cao Cao was a bad guy, which was mostly due to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong in the Ming Dynasty. The overall structure of "supporting Liu against Cao Cao" makes this book position Cao Cao as a traitor who "holds the emperor to make the princes". In the following hundreds of years, various literary and artistic works (operas, storytelling, picture books, etc.) based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms have continuously strengthened the bad image of Cao Cao.
however, Cao Cao's image was not bad at the beginning. In Chen Shou's History of the Three Kingdoms, Wei is the orthodox. From the length, we can see that Wei Shu has 3 volumes, Wu Shu has 2 volumes, and Shu Shu has only half of Wei Shu, with 15 volumes. In the description, he also showed great respect for Cao Cao, who did not call himself emperor, as "Emperor Mao Wu". Liu Bei and Sun Quan are only called "the late masters" and "the masters of Wu". Chen Shou also spoke highly of Cao Cao as "Mao's operational research and planning, whipping Yu Nai ... suppression can be described as an extraordinary person, a peerless outstanding person."
In the Tang Dynasty, on the way to Li Shimin's crusade against Korea, Emperor Taizong personally wrote a "Sacrifice to Wei Taizu", affirming Cao Cao's ability and achievements: "The emperor's heroic posture, as a pillar of hard luck, is different from the past."
the deterioration of Cao Cao's evaluation is closely related to the national movement, political situation and the personality of leaders. Simply put, when the national movement is prosperous, the political situation is stable, and the country is dominated by strongmen, Cao Cao tends to be evaluated as a "good man"; Once the national fortune declines, the country is facing division, and even forced to be partial, Cao Cao's "traitor" side will be enlarged. For example, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Pei Songzhi, a Southern Dynasty man, chose some negative materials of Cao Cao when he annotated The History of the Three Kingdoms.
Mr. Yuan Kuocheng, who just died, once said The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a 365-story ballad. Many people grew up listening to this book.
By the time Sima Guang compiled Zi Zhi Tong Jian in the Northern Song Dynasty, it was at the peak of the Song Dynasty, and the idea of respecting Cao occupied the mainstream, and Cao Wei was also the year in the book. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the situation of partiality and the experience of Shu in the Three Kingdoms reached a certain agreement, and the idea of "respecting Liu and restraining Cao" became popular. Zhu Xi, a great scholar, abandoned the calendar of Cao Wei and replaced it with the calendar of Shu and Han dynasties in his book "Outline of History as a Mirror".
In the Yuan Dynasty after the Southern Song Dynasty, * * * was ruled by Mongols, and the "anti-Cao" sentiment among the people was even worse. In the Ming Dynasty where Luo Guanzhong lived, "supporting Liu against Cao" had become the absolute mainstream, so it was natural that the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as a popular book, wrote Cao as a "bad guy". Literary performance: Cao Cao defined the "white face" in Peking Opera
Now we often say: "One sings the bad face, the other sings the bad face". It means that in the process of resolving contradictions and conflicts, one is a good person and the other is a bad person. Good people correspond to red faces, while evil people correspond to white faces. The red face and white face here come from the facial makeup of Peking Opera, or further, from Guan Yu and Cao Cao.
Peking Opera facial makeup, as the essence of China traditional culture, is regarded as a symbol of China by many foreigners. They think it's interesting to distinguish the character's personality, temper, loyalty, good and evil through the color of Facebook. There is a song called "Talking about Singing Facebook", which vividly reflects the interest of Facebook: "Foreigners call that beijing opera…… ... Dou Erdun with blue face steals horses, Guan Gong with red face fights Changsha, Dian Wei with yellow face, Cao Cao with white face and Zhang Fei with black face chirps ..."
Each color of Facebook in the above lyrics corresponds to a kind of people. Among them, a white face means that the characters are treacherous, suspicious, sinister and headstrong. The most prominent representative of this kind of people is Cao Cao. In addition, treacherous court officials who can be named in the history of China, such as Zhao Gao, Yan Song, Qin Gui and others, can't escape the fate of being painted a white face. The facial makeup of Cao Cao's Peking Opera in the early days was black < P > Because in the early days of Peking Opera, it was difficult to say that it was the ancestral motto of "white face = traitor" that made Cao Cao a white face. Or because Cao Cao's own skin color is on the white side, he began to define white face as "necessary for bad guys". In a word, the big white face on the stage of Peking Opera has a great additive effect on Cao Cao becoming the most famous traitor in the history of China.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, * * * repeatedly talked about vindicating Cao Cao in private and public. In the summer of 1954, * * * recuperated in Beidaihe. In response to Xu Tao, a health care doctor, who said that Cao Cao was a "traitor with a white face", * * made a comment: "Cao Cao unified northern China and founded the State of Wei. He reformed many evil policies in the Eastern Han Dynasty, suppressed the strongmen, developed production, practiced the system of reclaiming farmland, urged land reclamation, promoted the rule of law, and advocated frugality, so that the devastated society began to stabilize, recover and develop. Shouldn't these be certain? Isn't it amazing? It is said that Cao Cao is a traitor with a white face. It is said in the book, played in the play, and said by the common people. It is an unjust case created by feudal orthodoxy. And those reactionary gentry, who are monopolists of feudal culture, write to maintain feudal orthodoxy. This case has to be turned over. "
At that time, this kind of conviction was not unanimously applauded. In 1959, the drama "Cai Wenji" was premiered. After the performance, Guo Moruo invited everyone to give their opinions. General Chen Geng said: "I think Cao Cao can fill out a registration form for applying to join the party, and Guo Lao can be an introducer." The listeners all burst into laughter.