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How should Cao Cao be evaluated in Three Kingdoms?

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"Yi Zhongtian's Appreciation of the Three Kingdoms" (2) True and False Cao Cao

Author: i91happy Publication date: 2006-04-27 15:05 Copy link

He was once all-powerful, and he received the most infamy after his death. In the novel, why is he a white-faced traitor? Why are his actions contradictory in historical records? Is he a traitor, a traitor, or a hero? Among the many images with different opinions, which one is the real Cao Cao? "Yi Zhongtian tastes the real and fake Cao Cao of the Three Kingdoms" will be broadcast soon, so stay tuned!

In the previous episode, Mr. Yi Zhongtian believed that any historical figure has three images: historical image, literary image and folk image. Among the Three Kingdoms, the one with the most complex and divergent image is undoubtedly Cao Cao. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, people have hated Cao Cao very much. In "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao is even seen as a traitorous official who seeks power and usurps the throne. So, what is the image of Cao Cao in history? Professor Yi Zhongtian of Xiamen University reviewed the historical materials of the Three Kingdoms from a contemporary perspective. What image of Cao Cao did he have in mind?

Yi Zhongtian:

Today we are talking about Cao Cao. It is impossible to talk about the Three Kingdoms without talking about Cao Cao. The so-called Three Kingdoms are Wei, Shu and Wu, and the founding emperor of Wei was actually Cao Cao. Of course, Cao Cao did not proclaim himself emperor when he was in power. It was after his death that his son Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor and posthumously recognized him as Emperor Wu of Wei. However, it is certain that Cao Cao was the actual founder of Wei. Cao Cao's reputation in history is not very good. To be polite, he is called a traitor, and to be polite, he is called a traitor. However, Mr. Lu Xun said that Cao Cao was actually a capable person, at least a hero. Although I am not a party to Cao Cao, I admire him very much. Mr. Lu Xun can be said to be the first person in modern times to overturn the verdict for Cao Cao. In this way, there are three evaluations of Cao Cao - hero, traitor, and traitor. So which evaluation is accurate?

But when we figured out the historical image of Cao Cao, we discovered another problem. Even this historical image is not so easy to figure out. For example, people say that Cao Cao is a traitor, and many people don't like Cao Cao. Su Dongpo said that in the Northern Song Dynasty, there were many people who told history, that is, storytellers, who talked about the Three Kingdoms. When Liu Bei's failure was mentioned, the audience burst into tears; when Cao Cao's failure was mentioned, everyone clapped their hands and applauded. This shows that at least in the Northern Song Dynasty, Cao Cao was an unpleasant person. So why is Cao Cao not lovable? What unflattering things has he done? Then there are nothing more than three:

One is that Cao Cao is treacherous. But this does not count, because soldiers are never tired of deceit. People who fight always have to deceive others. But when you talk about the enemy, you call him cunning and cunning, and you call yourself resourceful. In fact, it is the same thing, soldiers are never tired of deception.

The second thing is that he usurped the Han Dynasty. This matter has nothing to do with us. Why must the emperor of this dynasty be named Liu? Why can't he be named Cao? It is unjustifiable to say that the person named Cao who replaced the person named Liu is a traitor.

The most dissatisfactory thing among the people is that Cao Cao said this: I would rather let the world down than let the world let me down. Therefore, if a person would rather let the world feel sorry for himself than let the world feel sorry for him, this person is too bad, so the people hate Cao Cao. Then we have to figure out whether this matter is a fact or not; if it is not a fact, isn't it an unjust case? If it is an unjust case, shouldn't we vindicate Cao Cao?

For example, there is a man named Wei Zhong, who turned out to be Cao Cao's subordinate. There was a time when we knew that Cao Cao was not going well, was in adversity, and was in a difficult situation. At that time, many of his subordinates betrayed Cao Cao. Cao Cao was very confident and said, let them go. My people will not be finished. For example, Wei Zhong, he will not betray me. As a result, Wei Zhong also betrayed and ran away. Cao Cao was furious. Cao Cao said, you Wei Zhong, you will also betray me. If you have the ability, you can run to the ends of the earth. If you have the ability, you can go to the Huns in the north. If you have the ability, you can go to Vietnam. As long as you can't run that far, I will I will capture you and never spare you.

