Although Cao Pi was the orthodox successor of the State of Wei after Cao Cao, in the eyes of many people in later generations, Cao Pi's reputation did not seem to be as good as Cao Zhi's, and cao Pi's burden was mostly infamy, especially when people read Cao Zhi's "Seven Steps Poem", their views on Cao Pi were even worse.
Many people think that in the second half of Cao Zhi's life, Cao Pi and Cao Pi's son Cao Rui have not spared Cao Zhi, and they have been cruel to Cao Zhi, making Cao Zhi unhappy all his life and eventually depressed, so is this the real situation? Did Cao Pi really not let Go of Cao Zhi?
The dispute between Cao Zhi and Cao Pi's sons
Cao Cao's eldest son was Cao Ang, the eldest son was Cao Pi, and the second son was Cao Zhi, when Cao Ang was alive, Cao Cao placed high hopes on Cao Ang, hoping that Cao Ang could become a son of the world and inherit his great cause, but unfortunately, later after Cao Cao recruited Zhang Xiu, he offended Zhang Xiu because of his lust for the beauty of Zhang Xiu's aunt Zou Shi, and was eventually taken advantage of by Zhang Xiu to launch an armed attack.
Zhang Xiu was surprised, Cao Cao was helpless for a while, fortunately, thanks to his son Cao Ang, nephew Cao Anmin, and the general Dianwei and others who covered themselves with their lives, Cao Cao had the opportunity to escape from death and escaped a disaster, and Cao Ang of course became a victim of Cao Cao's lust for beauty.
After this incident, Cao Cao's choice of Shizi was once again hesitating, mainly between the eldest son Cao Pi and the second son Cao Zhi, Cao Pi seemed to be more talented and capable, so at first Cao Cao was not optimistic about Cao Pi, but paid more attention to the younger Cao Zhi.
Cao Zhi was talented from childhood, people say that "there is only one stone in the world, Cao Zijian monopolizes the eight buckets", which is enough to show where Cao Zhi's talent lies, Cao Cao has favored Cao Zhi since childhood, and it is also reasonable, Cao Cao often takes Cao Zhi with him, hoping to use some wars to exercise Cao Zhi.
In order to cultivate Cao Zhi, Cao Cao specially arranged yang Xiu, Ding Yi, and Ding Shu to assist Cao Zhi, and Sima Yi arranged to assist Cao Pi, hoping to train the two with the help of a team of equal strength, and then assess the ability of the two from them, and finally decided who to choose to be the son of the world.
It can be said that Cao Cao's arrangement is relatively fair to Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, allowing them to receive education of similar levels from an early age, not favoring anyone, depending on who has the ability to be stronger after the final education, and who chooses who will be the heir.
Cao Pi, with the assistance of Sima Yi, studied a lot of Houhei, and Cao Zhi, with the assistance of Yang Xiu and others, seems to have not changed much, but he is still more interested in literature and other things, and his ability to handle dynastic politics and politics seems to have not grown much, and three of these things directly led to Cao Zhi being completely abandoned by Cao Cao.
The first thing is that Cao Zhi drank and went crazy, Cao Cao clearly stipulated that no one was allowed to pass through Sima Men at night, and as a result, Cao Zhi was disobedient, and after getting drunk, he broke into Sima Men at night, which made Cao Cao disappointed him, felt that Cao Zhi had a problem with his character, and did not trust him to be his heir.
After the influence of this drunken madness, Cao Cao was no longer as partial to Cao Zhi as before, and even began to consider Cao Pi as the son of the world, and as a result, Cao Zhi's teacher Yang Xiu, because of his private speculation, caused Cao Cao to be strongly dissatisfied with him, and Cao Cao began to feel that Cao Zhi might also become a similar person to Yang Xiu.
Yang Xiu was eventually killed by Cao Cao, and Cao Zhi was also abandoned by Cao Cao from the list of heirs, and Cao Cao chose Cao Pi as his son, but at this time Cao Cao did not completely abandon Cao Zhi, and hoped that Cao Zhi would seize the opportunity to make a meritorious contribution, so that he could look at him with admiration.
Just when Guan Yu besieged Fancheng, Cao Ren was also besieged by Guan Yu, Cao Cao planned to appoint Cao Zhi as the general of Nanzhong Lang, led his troops to rescue Cao Ren, everything was ready, and waited for the next day to leave, as a result, on the same night, Cao Zhi and Cao Pi were both drunk and drunk, when the next day Cao Cao sent to follow Cao Zhi on the expedition had arrived at Cao Zhi's residence, Cao Zhi was still drunk and unconscious, Cao Cao was completely desperate this time, and officially abandoned Cao Zhi, in the days that followed, Cao Zhi was basically left talented. The rest of the things in government affairs have little to do with him.
How did Cao Pi treat Cao Zhi
After Cao Cao's death, Cao Pi inherited his father's business as a son, and after ascending the throne, he successively executed two of Cao Zhi's advisers, Ding Shu and Ding Yi, and cao Zhi's fiefdoms were often changed, at first Cao Pi made Cao Zhi the Marquis of Anxiang (221 AD), and within a year, he was renamed the Marquis of Juancheng.
