Wen | against the north
The turbulent and chaotic world in ancient Chinese history was easy to produce both tyrants who sought the world and family members. Jia Xu in the Three Kingdoms era belonged to the latter. He did not have the strength and achievements of Cao Cao and Sun Quan, but he was able to achieve political "evergreen" and stand in the political arena of the Three Kingdoms for decades without falling, which is surprising.
01 Transcend the dispute between the emperor and the warlord
Looking at Jia Xu's "political resume", we will find that he is no longer as simple as "the two ends of the first mouse", but has been changing the object of allegiance. From attaching himself to Dong Zhuo to eventually defecting to Cao Cao, Jia Xu served as chief advisers to Li Dai, Duan Sheng, and Zhang Xiu in the process. After seeing him, Cao Cao, instead of blaming him for his past "capriciousness", said that he had achieved his own heroic name and gave Jia Xu a very high evaluation. Even when Cao Cao was entrusted with the aftermath on his deathbed, Jia Xu was the closest person to Cao Cao. So the question is, what is the reason why Jia Xu was able to go smoothly in the political arena of the Three Kingdoms?
These have to be found from Jia Xu's life experience.
Jia Xu was a Wuwei Guzang person in the Eastern Han Dynasty, a proper Western Liang person. This area was not the core area of the intellectual activities of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time, and the "Qing Discussion" that shook the government and opposition in the late Eastern Han Dynasty rarely affected it, on the contrary, there were many ethnic groups here, and Jia Xu even almost died because of the attack of the Huan people. Such a relatively harsh cultural environment gave birth to the character of the local people who advocated conquest and violence. Although Jia Xu was filial piety in the Eastern Han Dynasty, at that time, the government was controlled by foreign relatives and eunuchs, and the mainstream intellectuals in the Central Plains could not get in, let alone Jia Xu, who was on the fringes of the empire. Therefore, Jia Xu had to hide his ambitions and ambitions, first relying on the local military strongman Dong Zhuo, and then because of the trust of the former, he was able to curry favor with the lieutenant.
After Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang, he quickly put Emperor Xian of Han under his control, while the civil official clique of the imperial court was suppressed and squeezed, so there was a matter of Situ Wang Allowing to attack and kill Dong Zhuo. After Dong Zhuo's death, the Western Liang army was leaderless, and Dong Zhuo's generals all wanted to fly east, west, south, and north to avoid the pursuit of the imperial court. However, Jia Xu realized the seriousness of the problem, because he felt that Wang Yun would certainly not easily let go of the "Dong Zhuoyu Party", including himself. Instead of this, it is better to let go and fight a fish to break the net. At his insistence, Dong Zhuo's generals Li Dai (李傕), Zhang Ji (張吉), and others (李傕), Zhang Ji (張傕), and others (李傕), went so far as to attack Chang'an, kill Wang Yun, and regain control of the situation.
The "resurrection" of the political life of Li Dai and others made Jia Xu's prestige suddenly rise. However, Jia Xu was well aware of the principle of shooting the head bird, so he politely refused the reward of Li Dai and others to add officials to the knighthood, and later, when he found that Li Dai and others did not change the original practice of Dong Zhuo's casual insult to the emperor's subjects, but instead intensified their efforts, and after they openly fired at each other for a little profit, Jia Xu felt that if he continued to follow Li Dai and others, he would only provoke fire, so he turned to Emperor Han and tried his best to reconcile them when Li Dai tried to slaughter the courtiers, saving some of the wealth of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Jia Xu's approach gave himself more of a way out, and also allowed him to transcend the dispute between the emperor and the warlord and choose a new patron.
02 Persuade Zhang Xiu to throw Cao: Do not make mistakes in doing things as a person
After the defeat of Li Dai and others, Jia Xu briefly attached himself to the Guanzhong warlord Duan Sheng, and later discovered that this person was jealous of Xianxian's ability, so he used his past friendship with Zhang Xiu's father Zhang Ji to make Zhang Xiu the chief military commander in Henan. First, he promoted the alliance between Zhang Xiu and Liu Biao's family in Jiangdong in "diplomacy" to jointly oppose the Cao Cao clique, which was expanding externally with Xu Du as the center, and later, when Zhang Xiu lost the battle against Cao Cao, he did the opposite, encouraging Zhang Xiu to continue to hunt down and kill the lax defense of Cao Jun with defeated soldiers, making Zhang Xiu rely more and more on himself.
Of course, Jia Xu worked so the one hand, he had not yet determined who was the hand of the deer in the overall situation of the Central Plains, and on the other hand, it was because he saw zhang Xiu's lack of opinion and cowardly personality characteristics, so he dared to let go of his talents. With the passage of time, after Jia Xu saw that Zhang Xiu did not have the courage and vision to win the world, he quickly turned his attention to other camps.
