In the first month of the first year of Huangchu (220), Cao Cao died of illness and Cao Pi ascended the throne, becoming the King of Wei. In October of the same year, Emperor Xian of Han was forced to abdicate the throne, and Cao Pi took office, which was the throne of Emperor Wen of Wei and Cao Pi. Although Cao Pi successfully ascended the throne and usurped the Han Dynasty and became independent, before becoming the crown prince, Cao Pi and his brother Cao Zhi had a long-term open and secret struggle. Therefore, after he became emperor, he was still resentful of Cao Zhi, and even worried that Cao Zhi would threaten his throne.
According to "New Words of the World: Literature", "Emperor Wen (Cao Pi) once ordered King Dong'e (Cao Zhi) to write poems in seven steps. Those who fail to do so will do great deeds (kill), and then they will be poems... The emperor felt deeply ashamed." " Seven-Step Poetry " is a poem by Cao Zhi, a poet of the Wei State during the Three Kingdoms period. This poem uses the same rooted vein and beans to describe the same brothers as the same father and mother, and uses the same firewood to fry the beans as the same meat and flesh as the same brother Cao Pi, who harms his younger brother, expresses his strong dissatisfaction with Cao Pi. So, the question is, how did Cao Zhi spend the second half of his life? Did Cao Pi let Cao Zhi go because of his brotherhood?
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First of all, although Cao Pi did not remove Cao Zhi after he ascended the throne, his suppression and restrictions on Cao Zhi undoubtedly made Cao Zhi very sad for the rest of his life. In other words, although Cao Pi let Cao Zhi go, he did not really let him go. In 220 AD, Cao Cao died, which meant that Cao Zhi's life had completely changed. He went from being a free and careless prince to a target of restriction and attack everywhere. That is, although Cao Cao finally appointed Cao Pi as the crown prince, Cao Cao still liked Cao Zhi, who was talented, and Cao Pi, who was only the crown prince at that time, did not dare to do anything to Cao Zhi.
However, after Cao Pi ascended the throne and became emperor, Cao Zhi naturally had to deal with the pressure exerted by Cao Pi alone. In the second year of Huangchu 2 (221), Cao Zhicheng, 30 years old, was transferred to Anxiang Hou (now Jinzhou Houcheng), with 800 households in the town. However, just a few months later, Cao Zhi was renamed Juancheng Hou (now Shandong Juancheng County ). During the late Han and Three Kingdoms period with inconvenient transportation, this act of re-emergence made Cao Zhi very uncomfortable. After all, no one wanted to move frequently.
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In April of the third year of Huangchu (222), 31-year-old Cao Zhicheng was named King of Juancheng, with 2,500 households in the town. As Cao Pi's brother, it was more reasonable to be granted the title of King of Cao Zhicheng. However, a year later, in the fourth year of Huangchu (223), 32-year-old Cao Zhi was transferred to King Yongqiu. Yongqiu was an ancient place name, and is now Qi County, Henan Province. First Hebei, then Shandong, and now back to Henan, Cao Zhi, as a member of the Cao Wei royal family, still has to experience the pain of wandering. In this regard, in my opinion, the reason why Cao Pi frequently moved Cao Zhi's fiefdom was probably because he was worried that he would stay in a certain place for a long time and form his own power.
The talented Cao Zhi had already gathered a group of talents around him, and he almost laughed to the end in the battle for the position of prince. Now, out of precautions against Cao Zhi, Cao Pi chose to frequently move his fiefdom, in order to crack down on and restrict Cao Zhi in disguise and prevent Cao Zhi from forming his own power. In the sixth year of Huangchu (225 AD), Cao Pi returned from the southern expedition, passed by Yongqiu, met Cao Zhi, and added 500 households. Of course, Cao Pi cannot suppress or restrict Cao Zhi too much if he cares about his brotherhood.
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7th year of Huangchu (226th), Emperor Wen of Wei Cao Pi died of illness, and Cao Rui succeeded to the throne, that is, Emperor Ming of Wei . When Emperor Ming of Wei Cao Rui ascended the throne, Cao Zhi was less than 35 years old. In Cao Zhi's view, his talents have never been displayed, and now he is very eager to get the value of the imperial court. On this basis, he wrote to Cao Rui passionately many times, demanding that he be appointed to him. During the late Han and Three Kingdoms period, Cao Wei undoubtedly used the power of the royal family more seriously. For example, Cao Ren , Cao Zhen , Cao Xiu , Xiahou Dun , Xiahou Yuan and other royal families all became generals of Cao Wei.
So, Cao Zhi also hopes to get a chance to make achievements.However, Cao Rui, who was too calm and rational, was as heartless as an ancient well and did not cause any slight sensation. That is, although Cao Zhi expressed his opinion many times as his uncle, Cao Rui only gave verbal affirmation, that is, he had never enthroned Cao Zhi any official position. And this undoubtedly made Cao Zhi feel depressed and unsuccessful.
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Finally, although Cao Rui, Emperor Ming of Wei, did not strictly guard against Cao Zhi like his father Cao Pi, during the reign of Emperor Ming of Wei, Cao Zhi's situation still did not change essentially, and his fiefdom was continued to be moved by the Cao Wei court, and his final fief was in Chen County. In the sixth year of Taihe (232), Cao Zhi was renamed King Chen. In November of the same year, Cao Zhi died of depression at the age of 41. During the late Han and Three Kingdoms period, Cao Zhi's death was undoubtedly called premature death.
In general, because of Cao Zhi's literary attainments, later generations collectively called him, Cao Cao and Cao Pi " San Cao ". His poems are known for their vigorous brushwork and gorgeous lyrics. They have left thirty volumes of collections, which have been lost. The " Cao Zijian Collection" is compiled by the Song people. To a certain extent, in terms of literary talent, Cao Zhi was obviously above his brother Cao Pi, so Xie Lingyun, a writer in the Southern Song Dynasty, had the evaluation of "There is only one stone in the world, and Cao Zijian occupied eight dou". However, due to the suppression of the two emperors Cao Pi and Cao Rui, Cao Zhi was always depressed and failed to display his talents in the Cao Wei court. And this is undoubtedly a major loss for Cao Wei. What do you think about this? Welcome to leave your point of view and let us discuss it together.
