Why is Cao Cao's tomb with his daughter-in-law's tomb? It turned out that he had an ulterior secret
There is a saying that Cao Cao's mausoleum is located five kilometers south of Tongquetai, in a place called Lingzhi Village. In the fifty-second year of Qianlong, the Chronicle of Zhangde Fu clearly mentioned: "The mausoleum of Cao Cao, the Emperor of Weiwu, is in Lingzhi Village, and to the south of it is the Chaoyang Mausoleum of Zhen Hou. ”
Empress Zhen, namely: Cao Pi's wife Zhen Wenzhao, who was originally the wife of Yuan Shao's son Yuan Xi. In that year, after Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao, Cao Pi preemptively entered Yuan Shao's city of Yicheng. When he found the beautiful Zhen Wenzhao in the Yuan Mansion, he was overjoyed, and Cao Pi took her away as his wife. Later, Zhen Wenzhao not only lost Cao Pi's favor, but was also given death by Cao Pi and buried in Yecheng.
So, how could Cao Cao's mausoleum be placed with his daughter-in-law?
There must be a story in that.
It turned out that Cao Cao had heard of Zhen's beauty before attacking Yuan Shao, but his son had taken away his favorite, leaving Cao Cao helpless! Moreover, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were of the same generation, and he was not good at marrying Yuan Shao's daughter-in-law, which would lead to the jokes of the heroes of the world.
Although Zhen was taken away by Cao Pi, Cao Cao was obsessed with it, so what to do? Therefore, some people suspect that there is a delicate relationship between Cao Cao and Zhen. Although they are hidden relatively deeply, ordinary people can't see them, but we can find clues from some phenomena.
It is mentioned in the Book of later Han that Kong Rong was born into a famous family and was a descendant of Confucius. Therefore, Kong Rong has been famous since he was a child, and he has looked down on other people with his own talents. It was for this reason that he was hated by Cao Cao and, in the end, killed by Cao Cao.
Here, we should also mention a letter written by Kong Rong to Cao Cao. In the letter, Kong Rong ridiculed Cao Pi, saying that his acceptance of Zhen Wenzhao was "the King of Wu cutting the silk and giving himself the Duke of Zhou", and Cao Cao did not know what Kong Rong meant, so he asked him to explain it. Kong Rong replied: "Judging it with the current eyes, this is taken for granted." Kong Rong's words make people angry, he is deliberately exposing the short, and it is to expose the scandal of the Cao family.
Because Cao Cao had always taken "Zhou Wengong" as the object of study, now Kong Rong's words were deliberately humiliating him, causing Cao Cao to kill Kong Rong in a rage. In addition, there is also evidence: when Cao Pi first married Zhen, he loved this wife very much, and the two were kind and loving, which made others envious. However, after Cao Cao's death, Cao Pi immediately changed his attitude and snubbed Zhen.
So, why did Cao Pi have such a big change?
According to the Book of Wei, Zhen said something unpleasant to Cao Pi's new favorite, which made Cao Pi angry. After that, Cao Pi locked zhen up, abused her in every way, and finally issued an edict to kill zhen. Immediately, Zhen drank poisoned wine and passed away. It can be seen that zhen's life from being favored to being killed is between Cao Pi's thoughts.
It turned out that Zhen refused to drink poisonous wine, but Cao Pi's new favorite could not tolerate her, so he blocked her mouth with chaff and made it difficult for her to breathe. After that, seizing the opportunity for Zhen to take a big breath, they poured poisoned wine and let him die. Moreover, after Cao Cao's death, Cao Pi also did something rebellious, that is, to summon his father's concubines to his palace for himself to play.
Once, Cao Pi fell ill, and his mother, Mrs. Bian, visited him later. When the empress dowager opened the curtain, she found that Cao Pi's bed was lying on Cao Cao's favored concubines. Empress Bian was very surprised and hurriedly asked Cao Pi, "When did these concubines come?" Cao Pi responded, "Father Cao Cao had just died, and these concubines had been called by him. Moreover, when Cao Pi said these words, he was very calm and did not have the slightest sense of shame.