Later in the subsequent battle, Wei Zhong was captured. Everyone was worried about Wei Zhong, saying that Cao Cao would definitely kill him. How about Cao Cao? Cao Cao thought for a while, forget it, Wei Zhong is a talent, let him go, he will be an official as he should be. This is Cao Cao's tolerance.

Cao Cao is indeed a very tolerant person. When Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were fighting, Yuan Shao found a scholar named Chen Lin to draft an appeal. What is a proclamation? It is a letter of denunciation, because in ancient warfare, he emphasized that the division must have a name, that is, you must have a name for whoever you want to fight. After you have a name, your army will be called the division of justice. Yuan Shao asked Chen Lin to write it. A message. Chen Lin was a penman who wrote a thousand words, eloquently criticizing Cao Cao. Where do you start scolding? It starts with Cao Cao's ancestors. This is actually a very bad thing in Chinese culture. Whenever you scold someone, you will scold someone's parents, and whenever you scold someone, you will scold someone's ancestors for eight generations. Why is this a bad tradition for eight generations of your ancestors? Chen Lin is also the same. Then Yuan Shao was defeated and Chen Lin was made a prisoner. The people below captured Chen Lin and brought her to Cao Cao. Cao Cao said: Chen Lin, when the two armies are fighting, they have to issue such a statement of denunciation. This is normal. However, you scolded her. Forget it if you scold me, why are you scolding my parents? My parents have not offended you, okay? Chen Lin said, I'm sorry, the arrow was on the string and had to be fired. Cao Cao said, OK, OK, forget it, you are also a talented person, so you can still be your penman. Chen Lin became Cao Cao's penholder from now on, so Cao Cao was very tolerant.

But Cao Cao was also a very vindictive person, and almost everyone who offended Cao Cao would not take revenge. At that time, there was a famous scholar named Bian Rang. Bian Rang was a great scholar and a great writer. He wrote very good articles and books, but he looked down on Cao Cao. Because Cao Cao had a bad background, Cao Cao's grandfather was a eunuch, and the Eastern Han Dynasty was ruined by eunuchs, so those scholars, educated people, and scholar-bureaucrats despised and hated eunuchs the most. So Cao Cao's father was the eunuch's adopted son, and Cao Cao was the eunuch's adopted son. They looked down on him, and Bian Rang also looked down on him, and said some insulting words to Cao Cao. So later, after Cao Cao went over and captured that place, he killed Bian Rang without mercy. There were also several intellectuals who were involved in Bian Rang's case. Some of them ran away, but they couldn't escape after they ran away. Then he came back to surrender. One of them, Huan Shao, surrendered himself to Cao Cao, knelt down, kowtowed, cried bitterly, and begged for mercy. What did Cao Cao say? Hum hum, ho ho ho, cry, get scared, kneel down, beg for mercy, won’t you kill me if you kneel down? Wouldn't you kill if you beg for mercy? Drag him out and kill him. The impact of this incident was so bad that it triggered a rebellion at the time. How could you treat a cultural person like this? How can you treat someone who has offended you like this?

One of them, Chen Gong, left Cao Cao for this reason and defected to Lu Bu. "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" said that Chen Gong left Cao Cao because Cao Cao killed Lu Boshe's family. No, the historical fact is that Cao Cao killed Bian Rang, Huan Shao and others. Chen Gong couldn't stand it anymore, so he left Cao Cao and devoted himself to helping Lu Bu defeat Cao Cao. Later, after Lu Bu's defeat, Chen Gong became a prisoner. Cao Cao didn't want to kill him yet, so Cao Cao told Chen Gong that as long as you surrender, let bygones be bygones. Because Cao Cao also felt that his previous actions were wrong at this time. He also felt that the prime minister wanted to support the boat and the general had a horse on his forehead, which should have some general demeanor, so he did not kill Chen Gong.

What is this called? "Only great heroes can show their true colors, and it is true celebrities who show their true colors." Cao Cao's ability to show his true colors shows that he is a hero, and a great hero! However, this hero is very cunning and cunning, so he is called a cunning hero, or a traitor for short. And this traitor is very cute, so I think the evaluation of Cao Cao is these five words-cute traitor