Summary: Cao Cao's image has always attracted much attention, each with its own right and wrong, but one thing is common: as an art.

Cao Cao's artistic image is very successful. When Luo Guanzhong created Cao Cao, he collected folk, history,

Personal factors in one, thus leaving a glorious example of artistic image in the world forever. ...

Keywords: folk orthodox historical factors Cao Cao's image

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is China's first historical novel. It is as famous as The Water Margin, The Journey to the West and A Dream of Red Mansions, and it is also called the four classical novels of China. His four books have their own merits. As far as characterization is concerned, I prefer Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There are many characters in the book, such as Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Lu Bu, Zhang Liao, Zhao Yun, Yu Jin, Li Dian. Who is not a hero and who is not Hao Jie. Some can rule the country and level the world, some are loyal to heaven, some are both wise and brave, and some are loyal. It is really eternal in spring and autumn, and it will last forever. Among these characters, they are loyal or treacherous, beautiful or ugly. Among them, Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang are the most successful and core characters in the book. Cao Cao is a treacherous court official, and Zhuge Liang is an effective minister in governing the country. One positive and one negative, in stark contrast. Zhuge Liang has been told through the ages, and Cao Cao has a long history. This seems unfair, but we are not discussing Zhuge Liang here, but Cao Cao. Recently, there has been a great controversy about the image of Cao Cao, especially in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Some comrades who have made great achievements in literature are also involved, such as Guo Moruo. He said: "Since the Song Dynasty, after the so-called orthodoxy was confirmed, this outstanding historical figure suffered unfair treatment. Since the popularity of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, almost three-year-old children have regarded Cao as a bad guy and a treacherous court official, which is really a "big distortion" in history. 1 However, as the artistic image of Cao Cao, we should treat it differently, not to mention whether Cao Cao is a distortion of history, but only how Luo Guanzhong shaped Cao Cao, why the image of Cao Cao in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a negative example, and what factors influenced Luo Guanzhong to shape Cao Cao. These are rarely involved in the recent debate. Here, I want to talk about my own views for your reference.

First, the story of the Three Kingdoms goes back to ancient times.

The "Three Kingdoms" in the history of China itself is a turbulent era, with various figures appearing. Many vivid stories of the Three Kingdoms are recorded in Chen Shou's The History of the Three Kingdoms and Pei Songzhi's Notes. After the Three Kingdoms, the stories of the Three Kingdoms have been circulated and enriched among the people. According to Du Bao's Notes on the Great Cause, when the emperor watched the water drama, there was a story about Cao Cao beating the coke with water and Liu Bei leaping onto Tanxi. In the late Tang Dynasty, Li Shangyin wrote a poem: "Either tease Zhang or laugh at Deng Ai to eat." This is probably one of the earliest records. By the Song Dynasty, there had been specialized disciplines and professional artists who "stressed three points". We can take "saying three points" as a profession, which shows that the story of the Three Kingdoms is very popular among the people and people like it very much. Also, in the Song Dynasty, Su Shi's "Lin Zhi" said: "Jimson tasted the cloud: the children of the native land were poor and forbearing, and their families were tired and bitter, so they had to pay attention to money, so that they listened to the old saying and even lost it, and some people cried; As soon as I heard that Cao Cao was defeated, I liked fast songs. " It can be seen that the "words" at that time had the trend of respecting Liu and restraining Cao. In the Yuan Dynasty, the story of the Three Kingdoms was recorded in The Story of the Three Kingdoms, The Story of the Three Kingdoms, and A Brief Introduction to Three Points. "Accidental" has roughly outlined the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, with Shu Han as the main line and a large number of folk stories, which provided a lot of rich materials for Luo Guanzhong's later creation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. During the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, a large number of "Three Kingdoms Plays" appeared on the stage of drama, such as Tao's "South Village Dropping out of Farming" and "Red Cliff Warrior", which enriched the story of the Three Kingdoms. Later, in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, there were more than 60 kinds of plays with the theme of "The History of the Three Kingdoms", more than half of which were centered on the characters of Shu and Han, praising the loyalty of Liu, Guan and Zhang, and denouncing Cao Cao's treachery. It has obvious anti-Cao tendency.

