Singer Lin Junjie once had a famous song called "Cao Cao", in which a lyric was like this: "At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the three kingdoms were divided, and the flames were endless..."
It can be seen that the Three Kingdoms period in history was an era of frequent conquests, and in that dynasty, many heroes and heroes were recorded in the annals of history, and various film and television works derived from it also emerged in an endless stream.
The reason why Cao Cao can become an "outstanding representative" in the Three Kingdoms is that
He was a military wizard with a martial strategy.
He is also a genius who is good at poetry.
Of course, in addition to these, he is also a controversial figure in the eyes of historians.
Well, those who have a "negative image"
Why was Cao Cao capable all his life, but he was unable to unify the Three Kingdoms?
Is it really just because he is suspicious and suspicious in his heart? Let's see what some great men have to say about him.
01 Celebrities' evaluation of Cao Cao
Cao Cao was a man who not only possessed extremely high military attainments, but also had top-notch literary and artistic accomplishments, and his sons Cao Pi and Cao Zhi were also famous poets in the history of Chinese literature.
"The old ji is a hero, the ambition is in a thousand miles; the martyr is in his twilight years, and his heart is strong" This famous sentence that has been passed down through the ages is
From a poem written by Cao Cao
In "Turtle Life".
Although Cao Cao had achieved many achievements in military and literature, in the mouth of Li Shimin, the founder of the Sheng Tang Dynasty, he was not so wise and resourceful, and even felt that he did not have the style of a king.
Li Shimin said that Cao Cao was"
In the face of danger, the enemy is strange, the wisdom of one will be more than enough, and the talent of ten thousand multipliers will not be enough!
”
The meaning of this sentence is obviously that Cao Cao can fight as a general, but he cannot bear the responsibility of governing the country and the world, and he does not have the ability in this regard.
Instantly, Cao Cao's image of a powerful and powerful subject was suddenly lowered by Tang Taizong.
Looking back on Cao Cao's life, he was in the era of the Three Kingdoms, and based on this, he did not dare to make enemies lightly, so he often practiced his own leading troops.
However, even so, it did not change the result of Cao Cao's successive failures, so although Cao Cao conquered Yuan Shao, Liu Biao, Han Sui and other princes, and even crushed Liu Bei and Sun Quan for a time,
Li Shimin still felt that he was not in a sufficient pattern.
In fact, thinking of Cao Cao's origin, it is naturally not difficult to understand why he attaches great importance to military power and does not dare to withdraw military power, based on such historical facts, Li Shimin, who swept through the crowd, naturally has a sense of superiority.
This sense of superiority can also be reflected in Li Shimin's usual words, such as he once sighed and sighed, which means that there are more than a hundred surnames in the world, why are some surnames so arrogant? Are they more honorable than my Li surname?
Therefore, from various examples, Tang Taizong Li Shimin's evaluation is somewhat subjective and self-elevating, not so objective.
Therefore, even if it is the founding father of the Tang Dynasty, the common people will also try to have a happy look at the liveliness.
In modern times, Mr. Lu Xun, who is accustomed to criticizing society with his writing, mentioned Cao Cao in a less intense tone:
When we talk about Cao Cao, it is easy to think of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and thus think of the traitor on the stage, but this is not the way to observe Cao Cao.
This passage comes from his article "Wei Jin's Demeanor and the Relationship of Articles to Medicine and Wine".
What is the method of observing Cao Cao?
Cao Cao killed countless enemies and was nicknamed Wei Wu
This is a very powerful nickname, and you can see how powerful and brilliant he was in his life.
Although he was so dazzling, in the books and opera stages of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Cao Cao mostly showed himself as a traitor, and more emphasized his negative role.
In the eyes of the great Chairman Mao, it is more comprehensive to evaluate the ancient emperors, not only to see what achievements they have made politically, but also to consider their literary talents!
Therefore, Mao Zedong did not agree with those who deliberately "vilified" Cao Cao's image in his youth.
Mao Zedong, who loved to read, loved to read Cao Cao's books, and he often praised his articles and poems as "
Extremely authentic, straight to the chest, open-minded, should learn!
Mao Zedong once quoted Cao Cao's poem in a letter to Hu Qiaomu, namely, "
The period of profit and contraction is not alone in the sky. The blessing of nourishment can be eternal
”。
This sentence is from "Turtle Although Shou", which is intended to persuade him to recuperate with peace of mind, and the poem "Turtle Although Shou" is about the way of eternal life, which is very meaningful!
When he saw the rise, Mao Zedong would also draw annotations with red pens next to Cao Cao's poems, and of course this habit was always used by him in any book he read.
Chairman Mao's "Book of Wei and The Chronicle of Emperor Wu" has more circles
It can be seen that he attaches great importance to how the world evaluates Cao Cao, and he also advocates a more realistic evaluation of Cao Cao.
Above we talked about Lu Xun's article "Wei Jin's Demeanor and the Relationship between Articles and Medicine and Wine", because he also advocated an objective evaluation of Cao Cao, so Mao Zedong also marked it with a red pen to show that he agreed with this view.
Especially Lu Xun's sentence"
Cao Cao is a very capable person, at least a hero, although I am not Cao Cao's party, but no matter what, always admire him
This shows that the Chairman is very much in agreement.
02 Chairman Mao pointed out Cao Cao's shortcomings to the point
Of course, in reality, not everyone blindly "negativeizes" Cao Cao, and those who recognize him also show that he has always had a Han room in his heart from the fact that he "has not usurped power and seized the throne in his whole life".
In addition, the sentence in Cao Cao's poem "Short Song Line"
Zhou Gong spits and feeds, and the world returns to its heart
It is also enough to see his ambition, not to replace the Han room with himself.
