How to evaluate Cao Pi in history?

From Lu Simian’s History of the Three Kingdoms, to Yi Zhongtian’s The Three Kingdoms, to the fiery despicable saints in the past two years, Cao Cao gradually transformed from the traitor in the past to a traitor, and even a hero, and finally became known as the "Three Kingdoms". Cao Zihuan, who completed the hegemony of Cao Wei on behalf of the Han Dynasty, was obviously not so lucky.

If his descendants had been a little more powerful, even if he or his descendants had lived a little longer, the situation might have been very different. He might have become the founding king of the country, and at the very least he would not have to bear the consequences. There are so many infamy, but history always does not allow for assumptions. This is probably something that we, as future generations, will always regret.

I seem to have never answered the question of how to evaluate someone. I always feel that my skills are not enough, but it is a pity to let such an opportunity go. I give the first answer to Zihuan.

After sorting out my thoughts, I decided to briefly talk about it from three aspects ~ 1. Character

(1) Young master brother

In his early years, Zihuan gave me the impression that he was a young man with a fat horse and a light coat. There are two sentences in "Shan Zai Xing", "I ride my good horse, and I am wearing a light coat", and there is also a paragraph in "A Letter to Wu Zhi" that says, Thinking of the Six Classics, free and easy Baishi, playing chess, and finally playing games, entertaining the heart with high talk, and listening to the mourning zither.

Chihuan North Field, Travel and Food South Hall, floating sweet melons in the clear spring, sinking. Zhu Li was in the cold water.

After the day was over, the bright moon came and they rode together to visit the back garden.

"It can be proved.

(2) Zhen Wenqing of the Great Wei Dynasty

But obviously after the dispute between his sons became more and more intense, Zihuan’s good days were over. Deep insecurities are always the source of worry in Zihuan's heart.

However, Zihuan is another person whose sorrow comes quickly (there are cliffs in the mountains and branches in the trees.

Worry comes from nowhere, and no one knows it.

), A person who goes away quickly (riding my good horse and being carried by my light coat.

Riding at full speed and forgetting his worries.

), it seems that he is heartless and heartless. It's not quite appropriate, but it doesn't seem right to say that he is straightforward and open-minded.

From Zihuan's "Books with Wang Lang" "Life has a shape of seven feet, and death is a coffin of soil."

Only by establishing virtue and becoming famous can one be immortal; the next best thing is

There have been several epidemics and many scholars have died. Who can live a long life?" and "From ancient times to the present, nothing has survived. Every country has its own grave." We find that Zihuan was thinking about the life and death of people, the rise and fall of the country, with a certain helplessness that cannot be resisted by human beings, but also full of deep introspection. This is like a king saying Come out? Unlike him, in modern times, he looks a bit like a literary young man, so he always jokingly calls Zihuan the Great Wei Wenqing.

Such Zi Huan, such inexplicable sadness, and such unique thinking make people unable not to be interested in such a person, and then be moved by him. The understanding of Zi Huan starts from his writing and continues from This situation is out of control.

(3) Distinction between love and hate

Perhaps it was because of the sharp contrast between the happy time in his youth and the psychological shadow brought about by the dispute between his sons later that he always fell into trouble alone. The thoughtful Zihuan seems to have inevitably turned into a person with a clear distinction between love and hate.

He can have the most sincere emotions for his family and friends.

The first thing that cannot be escaped is always the relationship between Zihuan and Ziwen Zijian. This has been mentioned occasionally in other questions (refer to What would happen to the history of the Three Kingdoms if Cao Chong became the lord of Wei? Change?) In fact, we have no reason to blame Zihuan just because he did not kill Zijian and the final "Emperor marched eastward, passed Yongqiu, Xingzhi Palace, and increased the number of households by 500". After all, he had done Better than most kings.

Also, the seven-step poem mentioned by the questioner is basically a forgery written by later generations. Is there really such a thing as a seven-step poem in history? As for the conspiracy theory about Cao Zhang's death and the poisonous jujube incident, it comes from the unreliable novel collection "Shi Shuo Xin Yu", so you can just ignore it.

His feelings for his family are also reflected in many of his works. For example, in the 16th year of Jian'an, Cao Gong went on an expedition, and his mother and brothers wrote the "Ode to Feelings of Leaving", as well as the "Ode to Feelings" written in memory of his father. His favorite poems such as "Dan Ge Xing" are "I lament my gray hair, how early I was born."

Sighing for a long time, pregnant with me.

"A few sentences, the helplessness of the passage of time and the sorrow for the death of his father, are perfectly placed in a few words, with endless aftertaste.

In addition, two things about Zihuan and his family The incident is used as a supplement to this part.

Duke Cao heard about Ding Yi’s talents and planned to marry Princess Qinghe to him. When Zihuan heard about it, he said: "Women pay more attention to appearance, Ding." Yi's eyesight is bad, and I'm afraid Qinghe won't be happy. It's better to marry her to Xiahou Dun's son.

