Sima Fang was Sima Yi's father, and most people have the impression that Sima Fang was once Cao Cao's official guide.
According to the regulations of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the promotion of officials needs to be recommended, even if Cao Cao's grandfather Cao Teng is a grand eunuch and his father Cao Song is a lieutenant, this convention cannot be broken. It is not clear what kind of transaction the Cao family and Sima Fang made, but Cao Cao's first official position as a northern lieutenant in Luoyang was recommended by Sima Fang, which should be clear.
However, most people only pay attention to Sima Fang's recommendation of Cao Cao, so later Cao Cao repaid Li with peach and reused Sima Yi, causing Cao Shi to be channeled by him, which is very ironic. But this record, in fact, is more interesting, is the dialogue between Cao Cao and Sima Fang later.
Cao Cao asked Sima Fang, "Will you still recommend me to the post of Northern Lieutenant today?" Sima Fang replied: I recommended the king because you were the most suitable candidate for this position.
At first glance, Cao Cao's question seems to be gossiping with old friends, but the time point of this conversation occurred in Jian'an twenty-one years. At this time, Cao Cao had already ascended to the throne of Wei, the power was tilted to the opposition, and the power was in his hands, and this kind of dialogue, if one did not answer well, it was still possible that the head would fall to the ground.
However, Sima Fang replied very measuredly, meaning that the time and space background is different, that is, it was the year, and now it is now. This answer neither demeaned Cao Cao nor excessively flattered, and from this we can see Sima Fang's cautious and witty side.
Sima Fang's trait may not be due to his long years of dealing with Cao Cao, but from his early experience with another dictator, Dong Zhuo.
In the first year of Chuping, in the face of the advance of the Kwantung Alliance, Dong Zhuo prepared to move west to Chang'an. At that time, Sima Fang's official position was Zhishu Yushi, and according to the regulations, he was supposed to relocate with the imperial court, but Sima Fang ordered his eldest son Sima Lang to return to his hometown with his family. Sima Fang's move was naturally denounced, and then Dong Zhuo brought Sima Lang and asked him: Why do you betray my son who is the same age as my deceased son!
Sima Lang did his best to praise Dong Zhuo, and it was not easy to dispel Dong Zhuo's killing intentions. He also bribed Dong Zhuo's cronies, which allowed him to return to his hometown. After Sima Lang returned to his hometown, he gathered villagers in his hometown of Wen County to protect the border and the people, and successfully preserved the survival of the Sima family in the chaotic world.
Another thing worth mentioning about Sima Fang is that he was very successful in educating his son, and he had eight sons, each of whom became talented, known as Sima Bada. Although this sentence may have been created by later generations in order to tout the Sima family, there is a lot of water, but in Bada, there are indeed three talents, Sima Lang, Sima Yi, and Sima Fu.
Needless to say, Sima Yi's achievements were that after the Coup d'état at GaoPingling, he completely grasped the power of Cao Wei and laid the foundation for the Sima family to usurp Wei. Although the eldest son Sima Lang's reputation was not as loud as guo jia, Jia Xu and others, Cao Cao also relied heavily on him, repeatedly entrusted with heavy responsibilities, and had a good performance in internal affairs and military affairs. Then Sima Fu, who served as Zhongshu Lang, Zhi Shi Chang Shi, Huang Men Shi Lang, Hanoi Diannong, Qinghe Taishou, Du Zhi Shangshu, Shang Shu Ling, and later became a Ren Taifu, but he was never proud, never had a grudge with anyone, and before his death he still called himself Wei Chen.
These achievements should be attributed to Sima Fang's strict family style requirements for the Sima family, and he tightly united the entire family.
Although the descendants of the Sima family fell into the family civil strife of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings after Sima Yan's death, it eventually led to the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty. However, if Sima Yan's attitude and education toward his children could unite the clan like his ancestor Sima Fang, then perhaps the western Jin Dynasty would not have ended like this.
Mencius: Gentleman's Ze, the fifth and beheading from Sima Fang, Sima Fang, Sima Yi, Sima Zhao, Sima Yan, Sima Zheng, no more, no less, just five generations. This also shows that the success of Sima Usurpation of the Throne in the Western Jin Dynasty came from successful family education, but the failure also stemmed from this, which is indeed very ironic.