Cao Cao was a traitor of a generation, which may make many people overlook that he was also a literary scholar, proficient in poetry and calligraphy. In contrast, Liu Bei and Sun Quan have few literary works passed down, and even fewer literary anecdotes are well-known. History's evaluation of Cao Cao is extremely complex, but no matter how opposed the views of all sides, Cao Cao's ability is recognized.
Some people on the Internet say that the Three Kingdoms is an era of "old-fashioned calculations.". Cao Cao was obviously one of the best, and Zhuge Liang once said that when Cao Cao occupied the heavens, he dominated the north and advised Liu Bei to occupy the people and divide the world into three parts. In fact, Cao Cao was able to occupy the heavens thanks to his own calculations, of course, but also the contributions of his group of strategists.
Because Cao Cao's personality has multiple complexities, posterity often has a completely different view of him. Cao Cao's suspicious and cunning image was stamped with a strict and solid chapter by the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "I kill people in my dreams" and "I would rather bear the people of the world, and teach the people of the world to bear me" These two classic quotes are estimated to be familiar to everyone, and people who play the Game of the Three Kingdoms are probably tired of listening to them.
However, Cao Cao's image in literary works is another school of painting. He once wrote two "Short Song Lines", according to Su Shi's saying that Cao Cao's "Horizontal Poetry", "Short Song Lines" was probably chanted by Cao Cao on the eve of the Battle of Chibi when Cao Cao gathered the generals of Wenchen and Wu to hold a banquet, drink wine while admiring the moon, drink happily, and begin to express his pride and ambition.
The first song "Short Song Line" said: "When singing to wine, life is geometric!" For example, the morning dew, going to the day is more bitter. It is unforgettable to be worried. How to relieve worries? Only Du kang. Among them, "song to wine, geometry of life" has been passed down as a famous sentence for thousands of years, and has been sought after by literati and rioters in ancient times, and sought after by young people in modern times, becoming an indispensable classic of wine table culture.
Probably when drinking too much, people's feelings need to be sprayed out to be happy. In this regard, Cao Cao is no different from other literati, like the great Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai's poetry is indispensable to wine. But in fact, Cao Cao's second "Short Song Line" mainly says that he regarded the Duke of Zhou, who assisted Zhou Tianzi, as an idol, implying that he would not usurp the Han, and he did not claim the title of emperor until his death.
Shortly before writing The Short Song Line, Cao Cao wrote another poem. At that time, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao launched a PK war near the Yellow River, and in the tenth year of Jian'an (205), the originally weak Cao army attacked Yuan Shao's forces in one fell swoop, and Yuan Shao vomited blood and died. Cao Cao then proceeded to pacify Wuhuan, and as a result, Yuan Shao's sons returned to the division in victory and swept away the north.
At this point in time, Cao Cao's heart should be full of ambition and spring breeze, but as a literati, he has the common worries of all literati: he is 53 years old, how long can he continue to make meritorious achievements and gallop the world? So Cao Cao said in "Turtle Although Shou": "Old Ji Futuo, the ambition is in a thousand miles." The martyrs are in their twilight years and their hearts are full of excitement. ”
Cao Cao is still confident, he wrote bluntly in the poem: even if the BMW is old, lying next to the manger, it also has the ambition to travel thousands of miles a day; even if the heroic husband is getting old, his active and energetic mind will not be broken. This sentence, young people may not be able to empathize, and only middle-aged people who have experienced wind and rain can deeply understand the free ambition of Cao Cao's heart that does not obey the old.