Everyone knows that respecting Liu and demoting Wei treat Cao Cao as a villain, relying on the emperor to make princes and treacherous officials in troubled times, but I don't know that Cao Cao, as one of the three monarchs, is superior to Sun and Liu in talent and ability.
Cao Cao, named Meng De, was an outstanding politician, strategist and poet in the Three Kingdoms period, and the founder of Wei State. He is a rare battle-hardened hero in the history of China. Speak of the devil, Xu Shu went to Cao Cao without saying a word, Being in Cao Cao and Being in Han ... Few people like Cao Cao were mentioned by us at any time in ancient times. However, modern people actually don't know much about Cao Cao. People's understanding of him is mostly "white-faced traitor" and "Han thief", which can be said to be influenced by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. But in recent years, with the in-depth study of Cao Cao and the discovery of Cao Cao's tomb this year, a new Cao Cao fever has followed. Therefore, in recent ten years, many scholars have studied Cao Cao and published some papers. Here I will make a summary of the general situation of Cao Cao's research in the past ten years, so as to facilitate future generations to further study. Below, I will briefly describe it from several aspects.
First, the image of Cao Cao
Cao Cao (155-220) was an outstanding politician, strategist and writer in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. He was born in a wealthy family, and his father Cao Song was an official of Qiu. When he was young, he was alert and resourceful, and was evaluated by Xu Shao, a famous character critic at that time, as "being able to rule the world and being a traitor in troubled times." He made his debut in the suppression of the Yellow Scarf Army, and successively served as a riding captain, Jinan Xiang and Yunnan Army. When the world was in chaos, he showed his talent even more. He was promoted from a magistrate in Dong Jun to a state shepherd and became a vassal occupying a state (thirteen states in the Eastern Han Dynasty). In the first year of Jian 'an (196), he accepted Xun's suggestion and welcomed Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to Xudu. After that, he took the initiative in politics, annihilated the separatist forces such as Lu Bu, Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao, and gradually unified the North. In the autumn of the 13th year of Jian 'an (208), he led the army south and won Jingzhou without fighting. However, in Battle of Red Cliffs, it was defeated by Sun Quan and Liu Bei, and the plan to unify the whole country was blocked. Since then, while developing production and restoring the economy, he has strengthened the control of state affairs, laying the foundation for his son Cao Pi's generation of Han Dynasty. He was proficient in the art of war and was the most resourceful military commander in the late Han Dynasty. He is also an accomplished poet, and his poems are magnificent, generous and tragic. In the political arena at that time, it was rare that he was an all-round outstanding figure. He played a great role in the development of the situation in the late Han Dynasty and the formation of the tripartite confrontation between the three countries. There has been a lot of research on these aspects; Especially since the 1950s, the academic circles have had a general understanding of the historical achievements and status of the historical figure Cao Cao, so there is not much to analyze here. The image of Cao Cao in Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the most abundant and complicated character image in the book, and it is also a very successful artistic model. The image of Cao Cao in Romance of the Three Kingdoms is not only an artistic interpretation of the basic characteristics of the historical figure Cao Cao, but also covers the complex characters of feudal rulers for thousands of years, so it has a higher level and wider historical authenticity. In the history of China literature, it is difficult to find Cao Cao, a "round figure" who is a feudal politician who integrates authenticity, good and evil, beauty and ugliness. He can be listed as an immortal artistic model in the world famous works, which has eternal aesthetic significance.
Second, Cao Cao's character
Speaking of Cao Cao's character and personality, there are generally two views. One is to combine Cao Cao, a political figure, with Cao Cao, a literary figure, saying that he is deceitful and insidious, whether he is a man or a poem; The second is to separate Cao Cao's political activities from his literary creation, saying that he is dishonest and sincere in poetry. However, these two views are too general, and both regard Cao Cao's character as unchangeable, which is inevitably mechanical. The author thinks that Cao Cao's personality is complex and changeable, and young and middle-aged Cao Cao and old Cao Cao have different personality characteristics: young and middle-aged Cao Cao is bold, confident and alert; Old Cao Cao was worried and lonely. Of course, psychology believes that people's personality is gradually formed, and there can be no distinct stages. In order to facilitate textual research, the author divides Cao Cao's character into two periods. Of course, the self-confidence characteristics of early personality still exist in the later stage, but they are slowly shrouded by the characteristics of anxiety. The generosity and alertness of the early stage are also found in the later poems, but they are more often concealed by the characteristics of deception. Of course, in general, Cao Cao's personality is multiple, and many seemingly contradictory phenomena are unified on him: employing people without doubt, killing them if they don't use them; He is talented and jealous of talents; He killed people like hemp and cried when he was executed; He lives in a city with 20,000 families and strongly advocates frugality. All these show the multiplicity of Cao Cao's character. Cao Cao was born in a eunuch family. Although he has no worries about food and clothing, his low social status has a great influence on Cao Cao's idle personality in his childhood. In the process of suppressing the yellow turban insurrectionary, Cao Cao became stronger and stronger. He relied on the emperor to make princes, cut off heroes and unify the north. However, Battle of Red Cliffs's failure shattered Cao Cao's dream of reunifying the whole country. Since then, the great cause of reunification and short time have become important and contradictory in Cao Cao's life. The development of this contradiction had a decisive influence on the evolution of Cao Cao's character.