In 223 AD, Cao Pi changed the title of Cao Zhi to the King of Yongqiu, in 226 AD, he changed Cao Zhi to Chen County again, in 229 AD, changed cao zhi to Dong'a, from 221 AD to 229 AD, in less than ten years, Cao Zhi has been changed by Cao Pi four times, which is enough to show that Cao Pi is still guarded against Cao Zhi.
Only by constantly changing Cao Zhi's fiefdom and arranging some people of average ability around Cao Zhi can we prevent Cao Zhi from competing for power with himself, even if Cao Pi has made such arrangements, he still feels uneasy, and almost killed Cao Zhi, fortunately, at that time, Cao Pi forced Cao Zhi to become a poem in seven steps, and Cao Zhi used the "Seven Steps Poem" to cleverly arouse Cao Pi's thinking about brotherhood, and let Cao Zhi go (of course, there was also the influence of the mediation of the two mothers, Lady Bian).
If Cao Zhi had not written this poem within seven steps at that time, or had not relied on the content to impress Cao Pi, perhaps Cao Zhi would have lost his life, from this point of view, Cao Pi's treatment of Cao Zhi could be said to be vicious, plus Cao Pi deliberately tricked Cao Zhi into getting drunk when Cao Zhi had important things to do, indicating that Cao Pi's heart was very dark, and in order to obtain the position of the son of the world, he would stop at nothing.
But maybe we look at it from another angle, we will feel that Cao Pi's treatment of Cao Zhi is already considered to be benevolent and righteous, why do you say so? And listen to me continue to analyze. Cao Zhi was younger than Cao Pi, and after Cao Pi married Yuan Xi's wife Zhen Mi, he also specially asked Zhen Mi to help him take care of Cao Zhi, which caused posterity to imagine the relationship between Cao Zhi and Zhen Mi, and even Cao Zhi's "Luoshen Fu" written by Cao Zhi was written by many people who said that it was written for Zhen Mi.
These gossip we do not study its true or false for the time being, just from the fact that Cao Pi was able to let Zhen Mi take care of Cao Zhi, it shows that Cao Pi is also a more qualified brother, in the face of imperial power, Cao Zhi and Cao Pi have been fighting for many years, if according to the urine nature of the ancient royal family, Cao Pi will inevitably kill Cao Zhi directly when he ascends to the throne, and will not care about any emotion, and Cao Pi only forced Cao Zhi to take seven steps into poetry, and later let Cao Zhi a horse, indicating that Cao Pi did not want to kill Cao Zhi.
After the Seven Steps into Poetry Incident, there were many ministers in Cao Pi's camp who suggested that Cao Pi kill Cao Zhi to avoid the night from being long and dreamy, but Cao Pi repeatedly denied the minister's suggestion, indicating that in Cao Pi's heart, Cao Zhi still had a certain weight, and he was reluctant to kill Cao Zhi.
When Cao Pi was alive, although he had been changing Cao Zhi's fiefdom, most of the time, there was also an increase in Cao Zhi's food, indicating that Cao Pi's treatment of this younger brother was no longer mean, and we can look at yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty, the kind of way he treated his brothers after he ascended the throne, and we will find that Cao Pi can be regarded as benevolent and righteous.
How Cao Rui treated Cao Zhi
After Cao Pi's death, passing the throne to his son Cao Rui, at first Cao Zhi felt that he could display his talents and make a big thing, but when Cao Zhi made his own request to Cao Rui several times, he was rejected by Cao Rui, and many people felt that this was Cao Rui's meanness to his uncle Cao Zhi, and it was precisely because of these harsh treatments that Cao Zhi eventually became depressed.
In fact, I think Cao Rui is also very good to Cao Zhi, he not only did not kill Cao Zhi, but also gave Cao Zhi better living conditions, just do not want to reuse Cao Zhi, just imagine, Cao Zhi can be drunk and drunk and crazy night to break into Sima Men, can be at the critical moment of rescuing Cao Ren, drunk and delayed big things, such a person, replaced by any wise monarch, will not reuse him.
As for whether Cao Zhi is talented in the end, I think that his talent in literature is indeed very good, but Cao Zhi's talent in politics and military affairs, and even in terms of being an official, I think it is impossible to see it in the historical data, so Cao Rui does not dare to reuse Cao Zhi, which is completely reasonable.
Cao Zhi was depressed because of these things, only lived for more than forty years, this statement I think that is a subjective conjecture of posterity, in the Three Kingdoms period, the war was in chaos, the average age of people was less than forty years old, Cao Zhi died in his forties, it is completely normal, to say that he was depressed and died, what evidence is there?
epilogue
Overall, whether it is Cao Pi or Cao Rui, in fact, it is enough to treat Cao Zhi, not only did not kill him, but also gave him enough fiefdoms and food to allow Cao Zhi to live a good life, they are not willing to reuse Cao Zhi, that is Cao Zhi has learned from the past, no one dares to easily appoint ah!
Remarks: The picture comes from the Internet, infringement must be deleted, welcome to comment to leave interesting ideas.