If you don't understand, let's look at the background of this sentence: The Duke of Zhou was the son of King Wen of Zhou, that is, the younger brother of King Wu of Zhou; at that time, King Wu of Zhou succeeded to the throne by King Cheng, and the Duke of Zhou came to assist him in managing the chaotic situation in the country, and did not rest assured that he would return power to him until king Cheng became an adult.
In summary, it also indirectly allows us to understand Cao Cao more concretely and comprehensively.
How could such an outstanding talent with lofty ambitions fail to accomplish the great cause of unifying the three countries?
Until the last hard-working regime was usurped by Sima Shi...
There must be more than one reason, among which Cao Mengde's "more than wit, insufficient political strategy" is one of them:
Although Cao Cao was resourceful and brave in leading his troops, his political strategy was repeatedly successful by Emperor Xian
Coupled with the suspiciousness that he can ruthlessly give death to his friend Xun Yu, who he regards as a sibling- it is enough to show that this person is "insufficient in political strategy".
Chairman Mao believed that two "fatal" shortcomings stemmed from Cao Cao's body, causing him to always fail at important junctures and ultimately fail to unify the three kingdoms.
The first flaw is Cao Cao's personality, which is very indecisive
，
Here the Chair gave two examples to illustrate its shortcomings:
One was that after Cao Cao had finished attacking Zhang Lu, he should have taken advantage of the victory to pursue and continue to attack Yizhou, and Sima Yi and others advised him to do so.
But Cao Cao did not agree, and it was not until a few months later that he regretted not following the advice
- It was too late, and the time to attack Shu had disappeared.
The second was when Lü Bu surrendered. In the face of Lü Bu, a fierce general who killed his father and killed the lord, Cao Cao hesitated to kill or not, and finally did not make up his mind but handed over the decision-making power to Liu Bei.
Liu Bei did not hesitate and explained to Cao Cao the relevant pros and cons.
Cao Cao boldly killed him.
Moreover, Cao Cao ordered at the Battle of Changshanpo that "there should be no arrows", which made Zhao Yun enter and exit seven times and save his life... Therefore, it can be seen that its indecisiveness has missed many good opportunities!
The second disadvantage is that Cao Cao could not be strict with himself in terms of life
。
Cao Cao was defeated in the famous "Battle of Chibi", so how did he deal with the defeat?
In the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Emperor Wu of the Three Kingdoms, it is said that "he ordered the generals to go out on the battlefield, those who lost the army to atone for their crimes, and those who lost were exempted from official titles", and this inappropriate way of handling also made it possible
Chairman Mao criticized Cao Cao "for hating iron and steel": "Who will be the crime of the Battle of Chibi?" ”
We know that discipline is very important to the army, and Cao Cao's actions of attributing his mistakes to the army after his defeat are also a manifestation of his inability to be strict with himself.
I have to say that Chairman Mao's vision of knowing people is so accurate.
It is really a direct point to Cao Mengde's weakness!
03 Overturning the case for "Owl Xiong" makes posterity evaluate him more objectively
Of course, everyone has meritorious deeds, and after pointing out the fundamental reasons why Cao Cao could not unify the world, Mao Zedong did not forget to "overturn the case" for Cao Cao and correct some prejudices that existed in history.
All this also shows that our party is a party that stresses the truth, and we cannot let go of unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, and we need to persist in our dedication to truth and justice!
In addition, another major reason why Chairman Mao overturned cao Cao's case was based on his merits
First of all, Cao Cao unified northern China at that time, established the state of Wei, and to a certain extent reformed the bad government left over from the Eastern Han Dynasty.
At that time, Cao Cao suppressed the strong and the inferior gentry to the greatest extent, and implemented the system of opening up the land and greatly promoting the development of productive forces; moreover, his implementation of the legal system also advocated thrift and thrift, and maintained the social stability that was destroyed at that time.
In 1959
Chinese academics also launched a wide-reaching discussion under Mao Zedong's advocacy to overturn Cao Cao's case, and Scholars such as Guo Moruo wrote articles to restore Cao Cao's reputation.
At the Lushan Conference in August of that year, Mao Zedong also mentioned the reversal of the case for Cao Cao in his speech.
Since then, all sectors of society have also begun to evaluate Cao Cao more objectively
, rather than one-sidedly stating his good or bad.
Lushan Conference
In his later years, Chairman Mao again mentioned Cao Cao's contribution to China's reunification: "
He was a great political-military man and a great poet.
At that time, Mao Zedong most completely evaluated this "tyrant" once, and it was also the only time that he used "politicians, military experts, and poets" to evaluate the same person.
epilogue:
Mao Zedong's comments on Cao Cao let us see that he did not stick to the historical records, but evaluated and judged a person with an attitude of scientific verification and seeking truth from facts.
This is also the spirit that our Party has always had:
No one is in the clouds, only the most objective aspects to verify the truth, to learn lessons from the strengths and avoid the shortcomings, to encourage themselves and improve themselves for the use of the past and the present.
Cao Cao's experience also makes us deeply aware of the eternal principle of "those who win the hearts and minds of the people will win the world", if you kill innocents indiscriminately like him, you are doomed to have no connection with the world.
Cao Cao's personality also makes us aware of the weaknesses of human nature, so as to always be alert to ourselves and avoid falling into the same dilemma as him.
bibliography:
1. People's Daily - Chinese Communist Party News Network - "How Mao Zedong Evaluated Cao Cao"
2. People's Political Consultative Conference Daily - Mao Zedong commented on the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Cao Cao: advocating realistic evaluation