"Being born in an imperial family, one must be prepared for political marriage (Sun Xiaomei of the Soochow family next door laughed and said nothing), but Zihuan was able to stand up to his sister (? Or is the sister not sure?) It was rare to consider this matter from the perspective of the situation at that time.

Of course, Ding Yi fell in love with Zi Huan because of this incident and threw herself into Zijian's arms without hesitation. < /p>

The other thing is about Cao Gong's other son Cao Qian, a good man.

His mother Chen died soon after he was born. Cao Gong was five years old. When he was seriously ill, he said to Zihuan: "This child lost his mother when he was three years old, and I am afraid he will lose his father when he is five years old. After that, I will give it to you to raise."

"Zihuan has always raised him by himself, and he is better than his other brothers.

Cao Qian is too young to tell the difference, so he always calls Zihuan "Aweng" (Father), Zihuan always corrected him: "I am your brother~" Every time he called him wrong, Zihuan would always sigh with emotion, and even cry.

Zihuan's tears were embarrassing. , maybe thinking of his estranged father, or his brother who died young, or maybe it was his half-brother far away. Zihuan who would cry because of the word "Ah Weng" is undoubtedly a sweet-tempered person.

He talked a lot about his family, so my friend just talked about it briefly. The few letters he wrote to Wu Zhi are rare masterpieces of prose in the Wei, Jin and even the entire history of ancient Chinese literature. Their language is fluent and their feelings are sincere. , worth reading.

There is also a story about Zi Huan learning to bray as a donkey in condolences to Wang Canshi, but it is from "Shi Shuo Xin Yu·Sadness of Death" and its credibility is unknown, so I will not go into details.

However, as mentioned above, Zi Huan is a person with a clear distinction between love and hate. Where there is love, there is naturally hatred. Who has not done a few fucked up things in his life?

Everyone is familiar with the black spots of Zihuan, such as killing Zhen Ji, blaming Cao Hong, and satirizing Yu Jin.

In fact, I personally think the authenticity of Cao Hong's incident is questionable, because If you think about this matter from beginning to end, you will find that it is obviously illogical. I tend to think that Cao Hong did offend Zihuan for something, but it is definitely not a superficial reason like money. As a rich second-generation official, Pizi, uh, no, Zihuan, how come you are short of money? If you are short of money, ask your uncle for it. Although Zihuan is sometimes a bit arrogant (more on this later), it’s not like that! We cannot simply blame Zihuan for Yu Jin. I have asked about this matter before, and I agree with Master Wu Yi’s point of view. Zihuan’s handling cannot be simply evaluated by being petty, because Yu Jin could neither be used nor killed at the time. , if you experience it carefully, you will find that Zihuan's handling is actually very clever.

In addition, there are also incidents such as Bao Xun's loyal words, Zihuan's anger, and Dai Ling's downgrade, which make people feel that Zihuan is a little bit. I still have to defend Zihuan for being suspected of being a faint king.

Zihuan is not a person who doesn't listen to advice, but you have to pay attention to your identity and the way you speak, if you are really doing it for his own good. , Zihuan will still listen to what the people who stand around him support him say.

For example, Cui Yan, who has always supported Zihuan, advised Api to burn his bow and arrows and throw away a section of his riding uniform (Book of Emperor Wen). It can be seen that Zihuan has a special liking for hunting (poor Dai Ling was punished for admonishing him), but Zihuan actually obeyed and did as he was told, without looking like a naughty child at all! Xinpi also disagreed with Zihuan's move to move people to Luoyang. He firmly opposed it and tried to dissuade him again and again. Zihuan angrily expressed that he did not want to talk to him about the matter. Simpi grabbed Zihuan's clothes and almost grabbed him. Huan stripped him (this is the respondent’s imagination), Zihuan took back his clothes with force, and returned to the palace angrily (this scene is really very graphic, isn’t it! ? ), and finally partially obeyed Xinpi’s opinion.

Simpi also advised Zihuan to hunt less, and Zihuan rarely hunted after that.

From this, we can see that Zihuan is not a stubborn king who insists on his own way and cannot listen to any good advice~ Speaking of Xinpi, he intervened in another matter. When Zihuan was established as the crown prince, , hugged Xin Pi's neck very happily and said: "Mr. Xin, do you know? I am so happy!" As a result, he was criticized by future generations as being too complacent.

The only time I felt joy from the bottom of my heart was when I saw Xianying, a girl from the Xin family. If you are not a saint, if you compare your feelings with others, if you are happy about something you have put in a lot of effort into, and feel a few words of emotion, what is your crime? (4) Erotic Youth

This section is relatively small, but it is particularly funny.

