Sima Yi is a well-known historical figure, and history buffs say that he gritted his teeth and hated him to the bone, and even blamed him for the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" and the "Five Hu Chaos" that caused great disasters to the people of the Chinese. Objectively speaking, Sima Yi had been dead for decades at the time of these two wars, and it would be unfair to say that he had caused these two upheavals. However, Sima Yi's reputation was indeed poor, and in the folk he appeared as a traitor; in the official history, he was also accused, such as Sima Guang's criticism of Sima Yi in the Zizhi Tongjian. So, why is this tyrant who has the courage to skip people still be spurned after a thousand years, and we will analyze it today.
The first was because Sima Yi and his descendants' infidelity to the imperial family was repugnant. Chinese people pay attention to loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness. After The death of Emperor Ming of Wei, the young Cao Fang was unable to control the situation after he ascended the throne, and Sima Yi took advantage of the fact that Cao Shuang, a member of the Cao Wei Clan, launched a coup d'état, arrested a large number of ministers who had real power in the Cao Wei Clan and supported the Cao Wei Clan, and thus emptied the Cao Wei Clan in one fell swoop; and his son Sima Zhao intensified his efforts, and even instructed his subordinates to kill the emperor Cao Xi, who was dissatisfied with him, in such a way, naturally had nothing to do with "loyalty", there was a Jin generation, and the Jin Dynasty even had no face to demand the loyalty of the subjects, and had to propagate "filial piety to rule the world." Sima Rui, the Ming Emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, once asked the chancellor about the history of the jin dynasty's entrepreneurship, and the minister truthfully replied, and after listening to what his ancestors had done, the Ming Emperor wept bitterly in the court and said, "How can the world of the Sima family last long!" ”
And in the treatment of others, Sima Yi is absolutely not "righteous", treating his superiors, The Wei Ming Emperor entrusted Sima Yi alone, before the sickbed, Sima Yi had sworn to do his best to assist the little emperor, but only a few years later he launched a coup to empty the emperor; treating his opponents, after the Gaopingling Incident, Cao Shuang escaped by chance, but Sima Yi captured Cao Shuang's family as hostages, and promised that as long as Cao Shuang surrendered and lifted real power, not only could the life of the whole family be saved, but also continue to enjoy glory and wealth. Cao Shuang believed it to be true and surrendered to Sima Yi. However, after the surrender, Sima Yi not only did not let Cao Shuang take up a false post and enjoy wealth as agreed, but immediately killed Cao Shuang and dozens of people in his entire family, and such a cunning act naturally could not be said to be "righteous".
Sima Yi, who has neither loyalty nor righteousness, and who has no outstanding performance in filial piety, can be said to be a mess in traditional morality, and it is not surprising that people with such despicable moral character have a poor evaluation in history.
To evaluate a historical figure, we must not only look at personal morality, but also look at historical merits. Although Li Shimin killed his brother and put his father under house arrest, he is still considered one of the greatest monarchs in China because he created the rule of Zhenguan. Under the rule of the Sima family, the officials were corrupt and corrupt, and the nobles were addicted to pleasure and comparison, and they were ignorant of the sufferings of the people: when Emperor Wu of Jin reigned, the Yellow River flooded, and many people fell into starvation, but the prince said in the court, "Since the people have no bread to eat, why don't they drink broth?" "The absurd decay of the rulers of the Jin Dynasty is evident. Not to mention the Chaos of the Eight Kings and the Chaos of the Five Wilds that caused the Central Plains to be "white bones exposed in the wild, and there was no chicken chirping in a thousand miles", although these things were not directly related to him, he also had a certain indirect responsibility as the founder of the Jin Dynasty.
Moreover, Sima Yi's greatest rival, Zhuge Liang, was a man of great renown both official and private Chinese, Zhuge Liang was frank and bright in his personal virtues, and in terms of historical merits, he governed the Shu Han in an orderly manner, and he was always committed to reviving the Han Dynasty; therefore, he was officially regarded as a model of courtiers and regarded by the people as the embodiment of wisdom. Being an opponent with such a person naturally made Sima Yi's wind evaluation fall further, coupled with the spread of folk literature such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Sima Yi's image naturally became worse and worse. (Howly