"Rolling water in the east of the Yangtze River, the waves exhaust the heroes." Success or failure turned to the sky, the green mountains are still there, and the sunset is red several times. ”
The ruts of history have long been gradually obliterated under the baptism of time, but those historical figures with great personality and charm are like a big wave of gold panning, and they are more and more brilliant in the continuous research of later generations.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos, the crowds of heroes were chasing deer, and Haojie rose up, and in the "Three Kingdoms Heroes List" with talents, Cao Mengde Cao Boss must be able to rank first.
He adhered to the literature and martial arts, unified the north, recruited the virtuous, meritocracy, ya love poetry, magnificent rhyme, can be described as a collection of wen Tao martial arts in one, just as he himself said: "Heroes of the world, only the king and the ear."
However, it was such an unborn hero Hao Jie who failed to complete the grand ambition of unifying the Three Kingdoms throughout his life, and even in the end, Cao Wei Jiye was stolen by Sima Shi's "Three Horse Food Trough".
Later generations' evaluation of Cao Cao was also deeply controversial, and the traitor and hero seemed to be only one thought.
Why Cao Cao failed to achieve the great cause of reunification, and how should future generations objectively evaluate Cao Cao and his people, another great man in history has already handed over an excellent answer, he is Mao Zedong.
Controversial, two-faced Cao Cao in history and literature
The evaluation of Cao Cao has been controversial for a long time, especially the sentence "I would rather teach me to bear the world's people, and hugh to teach the world's people to bear me", which has become an ancient saying that proves his cruelty and selfishness.
Cao Cao, a figure who has been debated by later generations for thousands of years, will surely always exist in the whirlpool of public opinion in the future.
Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and many literary and artistic works are accustomed to portraying Cao Cao as a sinister and treacherous villain, and cao Cao will also be dressed up in the opera to show his adultery, such a simple facial behavior has further aggravated the stereotype of Cao Cao in the world.
In fact, abandoning the interpretation of literary works, there is no shortage of people in history who shouted injustice for Cao Cao.
For example, Xu Shao's famous sentence "The capable minister who governs the world, the adulterous male who is in turmoil", Tang Taizong also praised him for "controlling changes in the face of danger, anticipating the enemy to set up strangeness", and even Chen Shou, who wrote the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", praised him as "an extraordinary person, a transcendent masterpiece".
To say that the most uneven person of Contemporary Cao Cao is Mao Zedong, who not only handwritten Cao Cao's "Turtle Although Shou", but also heroically wrote the famous sentence "The past is more than a thousand years, Wei Wu wielded a whip, and there are relics in the east of Jieshi", and even he launched a "rehabilitation" movement against Cao Cao.
Pity each other, Cao Cao's thousand-year-old confidant
Mao Zedong never hid his love for Cao Cao, and he praised Cao Cao's exploits on many occasions, and warned those around him not to be limited by the texts of novels and operas, and to evaluate Cao Cao objectively and fairly from a historical perspective.
In 1958, Mao Zedong repeatedly talked about Cao Cao and bluntly said, "Saying that Cao Cao was a traitor was an unjust case created by feudal orthodoxy, and all wrongful cases and unjust cases must be overturned even after a thousand or two thousand years." ”
At his call, historians launched a wave of justifying Cao Cao's name, and famous historians such as Guo Moruo and Zhai Bozan wrote articles in response to Mao Zedong.
For a time, Cao Cao's bad deeds were swept away, and his historical contributions were squarely faced and recognized, and there was no shortage of admirers who praised him as a first-class politician, military expert and poet, and an outstanding figure in the feudal ruling class.
This "reversal of the case" has greatly affected the trend of historical criticism and literary and artistic criticism, and established the basic idea of studying history with a materialist view of history, and its influence is far-reaching, and to this day, it has not been exhausted.