It is said that incense was popular in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. The most famous one is of course the story about the famous Lingjun Xun Ling leaving incense. I don’t know how many people know that Zihuan also had such a story, but it is more embarrassing.

"Book of Wei? Biography of Fang Ji" records that "the horse's bad clothes were so fragrant that it gnawed at Emperor Wen's knees".

This... is the same incense, but how come the results are so different when put on different people? Another thing is when Huang Chu beat Sun Quan in the sixth year of his life, "It was a severe cold and the waterways were icy." , the boat is not allowed to enter the river, but is diverted back." I can no longer complain.

In addition, the section at the end of the Chronicle of Emperor Wen in the "Dictionary and Autobiography" where Zihuan enthusiastically boasts about his riding and archery skills after being praised by Ling Jun is really cute~ and Your charming smile (I'll go, the topic went off →_→), let alone Api, I can't even control the answer! He also used sugar cane to compete with Deng Zhan and promoted the love of his life - grapes in the edict. I won't go into detail about these strange things.

2. Personal ability

(1) Article

It is really difficult for me to ask a female engineering student to make such an evaluation. Fortunately, some gentlemen have done it. For research in this area, here is Ye Jiaying's "Lectures on Poetry of the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties" - Cao Pi. I think the explanation is excellent. Here I will briefly say a few words based on Mr. Ye Jiaying's lectures and my own understanding.

Zi Huan’s literary achievements are mainly the earliest existing seven-character poem "Yan Ge Xing"; the earliest literary and theoretical criticism work "Classics and Essays". It should be mentioned here by the way that Zi Huan is The de facto leader of the scholars in Ye, commonly known as "Baixue Gongzi and the Seven Little Scholars" (Kou Hu); ordered Liu Shao, Wang Xiang, Miao Xi and others to compile China's first genre book "Huang Lan".

Leaving aside Cao Gong, the works of Zihuan and Zijian have always been compared. Personally, I agree more with Liu Xie's "The Emperor Wen reduced his talents due to his position, and the Siwang used his power to embarrass his talents." ", but Wang Fuzhi's so-called "difference between immortals and mortals" in the works of Cao Pi and Cao Zhi seems to be too much.

Reading the poems of the two people, the styles and genres are different, and the parts they are good at are also different. It is difficult to make an objective comparison. If you like the exquisite style of writing, of course it is Aizijian, if you like straightforward expressions The chest type is naturally Ai Zihuan.

Personally, I think Zijian’s writing skills are absolutely strong, but he always feels that he creates for words, unlike Zihuan who creates for emotion, so Wang Fuzhi thinks Zijian’s poems can be learned. , and it is understandable that Zihuan’s poems cannot be learned.

(2) Wu was too lazy to just post the original text from "Dian Lun·Autobiography". It's too tiring →_→ Poor children in troubled times, how old did they start to learn to ride and shoot! When I was five years old, my superiors taught me how to shoot, and when I was six, I learned how to shoot. They also taught me how to ride a horse, and when I was eight, I was able to ride and shoot.

Because there are so many times, I always follow every expedition.

At the beginning of Jian'an, he went south to conquer Jingzhou and reached Wan, where Zhang Xiu surrendered.

On the tenth day of the war, the deceased brothers Xiaolian Zixiu and Cong brothers Anmin were killed.

When I was ten years old, I got rid of it by riding a horse.

The husband's civil and military skills are all used at any time. He was born in the middle and peaceful season and grew up in the army. Therefore, he was good at bow and horse, which has not declined to this day. He chases birds for ten miles and gallops often. A hundred steps, the body will be healthy every day, and the mind will never tire.

There is also this paragraph to show off to your Majesty: The rear army marched south to Quli, Shangshu ordered Xun Yu to reward the army as an envoy. At the end of Yu's discussion, Xun Yu said: "I heard that you are good at shooting left and right. This is really hard to do.

"Yu said with a smile: "No, the deacon didn't see his husband speaking loudly, leaning on the horse's hooves and looking up at the moon branch. "Yu said: "The Qi has a constant path, and the Qi has a constant place. Although it hits the target every time, it is not the best.

If you are galloping across the plains to reach the abundant grass, you must use cunning beasts and cut off light birds so that the bow does not bend weakly, and the hit will be a hole. This is wonderful.

"When the army was offering wine to Zhang Jing, Gu Yu held up his hands and said "Shan".

I also learned fencing, and there were many teachers who had different methods. The capital is good.

The part about fighting with Deng Zhan over sugarcane: After drinking with Liu Xun, the general of Pinglu, and Deng Zhan, the general of Fenwei, I have heard that Zhan Shan has arms and knows the five soldiers. , also said that he can use his sword with bare hands.

Yu and I have been discussing swords for a long time, saying that General Yan's method is wrong.

When I was drunk and my ears were hot, I ate some sugar cane, so I went down to the hall and hit him three times with a staff, laughing from both sides.

