"Literature of the New Language of the World": "Emperor Wen (Cao Pi) tried to order King Dong'a (Cao Zhi) to compose poetry in the seven steps, and those who did not succeed in doing Dafa (killing) were poems... The emperor is deeply ashamed. Among them, the sentence "Originally born from the same root, and he is too anxious to fry each other" directly exposes Cao Pi's secret intention to Cao Zhi. It can be seen that the relationship between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi is extremely bad.
However, what needs to be special here is that to this day, the authenticity of Cao Zhi's "Seven Steps Poem" has not been accurately determined. However, combined with relevant historical materials, many readers will subconsciously think that Cao Pi did have the heart to assassinate Cao Zhi after the action after Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, as well as Cao Zhi's performance after this.
First of all, after Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, he killed Cao Zhi's confidant Ding Yi, which also became a strong evidence of the bad relationship between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi. According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Zhi's biography: "Emperor Wen was on the throne, and Ding Yi, Ding Yi, and his male mouth were noted. Many people may think that the two brothers Cao Pi and Cao Zhi once fought for the heir, which led to the breakdown of their relationship. Therefore, after Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, in order to cut off Cao Zhi's wings, he immediately executed his confidant Ding Yi and others. This is one.
Secondly, after Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, the emotional tendencies of Cao Zhi's poetic works also changed significantly. The main reason for all this is that he was transferred from the center and was later repeatedly demeaned. According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Zhi's biography: "Zhi and the princes were in harmony with the kingdom. In the second year of the Huang Dynasty, the overseer of the state, Guan Junxi, pointed out that he was playing "planting drunkenness and rebelling against slowness, robbing the messengers". There is a priest to ask for punishment, and the emperor is the empress dowager, and the marquis of Anxiang is demoted. It can be seen that after Cao Zhi was "excluded" from the central government, his quality of life also underwent major changes, so that in his poetry, sentimental and sad works began to appear. This is two.
Considering the above two reasons for the first time, some readers may feel that after Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, he also had a heart to harm his brother Cao Zhi. Because of this, many people believe that the "Seven Steps Poem" was made by Cao Zhi. Its purpose is also to highlight that in the feudal era, the incident of fratricide has long been common. However, in the author's opinion, Cao Pi, as an emperor, did what he did was very much in line with his identity. And the misleading point is that Cao Pi did not treat his brother Cao Zhi as badly as the world saw.
Let's look at the first piece of evidence: Cao Pi killed Ding Yi for other reasons. In the author's opinion, Ding Yi is indeed a person who should be killed, and when Cao Pi kills him, he will not care whether he is Cao Zhi's confidant. Because Ding Yi, this person, and Cao Pi's grudge has been for a long time. When Pei Songzhi was annotating the Biography of Cao Zhi in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he quoted Wei Luo as saying that Cao Cao heard that Ding Yi was a talented person and planned to marry his daughter to him. However, Cao Pi thought that Ding Yi had an eye disease, so he recommended Xiahou Shang to Cao Cao.
Since then, Ding Yi has also hated Cao Pi: "Shi Yi also longed for Princess Shang, and was friendly with the Marquis of Linzi, and was called a prodigy." Taizu intended to establish a plant, and Yi praised it. Under these circumstances, Ding Yi began to be loyal to Cao Zhi, hoping that the latter would inherit the throne. Not only that, Ding Yi also made a bit of a move against many ministers who supported Cao Pi. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Biography of Xu Yi, Pei Songzhi quotes Fu Zi as saying: "Cui Yan and Xu Yi, who were qingxian at the time, all appeared in the Wei Dynasty with their loyalty; Between Ding Yi, Xu Yi lost his position and Cui Yan was reprimanded. In addition, there is a similar record in the "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms". According to Pei Songzhi's note quoting the Book of Wei, "When Ding Yi's brother Fang Jin was favored, Yi and Fu were incompatible. Shang Shu Fu Xun said: "The yi is not good enough, and the ziyou Mao Jie, Jiu and other instruments have been harmed." Sons should be less!'"
Cui Yan and Mao Jie, these celebrities, were all very upright celebrities in the Cao Wei Group. However, because they had explicitly supported Cao Pi, they were instead hated by Ding Yi. Under the latter's rumors, Cui Yan was brutally killed, and Mao Jiu was imprisoned. Perhaps some readers feel strange, why can Ding Yi be trusted by Cao Cao? This is because the two major families of the Ding and Cao clans are from the Pei Kingdom. The ancients had obvious township party feelings, and in this case, the two families had also been married many times, among which Cao Cao's wife Ding was also from Ding Yi's family. In addition, Ding Yi's father, Ding Chong, had helped Cao Cao a lot, so even if Cao Pi hated Ding Yi very much, he couldn't deal with him in front of Cao Cao.
Because of this, Cao Pi's removal of Ding Yi is purely a personal grudge, and whether he is Cao Zhi's confidant or not has little to do with it. Moreover, Jia Kui, Wang Ling, and others who had supported Cao Zhi also received rewards from Cao Pi after he succeeded to the throne. In this way, Cao Pi did not deliberately get rid of Cao Zhi's henchmen.
Next, looking at the second piece of evidence, Cao Pi repeatedly changed Cao Zhi's fiefdom several times, and he was not targeting him alone. Cao Pi's move was to strengthen the centralization of power, so as to eliminate the hidden dangers caused by the division of the princes. The example of the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" in later generations is a good proof. In addition, Cao Zhi was also reported by the prison guru many times, so that he was anxious and afraid in his heart. However, compared with other clans, Cao Pi was indeed somewhat benevolent to Cao Zhi's methods. Because once other Cao clan relatives (such as Cao Gong) made a mistake, they were deposed or killed.
In contrast, Cao Zhi was falsely accused several times, and he also held Cao Pi's envoys hostage. However, Cao Pi only summoned Cao Zhi to the capital, and after going through a formality, he still released him. It can be seen that Cao Pi is thinking of brotherly love for his brother Cao Zhi. In addition, even though Cao Zhi's fiefdom changed repeatedly, he always had 2,500 households, far exceeding other clans, which showed Cao Pi's preferential treatment of him.
In summary, the relationship between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi is very harmonious. And Cao Pi, as an emperor, he can always be kind to his brothers and sisters, which is really valuable.