Are human abilities entirely inherited from birth? not necessarily. Is man's ability entirely learned from the day after tomorrow? Not necessarily. Human ability is based on their own endowments and then solidly exercised.
Emperor Xuan of Jin, Sima Yi, was a brilliant all-rounder. However, looking at the history books, we can find that he is not a god man who was "born to know and not learn" after all. These abilities of his were completely obtained from painstaking exercise and study.
When he was a teenager, Sima Yi did have extraordinary talent. Cui Yan, the head of Hebei Rulin Qingliu, commented on him: "Congliang Mingyun, just broke the yingte. His county-level celebrity Yang Jun, known as an intellectual, praised him as an "extraordinary instrument.". In the Zizhi Tongjian, he is called: "Less congda, more strategy." It can be seen that Sima Yi has been a prodigy since childhood, and he is really a good endowment in terms of studiousness and good thinking.
As the saying goes, "Jade is not a tool, it is not a tool." "Under the influence of Sima Shi's rigorous and pragmatic family style, Sima Yi's potential in all aspects has been explored and exerted to the greatest extent. Even in the turbulent years of war, Sima Yi's eldest brother Sima Lang also played the role of a strict father and master, "teaching the brothers, not to solve the work of the world." "Book of Jin. Sima Fu's biography also reads: "In the midst of peril with his brothers, he ate and drank, and he read tirelessly." In such a family environment, Sima Yi naturally strives to be self-motivated and accomplished.
Soon, his reputation for his intelligence spread far and wide. The Hanoi County Government Office immediately sent a letter and summoned Sima Yi to be the county's superior. This was Sima Yi's first post in politics. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the county was a very important position, and many able officials were trained in this position. The ministry of "Shangji" has a origin since the Warring States period: at the beginning of each year, the local governors of various countries must write down the number of budgets for their own jurisdiction, such as hukou, reclamation of land, and taxes, on wooden coupons, and report them to the monarch, and divide the wooden coupons into two, with the monarch holding the right coupon and the subordinate holding the left coupon. At the end of the year, the officials had to go to the monarch for verification. The monarch is personally assessed according to the right coupon, or assisted by the minister, and according to the assessment results, the relevant officials are "promoted, demoted, rewarded, and punished".
Sima Yi stills
In the Han Dynasty, the "Shangji" ministry became more concrete, which meant that the local governors regularly submitted the planning documents to the superiors to report on the local governance. At the end of the year, the county order or the county magistrate summons the counting official to compile items such as the county's household registration, reclamation of land, money and grain, income, and prison litigation status into a book (also known as a "collection book") and submit it to the county. According to the county's book, the county's internal counts are then counted, and the county-wide book is compiled, which is examined and approved by the county sheriff or the minister of state and reported to the imperial court. Based on this, the imperial court approved the achievements of the various county guards and state ministers, and gave them "promotion, demotion, reward, and punishment." ”
Sima Yi's appointment as the county's superior planner proved that he was indeed a capable talent who was good at calculation. At the same time, Sima Yi also exercised his excellent ability of "digital management" in the post of Shangji tuan. The Eastern Jin Dynasty historian Gan Bao called him "a number of people who practiced imperial relics." "Sincerity is true. Decades later, when he was on an expedition to the Gongsun clan of Liaodong at the age of sixty and the honor of a lieutenant, Emperor Wei Ming asked him, "When will the battle situation be determined?" Sima Yi replied confidently: "In the past hundred days, a hundred days, a hundred days, a hundred days of attack, with sixty days as a rest, one year is enough." Sure enough, the course of the battle went as he expected, and it was not bad at all. Behind such accurate calculations, however, he was tempered and consolidated year after year in his post of mastermind.
Moreover, Sima Yi's post made Sima Yi deeply experience the way of military economy. The Book of Jin states that he later advised Cao Cao to "open up military tuns and cultivate and keep", and ordered the Wei Dynasty to "cultivate the valley and use the country to enrich the grain". In his later years, when he sat in Guanzhong, he "wore a national canal, built a border on Jinpi, irrigated thousands of hectares of land, and enriched the country." Its source streams all come from this.
Here, we can see that Sima Yi, who was born as a high-ranking Confucian, did not take such a lowly job and trivial matter lightly, which was rare and precious. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the famous Western Liang general Emperor Fugui also served as the Shangji commander of the county, and he was able to communicate with Sima Yi for a while.
At this time, Cao Cao, who was far away in Xu Capital, heard of Sima Yi's excellent performance in the post of Ji Tuan in Hanoi County, and felt that talent was rare, so he came to the book to recruit him to serve in his sikong mansion. Sima Yi, however, said he was ill and refused.
