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preface
There is such a saying circulating on the Internet: Cao Wei loves his wife, and Eastern Wu loves Lori. It can be seen that Cao Cao's hobby of taking people's wives is already known to the world.
According to historical records, Cao Cao had a total of fifteen wives and concubines, only two were first married, and the rest were once the wives of others, and were later admitted to the harem by Cao Cao. Although most of the men in the feudal dynasty had three wives and four concubines, the proportion of widows in Cao Cao's harem was too high to be true.
It stands to reason that with Cao Cao's status and power, wanting a young and beautiful little girl is not a problem at all, why does he only like other people's wives? Is it just because it's? Or is there another reason?
1. The widows who were included in the harem by Cao Cao
In the matter of marrying wives and concubines, Cao Cao's vision is really too unique, there are so many beautiful women in the world, or tall or petite, or gentle or spicy, but Cao Cao only loves one type of woman, that is, other people's wives, 13 of the 15 wives and concubines have been the wives of others, no wonder the name "Cao Wei's loving wife" has been transmitted, and among his many wives and concubines, three are the most famous.
The first was Lady Zou, the wife of the warlord Zhang Ji, who almost died in order to get her, so she was also known by some as the first red face of the Three Kingdoms. According to legend, when Cao Cao led his troops to attack Wancheng, his opponent Zhang Xiu took the initiative to surrender because of the disparity in strength between the two sides, and Cao Cao won the victory without a single soldier, naturally very happy, and specially set up a banquet to celebrate.
Zhang Xiu and his generals were invited to go, and after three rounds of drinking, Cao Cao took a fancy to Mrs. Zou, the widow of Uncle Zhang Xiu, who did not apply powder, was plain and white, and although her face was expressionless, people could not take their eyes off. Cao Cao bluntly said that he would take her as his concubine, and Mrs. Zou was just a female stream, and did not dare to say much in the face of the powerful Cao Cao, and then the two spent a good night together.
When Zhang Xiu learned of this, he was annoyed in his heart, thinking that what Cao Cao was doing was humiliating himself, so he led his men to violently steal Hu Che'er's weapons and attacked Cao Cao's camp at night. In order to protect the lord, Dian Wei met the enemy with his bare hands and eventually died in battle. In this chaos, Cao Cao not only lost one of his generals, Dian Wei, but also his eldest son Cao Ang and nephew Cao Anmin died there.
The second is Mrs. Du, her former husband was Lü Bu's love general, and she is also recognized by many as the prototype of the mink cicada. During the Battle of Xiaping, Guan Yu, who had long heard that Lady Du's good name, had repeatedly asked the lord to take her as a concubine after breaking the city.
Unexpectedly, his action aroused Cao Cao's curiosity and personally went to see Mrs. Du. Facing Mrs. Du, who is beautiful and beautiful, where does Cao Cao still want to get Guan Yu, he will make a strong move first and take Mrs. Du as his own.
The third was Lady Yin, the daughter-in-law of the great general He Jin, who had been Cao Cao's boss and had a good understanding of him. Mrs. Yin's husband He Wei died young, and after the death of her father-in-law He Jin, the He family was left with only the frail Mrs. Yin and the young child He Yan, struggling to survive in this chaotic world. Cao Cao had been cared for by He Jin, and in return, he naturally took more care of the He family, and in the end, he accepted Lady Yin and treated her children as his own.
Cao Cao became a generation of heroes, unified the north, and founded the Wei state, and compared with his achievements, Cao Cao's private life is more talked about by posterity. On the surface, Cao Cao is a shallow person who covets beauty, but with the study of history by professionals, everyone found that the reason why Cao Cao loved his wife alone was not simple.
Second, did Cao Cao love his wife just because he was?
Some people think that Cao Cao loves his wife alone because he does not like young and immature women, and only likes mature and charming women, some people think that Cao Cao's occupation of human wives is his strong desire for conquest, and some people put forward more different views.
First of all, let's talk about Cao Cao's unique aesthetic proclivities. As the saying goes, everyone has a heart for beauty, and it is not difficult to understand that Cao Cao loves beauty, after all, heroes and beauty are the standard, and it is normal for normal men to pursue and possess beautiful women, but Cao Cao's aesthetics are particularly different.
At that time, women could marry at the age of 14, young and pure, but also as young as children. The ambitious Cao Cao was not interested in half-grown children, he admired more mature and charming women, but usually such women had already married and become the wives of others. Therefore, it cannot be simply said that Cao Cao loves his wife alone, but Cao Cao prefers mature women forged by time.
And Cao Cao will form such a peculiar aesthetic concept, which has a lot to do with his origin. Cao Cao's father was Cao Song, the adopted son of the great eunuch Cao Teng, who was used by Emperor Huan of Han during his lifetime and had great weight over the court, although he was a eunuch, he was made the Marquis of Feiting, and after his death, Cao Song inherited the title.
Although Cao Cao was not related to him, he was deeply influenced by him, and preferred mature and intellectual women. But Cao Cao's origins also became a reason for others to attack him, satirizing him as a descendant of rootless people, and Cao Cao was so obsessed with these contempts and ridicules that he took the wives of the vanquished for himself every time he won a battle, which was both humiliating and a struggle.
Secondly, let's talk about Cao Cao's strong possessiveness, just like his phrase "I would rather bear the world than the world fail me", Cao Cao has a sense of pride in his bones. Cao Cao wanted to strategize, play others in the palm of his hand, and become the victor in the war and the political leader. Defeating an opponent by force on the battlefield is a kind of conquest, and taking in the wives and concubines of others is another kind of conquest.