It is on the basis of these folklore and drama stages that Luo Guanzhong created The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. As any author, he will consider the readability of his works before he creates them. In order to make his works immortal, he must meet the people's appetite, that is, his thoughts and feelings. Luo Guanzhong is no exception. When he wrote Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he used folklore to cater to the people. The story of the Three Kingdoms after Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties has an obvious tendency of respecting Liu and restraining Cao, and he consciously or unconsciously maintains the view of respecting Han and restraining Cao in his creation. That is to say, when portraying Cao Cao, he was intentionally or unintentionally classified as a negative image, and he was portrayed as a treacherous traitor with exaggerated artistic techniques, cunning and treacherous, playing politics in front of readers. It can be said that Luo Guanzhong's tendency of respecting Liu and restraining Cao in folklore has almost played a decisive role in shaping Cao Cao's image. He can only write Cao Cao as a wily and cunning image, but not as a figure like Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. In The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang and Cao Cao are the most core and successful figures created by Luo Guanzhong, which have been passed down through the ages. Zhuge Liang is an outstanding politician and strategist, with rich struggle experience, superhuman wisdom and calm mind. In him, he concentrated the talents and wisdom of ancient people in China, as well as people's ability to understand and analyze natural and social phenomena. Cao Cao is a political careerist and schemer. He represents a series of characteristics of feudal rulers, such as deception, cruelty, paranoia and machine change, and is a typical feudal ruler. In this regard, Mr. Huang Lixin made it clear: "Cao Cao, as a historical figure, was indeed a very successful person. He represented the interests of the landlord class of the Han nationality at that time ... However, he was the representative of the landlord class after all, and there was a cruel and cunning evil virtue in the class." These two figures are in sharp contrast. These two figures are deeply loved by the people, but they have an obvious tendency to emphasize Zhuge Liang, and always regard Cao Cao as justice and the enemy of the people. When Luo Guanzhong wrote Cao Cao, he probably wrote about him out of impatience.

Here, we should also pay attention to the version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. At present, there are two kinds of books that academic circles think are the most reliable. One is the popular romance of the Three Kingdoms, and the other is the romance of the Three Kingdoms. The former, with 24 volumes and 240 chapters, was published in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, which is close to Luo Guanzhong's original work, but the text is simple and the content is simple. The latter is a book with 120 chapters, which was made by adding or deleting comments by Mao Lun and Mao Zonggang in Qing Dynasty. Shi Mao and his son mainly arranged and revised the book from the aspects of answering questions, rhetoric, notes and poems, which made the book more compact and complete. Written in the Kangxi period, it is the most popular book at present. Most of what we can see is the revised version of Shi Mao. There is an obvious tendency to respect Liu and suppress Cao in the book, which makes it difficult for us to understand the true face of Cao Cao. So many people have doubts about the image of Cao Cao. The artistic image in the book is far from the politicians in history, which is caused by the folk nature of Luo Guanzhong.

Second, it reflects Roche's orthodoxy of the times.

As a historical figure, it seems an unshirkable responsibility to bear the right and wrong of future generations. No matter how important he is to history, as long as future generations have different outlook on life and values, the evaluation of historical figures will be very different. As far as Cao Cao is concerned, we have no reason to deny his position and role in history, but in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the image of Cao Cao is indeed a typical one that has been denied. However, there are also places of praise. For example, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao in Guandu, and defeated the enemy with less than one tenth of the enemy's troops, leaving a much-told story in history. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Luo praised Cao Cao, which has nothing to do with Roche's life time and value orientation.