However, when Empress Bian saw such a scene, she was very angry, and she felt that a person like Cao Pi, even if he passed away, the rat would not touch his corpse. Because, Cao Pi did too much. Judging from these two things, Cao Cao and Zhen did have ambiguous feelings, which led to Kong Rong's death and Cao Pi's crazy revenge.
Just think, it may be Cao Cao's unspeakable past, qing dynasty scholars put the tombs of the two together, let the world know Cao Cao's uninhibited style. It's just that these are hypotheses and there is no solid evidence.
However, there is also a theory that Cao Cao's mausoleum is in his hometown of Chenxian County, a place called "Cao Family Lonely Pile".
In 1991, Scenic Spots magazine published an article titled "Cao Cao in the Hometown of Emperor Weiwu" (魏武帝), "Cao Cao". The article argues that Cao Cao's mausoleum is in a lonely pile in the Cao family, and lists three reasons:
The first reason, the Book of Wei, has a relevant record:
In 220 AD, the army was stationed in Chenxian County, and the soldiers lived with the people of Yuxian County. The army was in Chenxian County, and Cao Cao's sudden death must have been buried in this place. In addition, the "Bozhou Chronicle" mentions that Cao Cao died when the army was stationed in Chenxian County, and they erected an altar in front of the old mansion and made a monument in the woods. Because, when Cao Cao passed away, it was the first month, so he was buried the next day.
If he was really buried in Yecheng, Cao Pi would not have come to his hometown. It can be seen that the purpose of Cao Pi's visit was to pay tribute to his father Cao Cao.
The second reason, as stated in the Book of Wei, is that in the year of Bing Shen, Cao Pi personally went to the Tomb of The Tomb to worship the Ancestral Temple:
The Tomb is the Cao's Lonely Pile, twenty kilometers away from the city gate. When Cao Cao was thirty-one years old, he returned to build the Jingshe, and Cao Pi was born here. Therefore, Cao Pi personally came to worship, not only because this is the place of birth, but also because this is the mausoleum of Cao Pi's ancestors, that is, Cao Cao's mausoleum.
The third reason is that in the history of Bozhou, there was a huge group of tombs of Cao Cao's ancestors, and the tombs of Cao Cao's grandfather Cao Teng, his father Cao Song, and his eldest daughter Cao Xian were all here. Therefore, Cao Cao's mausoleum should also be here and continue to stay with his family.
However, there are many loopholes in this statement.
The most obvious loophole is that the author uses Cao Pi's worship as evidence that Cao Cao's mausoleum is in Bozhou. Could it be that Cao Pi must have worshipped Cao Cao? Can't be another ancestor? This reason is clearly insufficient.
In fact, the emperor's sacrifice is not necessarily a sacrifice to the father, but a greater possibility is to sacrifice the ancestors. For example, after Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he asked officials who knew feng shui to choose a suitable place in the place of birth, and he wanted to establish a mausoleum group and move the tombs of his ancestors here. After the location was chosen, Zhu Yuanzhang rebuilt the tombs of his ancestors here and invited them here.
Therefore, Cao Pi's sacrifice of ancestors in Tan County is likely only an activity to worship ancestors, and it is not clear whether Cao Cao's mausoleum is really there.
In addition, if the author of the article wants to say that "the tomb of the ancestors of the Cao family is here, and the tomb of Cao Cao should also be here", it is only self-deception and cannot be convincing.
So, where is Cao Cao's mausoleum?
We don't know, we can only lament that Cao Cao deceived the heavens before he died, and deceived us after death, so that we could not find his place.
In fact, Cao Cao's cunning is famous, which is likely to be Cao Cao teasing us and not wanting us to find his mausoleum. In fact, this is only one aspect of the problem. On the other hand, Cao Cao was frugal throughout his life and advocated "thin burial" to the world. So, will he be a practitioner of "thin burial"? If this is the case, then his historical impact has been positive.
Moreover, in Cao Cao's era, there were frequent wars and social turmoil, and some people took the form of secret burial, but they also did not want to attract people's eyes and ears and did not want to find trouble for themselves.
It can be seen that Cao Cao not only protected himself by doing so, but also gave those tomb robbers no chance to attack.
From this point of view, Cao Cao was very wise.