When eunuchs are mentioned, people think of nothing more than sinister and cunning shameless villains full of rumors. Or several dynasties disrupted the order of the court and held a group of eunuchs with great power. Although there are many eunuchs who have left their names in history, most of the eunuchs who have left an impression on people are not good people, which leads to our misunderstanding of the entire group of eunuchs. In fact, there are still good eunuchs, such as Cao Teng mentioned today.
Perhaps many friends do not know who Cao Teng is, but his grandson is a big man Cao Cao who everyone knows. It can be said that the reason why Cao Cao had the capital to become a figure of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Teng's contribution was indispensable.
According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Teng's ancestors were once great heroes in the early Western Han Dynasty, and the family was huge. But to Cao Teng's father, Cao Jie's generation, was very poor. Because Cao Jie alone could not support the size of a family, he had to send the young Cao Teng to the palace. Cao Teng also lived up to expectations, not only promoting officials to get rich, but also allowing the decaying Cao clan to develop again. Of course, the price is also huge, Cao Teng lost the treasure.
When Cao Teng entered the palace, he was very young and had no one to rely on, so he had a very hard time at first, and was often bullied by other palace people. But Cao Teng's luck was good, and he was arranged to be with the prince and developed from then on.
The crown prince he served was the later Emperor Shun of Han. How did a small yellow door enter the emperor's eyes? In addition to working hard and responsible, Cao Teng also understood the emperor's heart very well. He was well-behaved, and before the emperor could say what he wanted, he could grasp what it meant. Maybe you'd say that emperors hate people who guess. Cao Teng is different, he is a very cautious person, and he is steady in handling things, the key is that he never talks indiscriminately, so he is deeply trusted by the emperor. Soon he became a confidant of Emperor Shun.
Since ancient times, being able to climb the emperor means the rise of the family, and so has the Cao Teng family. Since he developed, the members of the family have also developed new, but he is not the kind of treacherous villain who recommends his relatives, so he has not been a good official in his family. However, he has recommended many capable people, which is very admirable.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to historical reasons, eunuchs were classified as bed bugs, rats and ants, which was repugnant. But Cao Teng's reputation is the opposite, when it comes to him, people will give a thumbs up, that is: Cao Gongxiande. Why is his wind rating so good? It is because many of the talents he recommends are reused, and some people have become secretaries of state. Therefore, the emperor regarded him as loyal, and the ministers respected him.
However, no matter how well Cao Teng did, some people thought that he was a eunuch and had prejudices against him. There was a minister named Seed Kuan who was very disgusted with eunuchs, and in his eyes, none of the eunuchs were good people. Seeing so many people saying how good Cao Teng was, He Shu sneered. Once, he learned from the bystanders that Cao Teng had accepted bribes, so he ran to the emperor to report Cao Teng. However, it was found that Cao Teng had not done anything wrong, which made ZhongXuan seem very unhappy.
There had been no intersection between Seed Anderson and Cao Teng before, and Cao Teng had been hacked once for no reason, and Seed Pavilion thought he would be angry. However, he did not want Cao Teng not to care about this, not only did he not shout in front of the emperor and take the opportunity to eradicate the seed, but instead told the emperor that the seed was a straight man, very loyal, and worthy of the emperor's heavy use. After this incident, not only was He convinced of him, but also made many ministers admire this eunuch even more.
Later, after the death of Emperor Shun, Cao Teng served 3 emperors successively, and because he protected and supported Emperor Huan's succession to the throne, he was named the Marquis of Ting by Emperor Huan, and he also lived very well in his later years, and was a rare eunuch with a good death.
So the question is, Cao Teng became a eunuch as a child, how could he have offspring?
In fact, it was because Cao Teng and the eunuchs at that time made contributions to Emperor Shun, and Emperor Shun was very grateful to them, and Emperor Shun felt that the reward of money was too vulgar, and the eunuchs were very miserable in their old age, so it was better to let them have a family. So breaking with tradition and allowing high-ranking eunuchs to marry and adopt children can also allow children to inherit their own property and status.
Therefore, Cao Teng not only had a wife, but also adopted several sons, among which Cao Song inherited the family business, and Cao Song gave birth to Cao Cao. Cao Teng became Cao Cao's grandfather.
Cao Teng's life was very miserable except for his childhood, but he was still very stable, and he revitalized the Cao clan and gave the family a foundation. The adopted son Cao Song became a lieutenant, and several other children were also high officials.
Grandson Cao Cao, who was also a generation of tyrants, not only made foreign tribes submit, but also realized the unification of the northern regions, laying the foundation for the establishment of the State of Wei.
Later, soon after Cao Rui ascended the throne, he posthumously enfeoffed this high grandfather, and Cao Teng became emperor of Wei Gao. He certainly could not have imagined that he could become an orthodox emperor like his adopted son, grandson and others.
As early as when Cao Pi was emperor, Cao Pi posthumously crowned his father and grandfather as emperor, but did not mention his grandfather Cao Teng. Perhaps Cao Pi thought that Cao Teng's status as a eunuch made the cao family's face a little hanging, so he resisted. Why would his son Cao Rui do such a thing?
In fact, this is very easy to understand, Cao Rui has great respect for his grandfather Cao Teng, and he feels that his exploits cannot be erased because his ancestors were eunuchs. He deeply knew that without Cao Teng, there would be no later Cao Clan, and what his father Cao Pi did not do, he should complete it, so that this person who revitalized the Cao family would be enshrined by future generations. Cao Teng became the only eunuch emperor in history.