We know very little about Luo Guanzhong. According to Jia's "Ghost Book Continuation" in the Ming Dynasty, "Luo Guanzhong was born in Taiyuan, but he was scattered in the lake and the sea. He is widowed with others, and his life is happy and extremely fresh. He has forgotten his friendship with Yu, and he has suffered many times. He is far away and will recover at the right time. If he doesn't come for more than 60 years, he doesn't know what his end will be. " So Luo Guanzhong lived in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. Living at the turn of the two dynasties witnessed the demise of the Yuan Dynasty and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. After the peasant uprising at the end of Yuan Dynasty, it is possible that he also participated in the peasant uprising. Because the Ming people said that Luo Guanzhong was "interested in seeking the king", from this perspective, he should be a man of Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Lu Xun also called Luo Guanzhong "a man in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty". (See A Brief History of China's Novels). For a writer who lives in such a turbulent era, his creation will definitely be influenced by social factors. The uprising at that time called for the restoration of the Han regime, and compared the Northern Yuan regime to the Cao Wei regime of the Three Kingdoms, which was in line with the thoughts and feelings of the people at that time. Since the Song Dynasty, the Han regime has been invaded by the northern minority regimes and retreated to the south of the Yangtze River. It has long been compared to the Northern Dynasties regime of Cao Wei, and Luo Guanzhong was one of the people at that time. Of course, the northern regime (Yuan regime) also has some negative factors. This is not surprising at all. His Romance of the Three Kingdoms was written in such a special era, which is completely understandable. The Yuan regime is about to collapse. It is impossible for him to praise the Yuan regime and write Cao Cao as a virtuous man! He opposed the Yuan regime, that is, Cao Wei, that is, Cao Cao. In order to conform to the people's thoughts and feelings, it is understandable to portray Cao Cao as a negative image.

There is also a problem of the value orientation of the times and orthodox thought. The so-called "orthodoxy" is just an ideological weapon for rulers to control the people for the legitimacy of their own rule. For the sake of their own rule, rulers have to find excuses to let the people recognize the legitimacy of the regime. Either the source of political power accepted the demise of Yao and Shun, or the ruling area was the Central Plains-Yellow River Basin, or it was one's own royal lineage, but the ultimate goal was to consolidate the rule, which had little to do with the interests of the people. After the Three Kingdoms, the rulers of each dynasty had their own orthodox ideas. The Jin Dynasty was based on Wei, which was orthodox and unorthodox. Chen Shou's History of the Three Kingdoms takes Cao Wei as the orthodoxy and Shu Han as the partial hegemony. In the Song Dynasty, there was a regime of ethnic coexistence. Jin, Liao and Song coexisted, each with its own right and wrong, and all claimed to be legal political rights. Jin and Liao are in the north, which is more orthodox than Cao Wei and unifies the Central Plains. The Song Dynasty was located in the south, leaning to the south of the Yangtze River, as powerful as Harmony, and took Shu as its orthodox thought. In the Luo Guanzhong era, the uprising was marked by the restoration of the Han Dynasty, which was consistent with the orthodoxy of the Song Dynasty. So I have to deny the orthodoxy of Cao Wei, that is, deny Cao Cao. In his works, Cao Cao can't appear in public. In other words, it is impossible for Luo Guanzhong to add luster to Cao Cao's face in his works, but to add some black.

Third, an indelible history.

As we discussed earlier, when Luo Guanzhong created the image of Cao Cao, he wrote Cao Cao as a villain intentionally or unintentionally, which made the essential characteristics of the feudal landlord class manifest in him as a reference for the author. However, these two aspects are not enough to explain Luo Guanzhong's portrayal of Cao Cao in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Anyone who has read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms knows that Cao Cao in the book is not only a simple character, but also a very complicated character, with good and bad, good and bad, which makes people unpredictable. Otherwise, we wouldn't have achieved such great success. From this point of view, we have to admit that Luo Guanzhong's superb skills are both good and bad. We all talked about the factors that affect Roche's portrayal of Cao Cao's bad image. So, what influenced Luo Guanzhong's praise when he wrote Cao Cao?