Cao Cao stills
A few years later, Cao Cao was promoted to chancellor and once again summoned him to the post of literary minister in the palace. Sima Yi could not resign and had to take up his post. The "literature" in his brand-new post, "Literature", is not only the "literature and art" understood by later generations, but the "literature" in the Han Dynasty examination subject "Xianliang Literature", which actually includes the content based on "classics". The Han Dynasty officially regarded the attainment of "classics" as a model for electing talents, rather than as a skill of calligraphy and painting in later generations. Sima Yi was a literary scholar of the Xiang Dynasty, and his specific ministry should be responsible for the selection, assessment, and service of the Ming Dynasty scholars in various prefectures and counties.
So, with Sima Yi's knowledge, does he deserve this new post? In the Book of Jin, he is written: "Erudite and knowledgeable, subjugated to Confucianism." The Taiping Imperial Records also quote Yu Qian's Book of Jin as saying of him: "Although Shang (referring to Sima Yi) obeyed literature and art, he was Confucian and virtuous, and Ya had the weight of hegemony. This shows that he really has quite a deep foundation in scripture. Later, when advising Cao Cao on his expedition to Western Shu, he gave a proverb that "a saint cannot violate the time, nor lose the time", which is quoted from the I Ching. And Sima Yi's "Shu Huai Poem" written in his later years: "The heavens and the earth are opened up, and the sun and the moon are shining again." Encounters, bi lily. Will sweep away the filth and return to the hometown. Sweep away thousands of miles, and there are always eight wildernesses. Finish up and return to old age, wait for sin to dance yang. "It is even more sonorous and exciting, and the literary style is remarkable, which can be described as "gorgeous and realistic". Therefore, Sima Yi, who was well versed in the national canon and knew poetry well, was naturally qualified for his position as a literary scholar. In this post, he and the literati and scholars gathered from all over the world traveled widely, learning from each other's strengths and complementing each other's weaknesses. Therefore, Cao Pi, Chen Qun and other scholars and elites will make deep friends with him and form a community of interests with culture as a link. Moreover, Wang Lang and Wang Su of Donghai County's Rulin Gaodi would only look up to him and marry him sima clan as an in-law of "door to door".
Because of his outstanding work in the literature of the XiangFu, he was soon promoted by the Xu Du imperial court to the position of Yellow Gate Attendant and Yilang at the side of Emperor Xian of Han. This new position helped him to be deeply involved in the planning, discussion and decision-making of the current military and state affairs. In the process, he further improved his position in life and broadened his political horizons. If the previous position of Shangji Tuan would make him shrewd and capable, then the position of Huangmen Waiter and Speaker Lang could make him wise and profound. In this post, he usually came into contact with high-ranking officials and ministers such as the Three Princes and Nine Secretaries of the DPRK, which was also of great benefit to him to expand his personal connections.
The two posts of Literature And Yilang (Yellow Gate Waiter) are both retreats of "sitting and discussing the Tao", which can greatly improve Sima Yi's macro thinking level. However, if Sima Yi continued to stay in such a similar position for a long time, his development space would be severely limited, and at most he would only become a Qingwang official such as Guanglu Xun and Taizhong Dafu.
Soon, Sima Yi's career took another turn--he returned to the Chu Xiang Mansion and assumed the post of Eastern Cao's subordinate. The Eastern Cao Bureau was the body in charge of personnel selection in the XiangFu, and its chief officer was Dong Cao Tuan and its aide-de-camp was Dong Cao. Sima Yi, as a subordinate of Eastern Cao, "moved from fiction to reality", assisting Eastern Cao Toui Yan, Mao Yan and others to "take charge of Quan Heng and General Qi Qing deliberations", so that the talents of the four parties could get their own place. And Cui Yan and Mao Yan are all well-known and wise people, and they have achieved "the talent of literature and martial arts, the wisdom of many schools, the return of the imperial court to the high, and the peace of the world". Sima Yi studied intently around them, and also practiced a pair of "fire eyes and golden eyes" who knew people well. He later was able to recognize Deng Ai in Hanwei, Wang Chang in Mediocrity, and Waiting for Zhou Tai to be empty, which was due to this. In contrast, Zhuge Liang, the Shu chancellor, had not gone through the experience of this position of "Eastern Cao Genus" and had never been very clever in selecting and appointing talents: one was indulging in horse rumors and drowning in his shortcomings, the second was defeated by Yang Yi, and the third was to control Wei Yan and not to be law-breaking. In this regard, he was far inferior to Sima Yi after all.