I wanted to get better. p> I said that my method is urgent, and it is difficult to look at the middle face, so it is the same as the arms and ears.

Zhan Yan restores the original hand, and I know that he wants to break through to get the middle of the hand. Because the falsehood goes deep, the fruit of the show is found. In front of him, Yu held his ankles and cut off his chin. He sat down and stared in surprise.

Yu sat still and said with a smile: "In the past, Yang Qing sent Chunyu Yi to his old prescription and taught him the secret technique. Now." Yu Yiyuan, General Deng, gave up his old skills and became more popular.

"It's a joy to sit down.

Considering that Zihuan wrote it himself, it shouldn't be too bad if the boastful part is discounted. There is no need for him anyway. Rushing to the front line to kill the enemy in person is considered a good level, and he can afford to be both civil and military.

(3) Combat

To be honest, Zihuan's actual combat resume is not good. In the 24th year of Jian'an, Wei Xi defeated the rebels in one battle and solved his father's worries.

Then he worked tirelessly to conquer Sun Quan three times, which shows that he is not a conservative king, but he still has some. The spirit of pioneering and enterprising.

The first southern expedition improved the prestige. The second southern expedition was divided into three groups, each with gains. The third one was the most embarrassing time when the river froze. .

Generally speaking, the fighting is not beautiful enough, and it can even be said to be a bit scumbag, comparable to Sun Quan.

But by the way, according to the "Old Tang Book". According to "Zhi", Cao Pi wrote ten volumes of "Synopsis of the Art of War". Unfortunately, this book has been lost, and we cannot learn more about his military thoughts and strategies.

Additional reading: Cao Pi's three-pronged attack on Wu (4). ) Politics To be honest, this is not the part I am good at. Master Wu Yi analyzed part of it, and I will talk about it from another angle, that is, looking at the series of edicts he issued after taking power.

For example, prohibition. Visiting the Laozi Temple prohibits "non-sacrificial sacrifices and witchcraft and blessings", while Kong Xian, a descendant of Confucius, was appointed as the "Zongshenghou", repairing the Confucius family temple that was destroyed by the war, and restoring the previous system scale.

Confucianism was promoted in various places, Taixue was established, and Doctors of the Five Classics were established, which revived the feudal orthodox culture in a short period of time.

He also ordered the lifting of prohibitions and light taxes, saying that the pass was used to facilitate business travel. Generally speaking, ponds and trees are used to prevent disasters.

Setting up bans and taxation at home is not good for the people and the country.

This is not good for restoring production and rebuilding homes after the war. It has positive practical significance to burden the people, promote trade, and develop the economy.

He also ordered the funeral of dead soldiers, prohibited slander, private revenge, and discussed light punishment to clean up the scattered people's hearts and make them wander. There was stability and peace in the northern region that had not been seen for many years.

Eunuchs were not allowed to violate the official orders, ministers were not allowed to report to the Queen Mother, and the Queen Mother's family was not allowed to serve as assistants to the government, let alone accept the title of Mao Tu. , which prevented the political crisis caused by eunuchs and female leaders in the Wei generation, and provided a feasible lesson for future rulers.

On the issue of employment, Cao Cao continued to promote eclecticism and meritocracy. Shizhi's major policies enabled the disparity system between the two Han Dynasties to be maintained, with special emphasis on not restricting the emergence and development of talents in terms of age and seniority, and taking Lu Shang and Zhou Chao's crown prince Jin as examples.

Later, Chen Qun's suggestion was accepted to formulate the "Nine-Rank Officials Law" to cultivate new gentry. After the single-core gold-absorbing system, the "Nine-Rank Zhongzheng System" strictly divided the gentry and common people, and the clan system still cannot be generalized.

Reference: Complete Translation of the Collection of Emperor Wen of Wei.pdf_Free high-speed download 3. Evaluation

Select a few historical evaluations with more content:

Chen Shou: "Emperor Wen was gifted in literature, and his writings were well-written. He was well-read, knowledgeable, and talented. If he added a broad-minded attitude, encouraged fairness and sincerity, kept his will in mind, and conquered his moral heart, how far could he be compared to the wise masters of ancient times? "Yes!"

Zhang Pu: "When the dynasty was founded, the strength was as old as the old, and when the Duke of Shanyang was not dead, he treated Yang Biao, an old minister of the Han Dynasty, without taking away his ambition. The matter of great virtue cannot be done by Meng De. "

Wang Bo: "Emperor Wen was rich in spring and Autumn, he was accommodating, he was courteous and frugal, he was well-educated, and he was a gentleman.

"Compared with some models. As a Mingjun, Zihuan is undoubtedly a more flesh-and-blood person who will be proud, frustrated, happy, and sad. How can one not love that man who is planting sugar cane and thinking about life and death?