As a historical novel, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms must respect and follow history, and it is greatly influenced by history, and it is often more true than empty. Of course, Cao Cao, who lived in the Three Kingdoms period, could not know Luo Guanzhong like the back of his hand. He could only know him through novels, history books and other materials. The most authoritative historical materials are the Records of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou and the Notes on the Records of the Three Kingdoms by Pei Songzhi. Cao Cao is an outstanding politician and strategist in Chen Shou's The History of the Three Kingdoms. Now, we should also say that he is a great writer. He dominated the literary world at that time. Under his guidance, "Jian 'an Literature" was carried forward, and he was also very successful, with rich poems and unique style. Today, there are still many articles popular in the world. Everyone wants to know about Song Lixing, which is one of Cao's masterpieces. Zhong Rong said, "Cao Gong is old and straight, and he has a sad sentence. "It is no exaggeration to say that he is a writer.

In the publication description of Cao Cao Ji, it begins with: "Cao Cao, a native of Mond County, Guo Pei, was an outstanding politician and strategist in the Three Kingdoms period". This is an undeniable historical fact. Cao Cao was indeed an outstanding ruler of China during the Three Kingdoms period. Before and after his birth, social contradictions and class contradictions intensified, and the Eastern Han regime controlled by aristocratic landlords began to collapse and was facing collapse. In 184, the yellow turban insurrectionary peasant uprising broke out. During the suppression of the peasant uprising, dozens of local separatist groups, large and small, were formed. Cao Cao is one of them. He carried out the idea of legalism governing the country and gradually expanded his strength. After more than 20 years of struggle, he finally unified the north. Cao Cao believes that in order to carry out a unified war, it is necessary to follow the example of Qin and Han dynasties, and the cultivators who practice legalism have land, cultivate land on a large scale, and restore and develop agricultural production in various ways. His Preface to Farming said: "The skill of husband's determination of the country lies in adequate food, Qin's determination to farm the world, and filial piety to cultivate the land." This passage of 10 shows his strategy of reclaiming land, and his thought of advocating the rule of law and opposing respecting the law and opposing Confucianism in the preface to defeat and the note to Sun Tzu. Today, this still has some advantages. Aren't we shouting "ruling the country according to law" today? Isn't it imitating ancient times? Chen Shou's "History of the Three Kingdoms" commented on Cao Cao: "At the end of the Han Dynasty, there was chaos in the world, and men and women started together, while Yuan Shao looked at the four countries with great power. Mao (Cao Cao) plans to attack inside, but the magic of business, the ingenious ideas of North Korea and the official award materials are all arbitrary because of his tools. What an "extraordinary man, a peerless hero". This may be a fair evaluation of Cao Cao. Cao Cao in history has five advantages: 1 1.

First of all, energetic and enterprising statesmanship. This point is also quite conspicuous in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which has been reflected since the appearance of Cao Cao. When Dong Zhuo made a mess, the ministers were at a loss and just cried. Cao Cao stood up and said, Dong Canzhuo cried to death from morning till night, from night to night? Ministers were very surprised, so Cao Cao came up with an idea to assassinate Dong Zhuo, and he implemented it himself. But the assassination failed, but he knelt down and offered a knife, outwitted Dong Zhuo and fled to the village. But the princes fought for power and profit and refused to join the army. Cao Cao asked, "What do you doubt?" He also said: "Dong Zhuo, the special envoy of Shandong Province, heard that the soldiers set out from Shandong and relied on the royal family. It was reported that they were in danger for two weeks and moved to the east to face the world. Although he can't do it, he still suffers from it. Today, the palace is burned, but the emperor is moved, and the sea shakes, and I don't know where to go. If you die this day, the world will be a battle, and you can't lose it. " 12 What a subtle analysis. Unfortunately, the governors have different opinions. Otherwise, this history will be written in another way. Here, we can also see Cao Cao's enterprising statesmanship.