Soon, after successively defeating strong enemies such as Lü Bu and Liu Bei, Cao Cao focused his main energy on the decisive battle with Yuan Shao for Hebei. At this critical moment, Yuan Shao sent lobbyists to woo Zhang Xiu, hoping to use Zhang Xiu to sneak into Henan and restrain Cao Cao's main force to advance north. Yuan Shao's strength in doing so lies in his own strength, and everyone in the world knows that Zhang Xiu once killed Cao Cao's beloved general Dianwei and his son Cao Ang. From the perspective of personal grudges, Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu had a deep blood feud that did not share the same heaven, how could the two forces be combined?
(In the film and television drama, Zhang Xiu plotted to raid Cao Cao)
However, to the surprise of Yuan Shao and Zhang Xiu, Jia Xu chose to let Zhang Xiu join Cao Cao's camp unconditionally in the matter of taking sides in the final line. It should be noted that at that time, even if Zhang Xiu did not join Yuan Shao's side, he could remain active and neutral and sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, but Jia Xu asked him to absolutely support Cao Cao, only because he saw that Cao Cao had great ambitions in the world and would not consider personal grievances. This shows that Jia Xu not only saw through the essence of Yuan Shao's external strength, but also realized that this was an excellent time for Zhang Xiu to win Cao Cao's trust, preserve his glory and wealth, and save himself the suspicion of "betraying the master". Jia Xu not only has insight into human nature, but also allows the interests of all parties to be taken care of and strives to "maximize". In the history of the Three Kingdoms, it is difficult to find a second person.
03 How to reassure the suspicious Cao Cao
However, the identities of Jia Xu and Zhang Xiu determine their final outcome. In the chaotic world, the courtiers could arbitrarily change the main family with their own talents, but zhang Xiu, who was originally the lord of one party, now went to be a subordinate to others. How can you not be slightly suspicious or rejected? In Zhang Xiu's later years, some of Cao Cao's old generals turned over old accounts and ridiculed Zhang Xiu for sneaking up on cao cao's relatives, which resulted in Zhang Xiu's mixed feelings and depression and death. As for Jia Xu, he no longer needed to worry about his former master Zhang Xiu, but was at ease to be his own lieutenant and fully support Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Pi to change the dynasty. From this point of view, Jia Xu's selfishness is actually very obvious.
After joining the Cao Cao clique, Jia Xu participated in the northern offensive against Yuan Shao, the southern Chibi, and the Ma Chao clique that invaded Tongguan as a military officer. In these battles, except for Jia Xu on the eve of the Battle of Chibi, who opposed Cao Cao's premature invasion of the decisive battle, the rest all reached a tacit understanding with Cao Cao. During the confrontation with Yuan Shao at Guandu, many civil and military officials suggested temporarily avoiding Yuan's army, but a few strategists such as Xun Yu and Jia Xu insisted that Cao Cao surprise the army against Yuan Shao. While defending Ma Chao and Han Sui, who had a strong cavalry, Jia Xu took the plan, stuck to the outside of the city, and deliberately separated the relationship between Ma Chao and Han Sui and others through letter falsification and other means, and finally made the strong enemy invincible. It can be seen that after Guo Jia's death, Jia Xu became the first major contributor to Cao Cao's consolidation of the situation in the north.
In getting along with Cao Cao, Jia Xu also sensed Cao Cao's suspicious personality, so out of Mingzhe's self-preservation plan, he and the court magnates tried their best to keep a distance, did not engage in gangs and factions, and deliberately restrained themselves in words and deeds, not to use the contradictions of the lord's family to stir up discord. For example, before Cao Cao's death, Cao Zhi, who was not the eldest son, was automatically reminded of the political chaos caused by The abolition of Chang Li and others by Jia Xu, and finally consolidated the throne of Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Pi. However, when Cao Pi said that the empress dowager wanted to rectify Cao Zhi, Jia Xu also suggested that he should not force his brother too much, and try his best to protect Cao Zhi, who had no political energy. Such a principled and humane way of being a person, even Cao Pi himself was quite touched.
Of course, the reason why Cao Cao reused Jia Xu before his death, in addition to his outstanding talent, there is also a very important reason, that is, Jia Xu lacks a deep political background, and there is no strong interest group behind him to do Olympic aid. Now Jia Xu "prescribes the right medicine for the symptoms and throws in his favor", so that Cao Cao can rest assured of himself, which is also a manifestation of his ability to be a person. Such a person does not live a smooth life, but it is strange.
bibliography:
Chen Shou, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhonghua Bookstore
Tian Yuqing, "Qin Han Wei Jin History Exploration", Zhonghua Bookstore
Zhang Dake, Studies in the History of the Three Kingdoms, Chinese Publishing House