In fact, Mao Zedong spared no effort to justify Cao Cao's name, not purely out of heroic sympathy or political considerations, his views are deeply based on the people's view of history and materialism, taking Cao Cao's positive role in history as the fundamental starting point, and commenting on it from a broader perspective.
In addition to praise and praise, Mao Zedong also made an objective, fair, and sharp analysis of the reasons why Cao Cao broke the sand and failed to achieve reunification.
He believes that Cao Cao's most fatal shortcomings are two: one is indecisive, and the other is leniency and self-discipline.
Indecisiveness, missed opportunities
Cao Cao is in the impression of many people as a grumpy and irritable person.
The most typical case is that he won Zhou Yu's counter-plot, and after reading the fake letters that framed Cai Mao and Zhang Yun as traitors, he indiscriminately beheaded the two and mistakenly killed two generals on his side who were well versed in water warfare.
In fact, Cao Cao also has an indecisive side, and even this shortcoming is more fatal, making him miss many good opportunities to dominate the world.
Twenty years after Jian'an, in order to obtain a forward base for attacking Liu Bei, Cao Cao led his troops to attack Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, although he also encountered the dilemma of running out of ammunition and food and unable to attack for a long time, but in the end Zhang Lu's family surrendered, and Cao Cao occupied Hanzhong, which only lasted for eight short months before and after this battle.
After the defeat of Zhang Lu, Liu Ye and Sima Yi both urged Cao Cao to attack Xichuan, which was the perfect time to destroy Wu and Shu.
However, he was indecisive and forward-looking, on the one hand, he could not understand the shadow of the Battle of Chibi, on the other hand, he was jealous of Sun Liu's forces, and finally missed the opportunity and left his hatred empty.
Cao Cao's indecisiveness was also reflected in his "cherishing talent", whether it was liu bei or Zhao Yun, or even Guan Yu, whom he called "the brave general", he failed to kill the killer because of his love for talent, but he did not know that he was a tiger, laying the foundation for the rise of the Shu Han regime.
Treat others strictly and be lenient with yourself
Another shortcoming of Cao Cao was that he was strict with others and lenient with himself.
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and emperor Wu records that Cao Cao "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", which shows the harshness of his imperial subordinates.
Chairman Mao once read this and commented that "the defeat of Chibi will be the crime of whom", in order to attack Cao Cao's character of treating others strictly and being lenient with himself.
As rulers, they were most afraid of being harsh and punishing themselves, and in ancient times, many emperors issued edicts to reflect on themselves and review their own mistakes.
Although there is no shortage of accusations of "the king's sin of self-righteousness", this act can indeed achieve the purpose of clearing the mind and winning people's hearts.
It is not terrible to have faults, but blindly shirking responsibility and severely punishing subordinates will inevitably lead to dissatisfaction.
Cao Caokuan's self-disciplined side is manifested in his indulgence at times and without regard to the situation, as exemplified by the Battle of Wancheng in the second year of Jian'an.
In that year, Cao Cao led an army to recruit Zhang Xiu, who had already led his troops to surrender, and even at the cocktail party to celebrate the surrender, he was cautious and did not dare to make a mistake.
However, Cao Cao was overwhelmed and insisted on taking Lady Zou, the widow of Zhang Xiu's uncle, as a concubine, which angered Zhang Xiu and caused him to rebel.
For the sake of temporary pleasure, Cao Cao paid a terrible price, and his son Cao Ang, his nephew Cao Anmin, and the general Dianwei were all killed in the subsequent battle with Zhang Xiu.
Tracing back to its roots, it is inextricably linked to Cao Cao's "leniency toward oneself and greed for pleasure".
summary:
In the midst of the mixed-ranking controversies of later generations, Chairman Mao's views can be described as both unique and fair, giving us a new perspective on historical figures.
There is a way that "taking history as a mirror can know the rise and fall, and taking people as a mirror can understand gains and losses", we should not only look at Cao Cao and his people rationally, but also reflect and learn from him, so as to take our own life path.