Second, the broad mind of appointing people on their merits can do whatever they want. Cao Cao's meritocracy has always been well-known. He does not stick to a model, but adopts elite management. Ruan Yu, one of the seven sons of Jian 'an, is Cao Cao's literary courage. The process of Ruan Yu being trapped by Cao Cao is quite dramatic. At the beginning, Cao Cao Ya heard his name and called him out to be an official. He shouldn't have urged again and again, but Ruan Yu escaped into the mountains. I didn't expect Cao Cao to have a fiery heart. 13 threw herself at him, indicating that he was thirsty for talent, but it could be seen that he was "thirsty for talent". More than that, he wanted to hire enemies like Xu Shu, Zhou Yu and Guan Yu. He forcibly recruited Xu Shu into the camp, but Xu Shu didn't offer a plan. His appointment of Zhou Yu: "Cao heard that Zhou Yu was young and talented, but he secretly went to Yangzhou, leaving Jiang to talk about Zhou Yu." Unfortunately, Zhou Yu was unmoved, otherwise the page of' Battle against the Wall' would be written in another way. "

Third, rewards and punishments are clear, and the concept of rule of law is rigorous. Cao Cao can command millions of heroes by what strict rule of law. The ancients said that "law does not respect", but Cao Cao did not. His horse was frightened and strayed into the wheat field. According to Cao Cao's self-made military law, the wheat tiller beheaded, and the self-made law broke the law. He felt that if he didn't make trouble for himself, he would not be able to convince the public, so he came up with the plan of "cutting his hair to replace Tao" It not only broke the old adage that "law cannot be respected", but also safeguarded the authority of military law. Why not kill two birds with one stone? Besides, it's no big deal to cut off a few hairs. Cao Cao said in the preface to defeat: "Sima Fa" and "The general died in Sui Dynasty" were generals in ancient times. The army was broken outside and the family was broken inside. Pretending to levy, but rewarding merit without punishment, is not a national law, making the general go out to war, and the loser makes amends, and the loser is exempted from official titles. "It can be seen that he rewards labor and punishes crime, which is aboveboard. For example, after the defeat of Qinshui Army, Xia Houdun's men took advantage of the chaos to plunder and were severely punished by the ban. The arrested people were dissatisfied and opposed rebellion. However, Yu Jin did not defend himself, but he did not hesitate to make every effort to welcome Zhang Xiu. After the war, Cao Cao immediately praised Yu Jin: "I am very embarrassed by the difficulty of drowning. In the chaos, generals can mobilize troops to resist violence, and there are immovable sections. Although it is an ancient name, why add it? "Seal in longevity pavilion hou, blame Xiahou Dun running lax at the same time. This is a fair reward and punishment.

Fourth, the idea of caring for the people, maintaining agricultural production and putting people first. When he recruited Zhang Xiu, he ordered the three armed forces not to bully the wheat fields, not to plunder the people, and the offenders would be beheaded. When recruiting Yuan Shao, he reiterated military discipline: Anyone who goes to the countryside to kill chickens and dogs is guilty of homicide. After the conquest of Jizhou, it was urgently announced that Hebei residents who suffered from the military revolution would be exempted from rent and tax this year. These are the concrete manifestations of his people-oriented thought, and he is really a hero.

Fifth, the spirit of not being afraid of people's words and risks. At the end of the Han Dynasty, in the era of "everyone wants to be an emperor and everyone wants to be a public official", Cao Cao "held the emperor to make the princes" and annexed the eight great famines. The greater his power, the officials and gentry rose up to attack him and became suspicious and slandered, but Cao Cao ignored it and he didn't want to retreat.

The above points are worth learning, and they are also the aspirations of heroes of all ages. Cao Cao has these advantages, and he is not a hero in vain. In Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, these advantages are traceable, which shows that Luo Guanzhong still adopted historical factors in shaping Cao Cao. Not only that, it is sometimes exaggerated. This is why historical romance novels originated from history and are higher than history.

Fourthly, some of my statements.