Finally, it must be said that Cao Cao is too good at picking up bargains. Cao Cao has ambitions to unify the world, but he also loves beauty, but he has been fighting for many years, and he is busy with political affairs, he has no time to choose beauties, and the princes, officials, and generals' wives are carefully selected high-quality women, either famous or beautiful, Cao Cao follows behind to pick up ready-made beauties, and no one will suffer a loss.
But Cao Cao is not a person who is delayed in beauty, he treats his wives and concubines and stepsons very well, such as Mrs. Yin's child He Yan, and Mrs. Du's child Qin Lang, after Cao Cao took their mothers into the harem, he did not treat these stepsons badly, but carefully cultivated, and finally they all became Cao Wei's heavy ministers. If Cao Cao only coveted the beauty of a widow, how could he treat his stepson like this? Wouldn't it be better to leave them alone.
It is said that many people's cognition of Cao Cao's lecherousness comes from his phrase "Ru's wife, I raise it", but in fact, this is not Cao Cao's original words. Cao Cao's original words mean that when you die, I will take care of your family, so you don't have to worry about the future.
At that time, Cao Cao wanted to use Wang Yuan's death to stabilize the army's heart, and in order to compensate for him, Cao Cao promised to properly arrange his family, which was a common method in the political arena, but the world misinterpreted his original meaning, leaving six ambiguous words out of context.
And behind Cao Cao's lone love for his wife, there are still many doubts: if Cao Cao only covets the love of men and women, and wives and concubines should fight endlessly, why is there a harmony? If Cao Cao only likes other people's wives, why should he raise other people's sons? Why did Cao Cao only accept the wives of the family and not the wives of commoners?
Is Cao Cao loving his wife just because he is? Obviously, the reason why Cao Cao loves his wife alone is not because he is lustful and has a strong desire to conquer, so what is Cao Cao marrying so many widows for?
Third, the deep reason why Cao Cao loves human wives
Looking at Cao Cao's wives and concubines, some were the aunts of the general's uncles, some were the widows of the lord of a city, some were the wives of the descendants of famous generals, and some were the clansmen of the great family. Cao Cao collected a variety of mature beauties, making the world truly feel cute, which is not worth mentioning in the face of maturity.
But people will inevitably wonder, in the feudal dynasty, where chastity is above all else, will the widows who were forcibly taken by Cao Cao choose to resist?
The widows who can be seen by Cao Cao are not nameless, most of them have forces behind them that can be relied on, whether they are fathers or husbands. But they are in an extremely embarrassing situation after the death of their husbands, not much ability to protect themselves but unusually beautiful, like children taking a huge amount of wealth, seemingly beautiful but actually a disaster, anytime and anywhere may fall into a dangerous swamp.
They and Cao Cao just take what they need, they seek Cao Cao's protection, and Cao Cao can obtain the power behind them through in-law relations and get the support of the family. Only need to include women in the harem, you can get the support and resources of major chaebols, major warlords, and more able to win people's hearts, such a low-cost and high-return thing, will the big politician Cao Mengde not understand the reason?
Another important reason why Cao Cao loved his wife alone was for the inheritance of the royal family. Modern women are fashionable to give birth and will face all kinds of dangers, not to mention the feudal period when medical conditions were extremely poor, and women's childbirth was even more difficult.
Most of these widows have experience in childbearing, which not only proves that they are healthy and fertile, but also that women who have already given birth face much less risk when they give birth again. These advantages were very important for Cao Cao, who needed to branch out and prosper.
In fact, during the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao was not the only maverick who loved his wife, but many famous historical figures once married widows. It's just that everyone else marries one or two, and Cao Cao marries a dozen is too prominent. And they do so to encourage widows to remarry, encourage fertility and promote population growth.
At that time, there was constant war, and a large number of young and middle-aged men lost their lives due to the war, which not only led to a sharp decline in the labor force and difficulty in the recovery of social production, but also led to a sharp increase in the number of old and weak women and children. Encouraging widows to remarry can encourage the people to have more children and have more children, so as to achieve the purpose of increasing the population, restoring and developing the economy, and stabilizing the regime.
The author thinks
The fact that Cao Cao loved his wife alone was often ridiculed by later generations, but in fact, behind the history of peach color is not only the matter of wind and snow, but mixed with power and political factors. Although Cao Cao cannot get rid of his true character as a man, he loves his wife only not only to satisfy his own desires, but also for the power resources behind them, and realize his grand cause as soon as possible.
Cao Cao was a powerful minister in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the founder of the Cao Wei regime, as well as an outstanding politician, military strategist, literary scholar, and calligrapher. His historical evaluation has been controversial, and some people praised him as "the best of the clear strategy", "a powerful minister of the world, a hero of troubled times". Some people also criticized him as a "traitor" and "a traitor in troubled times". His image has evolved for more than a thousand years from the "extraordinary man, the superworldly master" in the Wei and Jin dynasties to the "chaotic thief" after the two Song Dynasties. In modern times, some people believe that Cao Cao is a true hero who has been misunderstood by later generations for thousands of years, while others believe that Cao Cao is a cunning and cruel tyrant.
When people could not see Cao Cao in its entirety, he went from a generation of traitors to a disciple who coveted beauty. But Cao Cao is a complex and multifaceted historical figure that cannot be defined by simple labels.
Although Cao Cao's preference for loving his wife alone is a bit spicy, it is understandable that those who become big things are not informal. I wonder what everyone thinks?