Speaking of Cao Cao, it is estimated that everyone is no stranger, he is one of the princes who chased the Central Plains in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and he is also the founder of the Cao Wei regime in the Three Kingdoms Era, as a tyrant in the chaotic world, he can write and fight, successively defeated Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Lü Bu and other powerful princes, and gradually controlled the Central Plains in his own hands.
Cao Cao's disadvantage is that he is more lustful, so he has a lot of harem concubines, and Rong Ma has children in his lifetime, according to historical records, his sons are as many as 25, and his daughters are even more numerous.
However, due to the conservative attitude of most of the ancient history books to women, most of the names of Cao Cao's daughters have not been retained, and only six can be traced at present, namely: Princess Qinghe Chang, Princess Anyang, Princess Jinxiang, and Cao Xian, Cao Jie and Cao Hua.
So what happened to the marriage of Cao Cao's six daughters?
Photo: Stills of the Cao family's children eating together
First, the three princesses who are noble but ordinary
1. The eldest princess who has a bad relationship
Let's first look at the oldest Princess Qinghe, her mother was Lady Liu, and before she was born, she had an older brother, cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang, who at first planned to marry this daughter to the very talented Ding Yi, and also asked his son Cao Pi about this matter.
Cao Pi believes that the appearance of men is still more important, although Ding Yi is talented, but his appearance is not outstanding, it is better to marry this sister to Xiahou Shu's son Xiahou Shu, after all, the Xiahou family is still the clan of the Cao family, so that not only the purpose of political marriage is achieved, but also the relatives.
Cao Cao felt that his son's words were very reasonable, so he married Princess Qinghe to Xiahou Shu.
Later, Cao Cao promoted Ding Yi to be Xi Cao, and found that he was indeed a little too much, and secretly rejoiced that he did not marry his daughter to him. In fact, judging from the later ending, Cao Cao's choice was still very correct, because Ding Yi and Cao Zhi were very close and were executed by Cao Pi in the later battle for the throne.
It is worth mentioning that many history books say that the love life between Xiahou Shu and Princess Qinghe is not very good, in fact, there is a certain misunderstanding, because Xiahou Shu once served in the Guanzhong region and married many small wives, which caused the princess's dissatisfaction.
And Xiahou Shu's group of brothers were not convinced by him, so they joined forces to create rumors, and later when Cao Rui ascended the throne, he rehabilitated Xiahou Shu, saying that there was a cat in it, and it was also a return of his innocence, Xiahou Shu had always been a general of Zhendong in the Cao Wei era, and the ending of this eldest princess should be ok.
Photo: Stills of Princess Qinghe
2. The bumpy marriage of two princesses
The related deeds of the second Princess Anyang are relatively rare, and even the minimum year of birth and death is not very clear, the only historical record is that Cao Cao promised this daughter to xun yun, the son of the counselor Xun Yu, who later inherited his father's title, and the official position has always been achieved as the general of the tiger ben.
However, his relationship with Cao Zhi was very good, and he was naturally ostracized by Cao Pi, but he died relatively early and had two sons with the princess: Xun Zhen and Xun Feng.
Image: Princess Anyang married stills
Third, there are two theories about the origin of Princess Jinxiang, the first is that it is the daughter of Lady Du, and the other is the daughter of Lady Yin. Later historians generally believe that the reliability of the first theory is higher, and Princess Jinxiang also had a half-brother: Cao Lin, the King of Pei. The reason is actually very simple, that is, Princess Jinxiang married Lady Yin's son, He Yan, Cao Cao's adopted son.
It turned out that Lady Yin was originally He Jin's daughter-in-law, and later cao cao as a concubine, this time also took her ex-husband's son He Yan, because this child was more intelligent, Cao Cao let him be an adopted son, this He Yan was one of the founders of metaphysics in the Wei and Jin dynasties, was more talented, but he was too flashy, and the interpersonal relationship was not too good.
Princess Jinxiang did not have a good life for a few days after marrying him, He Yan basically fooled around outside every day, and later Sima Yi killed Cao Shuang, He Yan was also killed, Princess Jinxiang had a son, who was originally to be implicated and killed, hindering the face of Lady Yin and Cao Lin, Sima Yi only opened a side.
Image: Stills of princess Jinxiang
Two or three sisters are married to the same husband
1. The political chips in Daddy's hands
After talking about the three princesses, the only ones left are Cao Xian, Cao Jie and Cao Hua, in fact, the marriage of these three sisters has great similarities, that is, they are all married to the same man, he is the last emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xie.
In the 18th year of Jian'an of the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, in 213 AD, under cao Cao's personal arrangement, these three sisters became the wives of Emperor Xiandi at the same time, and the rank set at that time was "lady", which was recorded in more detail in historical materials such as the Book of Later Han.
In the second year after the three sisters entered the palace, that is, in 214 AD, the emperor came down with a will and named the three sisters "nobles".
Image: Stills of the three sisters being named "Nobles"
At that time, the original wife of Emperor Xiandi of Han was Empress Fu, which became the biggest stumbling block on Cao Cao's daughter's way to the throne, and although Emperor Xiandi of Han was still the nominal emperor at this time, he had already become a puppet in Cao Cao's hands.
In order to give the Han Dynasty royal family some warnings, Cao Cao threatened Emperor Xiandi of Han to personally depose the original Empress Dowager Fu and send her into the Cold Palace, and finally became depressed, after all obstacles were cleared, in 215 AD, that is, the 20th year of the Eastern Han Dynasty Jian'an.
Emperor Xian of Han officially crowned Cao Jie, the eldest of the three sisters, as the new empress.
Photo: Cao Jie was crowned empress by Emperor Liu Xie of the Han Dynasty
2. A life of seclusion
In the history books about the specific deeds of these three sisters, very little is described, in addition to Cao Jie as an empress and often mentioned, the other two sisters have only a few opportunities to show their faces, in 220 AD Cao Cao died of illness, Cao Pi succeeded to the title of King of Wei, he is different from his father, young and promising is not willing to be a "black hand behind the scenes".
So without doing two things, he directly forced Liu Xie, the Emperor of Han Xian, to give up the throne, and at that time, the jade seal of Emperor Xian of Han was in the hands of Empress Cao Jie, and Cao Pi asked the chancellor Hua Xin to take it.
As a result, Cao Jie completely sided with Emperor Xian of Han and supported her husband, saying that he would not hand over the jade seal at all.
Finally, he angrily threw Yuxi to the ground and smashed it, shouting: "God will not let you last long." Although Cao Jie and his brother Cao Pi had a very stiff relationship, Cao Pi always cared about her and made her the Duchess of Shanyang.
Image: Stills of Cao Jie wrestling jade seal
Emperor Xiandi of Han's later years lived in seclusion, and it was not until 234 AD that he died, and was buried in Chanling by Cao Wei according to the etiquette of the Son of Heaven, Cao Jie died in 260 AD more than 20 years after the death of Emperor Xian of Han, and finally in accordance with the regulations of the Han Dynasty, she was buried with her husband Liu Xie, with the title of "Empress Xianmu".
Cao Hua and Cao Xian have no relevant records, and it is estimated that the probability is that they have been living with Emperor Xian of Han, but the treatment is not as good as that of the old second Cao Jie.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!