To sum up, under the influence of folklore, Luo Guanzhong took a restrained attitude towards Cao Cao, and his works can only reflect a negative image; Luo Guanzhong's background of the times did not allow him to praise Cao Dajia; Constrained by feudal orthodoxy, Cao Cao could not be transformed into the "Zhuge Liang" figure in Luo Guanzhong's works, and Zhuge Liang asked him to set out. In terms of these two aspects, it is inevitable that Cao Cao's image will be portrayed as a villain. But history tells us that although Cao Cao is treacherous, he is also kind. He has done many good things for the people and made great contributions to the development of history and social progress. As a historical novel, it should be based on reality and supplemented by emptiness. Luo Guanzhong didn't forget this when he was shaping it. He wrote Cao Cao as a simple and complicated character. To say that he is simple means that he can be summed up in one word-rape; To say that he is complex means that he has beauty in ugliness, ugliness in beauty, goodness in evil and evil in good, which makes people unpredictable. When we read The Romance of Three Kingdoms, we only read the simple side. No wonder so many people shouted for Cao Cao's conviction. It seems that we need to read it again to understand the difficulty of Luo Guanzhong's writing Cao Cao.

Precautions:

1 See Guo Moruo's Eighteen Beats of Hu Jia in Cai Wenji 1959 1.25 Guangming Daily, 6th edition.

2 See Yuan Xingpei's History of China Literature Volume IV, Higher Education Press, First Edition, August 1999.

The Eastern Jin Dynasty began to write "Han Jin Qing Chun Qiu", and "Shu took the imperial clan as the right". Thus, the legend of respecting Liu and restraining Cao began in the Ming Dynasty.

4 See Huang Lixin's "Realistic Problems about Cao Cao's Image in China" (on Classical Literature, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1980 Edition).

5 Jia's "After Recording Ghost Books" was written in the twentieth year of Yongle (1422) at the age of 80. From this, we can know that he was 22 years old when he arrived in Chen Jia (1364).

"Forgotten", Luo Guanzhong was born around 13 15.

6. See and compile Chen Ji.

7 See Wang's Orthodoxy, Shaanxi People's Publishing House, June 2002 +0 Edition, p. 65438.

8 Yuan Xingpei's History of China Literature, Volume II, Page 27, Higher Education Press, 1999.

9 See Volume I of Cao Cao Ji, Zhonghua Book Company, 1974 edition.

10 See Volume I of Cao Caoji, Zhonghua Book Company 1974.

1 1 See the image of Cao Cao in Liu's Romance of the Three Kingdoms. "

12 See The History of the Three Kingdoms, Emperor Wu.

13 See "Cao Cao's Love for Talents" by Jiang Hong and Jiang Hai (No.3, Literature and History World, 2004).

Bibliography:

1 Three Kingdoms Collection (Ruby Collection) Zhonghua Book Company 1982

2 Chronicles of Ancient and Modern Three Generations, Qin and Han Dynasties and Six Dynasties (edited by Yan Kejun) Zhonghua Book Company 1958.

3 "South Village Drop Out of Farming" (Tao) is a four-part series.

4 Notes on the History of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties (by Zhou Yiliang) Zhonghua Book Company 1985.

5 "Three Caos Data Collection" (edited by Classical Literature Teaching and Research Group of Chinese Department of Hebei Normal University) Zhonghua Book Company 1980.

6 Cao Caoji (1, 2) Zhonghua Book Company 1974.

Essays on Classical Literature Shanghai People's Publishing House 1980.

8. China Literature Studies (No.1 2004).

9 The History of China Literature (edited by Yuan Xingpei) Higher Education Press 1999.

10 Research Collection of Romance of the Three Kingdoms Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences Press 1983

1 1 Romance of the Three Kingdoms

12 another question and answer on the history of ancient literature (edited by Cao Ji, Chen and Luo Dongsheng) Guangdong People's Publishing House 1982.

13 literary criticism series (special issue of classical literature 16) China Social Sciences Press 1982.