Zhuge Liang stills
Around the nineteenth year of Jian'an, Sima Yi was transferred from the post of subordinate of Eastern Cao in the Xiang Dynasty to the position of chief bookkeeper, and accompanied Cao Cao to the west to negotiate Zhang Lu. The main book is equivalent to the secretary-general of the Minister's Office, who is in charge of the exchange of documents and the printing of cashiers. The Chancellor's Mansion was originally the hub of the intersection of aircraft maintenance information all over the world, and Sima Yi was also honed by the identification, weighing, induction, deduction and other skills of various types of information inside and outside the main book. He was able to "see what ordinary people have not seen, what ordinary people have not seen, and what ordinary people have not decided." In the course of the campaign to pacify Hanzhong, he for the first time put forward his insights on military matters: "Liu Bei deceived Liu Zhang, and the Shu people did not attach themselves to Jiangling, and this opportunity must not be lost." Now, in the middle of the Wei Han Dynasty, Yizhou is shaken, and the army is approaching, and it is bound to disintegrate. Therefore, it is easy to be skilled. The saints cannot violate the time, nor do they lose time. At that time, the only person who held the same opinion with him was Liu Ye, the first wise man in Huainan. Unfortunately, Cao Cao failed to adopt it, and lost a great opportunity to unify the world. However, Sima Yi also relied on this "extraordinary plan" and won the favor and reliance of Cao Cao. He felt that Sima Yi was resourceful and capable of great use, and once again promoted him to the rank of Military Commander of the Chu Xiang Mansion.
Sima Of the Military Commandery of the Xiang Dynasty was the highest-ranking auxiliary officer of the Military Affairs of Cao Cao, and was in charge of military planning, military discipline, armaments and other affairs. At the same time, it was also a key step in Sima Yi's career from literature to martial arts. The previous Sima Yi had only been circling around in the civilian circles and had little contact with military affairs. If he had never set foot in the military circles, then at most he would have achieved the same level as Chen Qun, Wang Lang and others as "the extreme of the civil servants and the respect of the Situ". However, it was Sima Yi's appointment to the military that made his political position of "going in and out of the picture, allowing Wen Tonwu" to be effectively highlighted. This is where Sima Yi surpassed Jia Xu, Chen Qun, and Xun Yu to become a generation of masters.
Sima Yi made a series of clever moves in the post of military Commander and made extraordinary achievements. At the same time, he showed conscientiousness, "diligent in his official duties, forgetting to sleep at night, and as for the pastor, all of them are on the verge of fulfillment." But what impressed Cao Cao even more was his "every conspiracy, there are strange strategies."
In the winter of the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an, Guan Yu went north to beg Cao, besieged Cao Ren at Fancheng, flooded the Seventh Army, captured alive in the forbidden, and threatened Huaxia. Cao Cao wanted to move the capital to Hebei and avoid his attack. Sima Yijin suggested: "(Yu) Forbidden and so on are lost by water, not lost by war, and not damaged by the country's grand plan, but also moved the capital, showing that the enemy is weak, but also the people who are worried about huaiwei are greatly disturbed." Sun Quan, Liu Bei, foreign relatives and internal alienation, Yu Zhi's pride, Quan suo is unwilling to do so. It can be said that after the power of the metaphor, after ling, Fan Wei will solve himself. "Cao Cao took it and took it and acted according to the plan." Sun Quan did cooperate with Cao Fang to attack the police with the strategy of "crossing the river in white clothes" and kill Guan Yu. Sima Yi's strategy of "linking up with the grandsons" was ultimately a great success.
At this point, Sima Yi's "multi-post" training has finally borne fruitful results, and an "all-round talented" tyrant has basically matured. In contrast, several other masters during the Three Kingdoms period were not as comprehensive and solid in their professional training as Sima Yi: Zhuge Liang only held Liu Bei's two positions of "General of the Army Division" and "General of the Military Division" in his early years, and Lu Xun only held three or four positions in His early years, including Sun Quan's "General's Mansion of the Imperial Guards", "Eastern and Western Cao Lingshi", Tuntian Duwei of Haichang County, and Sun Quan's "Right Governor under the Account". Obviously, Zhuge Liang's post training is mostly concentrated in the military circles, responsible for military staff and logistics supply, but there is a lack of personnel administration, governance and security of the country. Lu Xun's position was basically "both civil and military", not only as an official of the General's Office of The Eastern and Western Cao, but also honed his ability to recognize and select talents, and also as a military lieutenant and independently commanded small-scale military wars. Therefore, his post training was more perfect than Zhuge Liang's, but it was still slightly inferior to Sima Yi.
Finally, we can say that Sima Yi held a series of high-ranking official positions such as Shangshu Servant, Yushi Zhongcheng, Hussar General, Tai Wei, and TaiFu after Yi Han entered Wei at the age of forty, and achieved the Wenzhi martial arts of Zhengu Shuojin, which was actually just an "upgraded version" of his many positions in his early years.
This article is excerpted from Li Haobai's new book "A History of the Three Kingdoms That Can't Stop At a Glance"