Third, Cao Cao's military thought
Cao Cao's military thoughts come from a wide range of sources. First of all, it comes from his practice of the unified war. In this practice, Cao Cao discussed how to start with no soldiers and no land, how to defeat Yuan Shao, a powerful enemy, to become the most powerful force in China, and how to prepare for the war of unifying the southern forces. The core problem is to comprehensively use political, economic, military and diplomatic means under the conditions of the late Han Dynasty to achieve the goal of defeating the strong with the weak and bullying the weak with the strong. Because the melee in the north where he lived was fiercer than anywhere else, the population and economic collapse caused by the war was more serious than anywhere else, and Cao Cao was even better than others, so his military practice was more complicated, vivid and successful than any other group, which provided rich materials for his military thought. Cao Cao is also a studious and thoughtful person. He has been defending the army for more than 30 years and has never left his books. He studies and discusses martial arts strategies during the day, thinks about classics at night and likes to discuss problems with his subordinates. He often stays up all night to discuss the enemy's persistence and the appropriateness of advancing and retreating, as well as the changes of the enemy, the enemy's reality and the art of war. Along this road of practice, discussion, re-practice and re-discussion, his military thought was finally formed. This military thought is the product of his personal talent, the crystallization of the wisdom of the counselors around him, and the thought that guides Cao Cao to victory. Cao Cao opposed relying on force and literature. He affirmed the war and praised it as necessary to help the world. Quoting Confucian classics, he said that the Book of Changes said that there was "the advantage of arrows" in ancient times (the advantage of bows and arrows was to establish the authority of the world), and the Analects said that "the soldiers were sufficient" (to keep enough armed), while the Book of History? Hong Fan's eight policies are called "Fen" (eight kinds of political affairs in ancient times were all about establishing and using the army), The Book of Changes, "Zhang Shizhen is benevolent" (the war is just, and it is auspicious to have respected people under the command of the Cold War), and the Book of Songs? Daya？ Emperor Yi's "Wang Hess angered his journey" (Emperor Tian warned not to covet other people's land, secret people invaded, King Wen was furious and stepped out to stop his invasion), which proved that Confucianism was not completely anti-war with the above classics. Cao Cao cited historical facts that Huang, Huang and Huang "saved the world with salt" and quoted Sima Fa as saying that "if someone kills, it is ok to kill". If not, it may fail as quickly as Xu Yanwang, who is just weak in language and concludes: "People who depend on language will die". Cao Cao insisted on unifying China by force. A prime minister ordered him to stop fighting Liu Bei. Cao Cao said, you should know me. You want me to do nothing but preach the virtues of Zhou Wenwang. I'm afraid I'm not that kind of person
Fourthly, Cao Cao's literary achievements.
Cao Cao was an outstanding litterateur at the end of the Han Dynasty and the pioneer of the new situation of Jian 'an literature. On the one hand, relying on political leadership, he collected scholars extensively, which resulted in an elegant literary situation in Jian 'an. On the one hand, create a new literary atmosphere with his creation. His poems are all Yuefu songs. Historians say that he "has been in the imperial army for more than 30 years, and when he reached the peak, he must write new poems and compose songs", which is indeed a true record. Although these Yuefu songs followed the ancient theme of Han Yuefu, they did not follow the ancient meaning of ancient songs, but inherited the Yuefu folk song "Accidental" (Han Shu? The spirit of Yiwenzhi and Yuefu Inscription Poetry (the dialect of Qing Dynasty) reflects the new reality and presents a new look. Cao Cao's poems are extremely natural, and the outstanding artistic feature is to reveal his mind in a simple form, so that people can read his poems as if they were people. He is an ambitious politician and strategist, so the poem is also "like a veteran, with a strong charm." Although it is very close to Han Yuefu in language form, it has its own unique style. Cao Cao's poems not only had a positive impact on Jian 'an literature, but also had an important impact on later literature because of its great creativity. His practice of writing current affairs with ancient Yuefu poems has great enlightenment to later new Yuefu poems. From his old Yuefu, to Du Fu's new Yuefu, and then to the new Yuefu movement initiated by Bai Juyi and others, we can clearly see the continuous development. In addition, after the Book of Songs, there are few excellent four-character poems. Cao Cao inherited the lyrical tradition of "National Style" and "Xiaoya" and created some touching chapters, which made the four-character poem glow again. Later, Ji Kang, Tao Yuanming and other successful four-character poems all followed this path. Cao Cao is also the "founder of political reform articles". His works are as creative as poetry. Influenced by Ci and Fu, prose in Han Dynasty tends to be parallel prose, and articles of various genres often form a certain fixed framework. Cao Cao's prose only writes what he wants to say freely in a simple and simple style, but it has its own distinct personality. For example, "Let the princess know her own story" pours out her life's worries with simple writing, which has the majestic boldness of a politician and the edge of struggle. The article said: "If the country is not alone, I wonder how many people will be emperors and how many will be kings." These words are beyond Cao Cao's power. Cao Cao's "simple and elegant" prose style shows the new characteristics of Jian 'an prose and has an important influence on the development of Wei and Jin prose.
Today, the study of Cao Cao will still be regarded as a cultural phenomenon, and people from generation to generation have commented that he will have eternal cultural identity.