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preface
The uniqueness of Cao Cao's character lies in its duality.
That is, good and evil, broad-minded and narrow-minded, strong and brittle.
Cao Cao's two-sided personality analysis
Cao Cao, the traitor in troubled times, the philosophy of life that exists in his thoughts; The understanding that "I would rather teach me to bear the world's people, and stop teaching the world to bear me" is the way to survive in the chaotic world of the supernatural masters who have lost the heart of ordinary people. However, when he witnessed the desolation of the countryside and the displacement of the people during the march, he was moved by the true feelings of compassion.
It can be seen that the contradictions between cruelty and sympathy are unified into one, which is exactly the two-sided expression of the character's personality. The mind makes it inhuman, manifests itself as inhumane, and humanity makes it sympathetic to people. The existence of mental arts determines its cruelty, fraud, violence, etc. Human nature determines compassion.
It is the dialectical unity of human nature and mental art that forms the positive and negative intersection of his characters, Cao Cao's feelings of both murder and compassion, he often kills tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people and slaughters cities, "Five days, destroy the earth and mountains, make tunnels and besiege, and break the river to irrigate the city; More than half of the city's people died of starvation.
"Taizu is a boluxe, a boluxe travels, all five sons are there, and the guest is officiating. Taizu betrayed Dong Zhuo's order, suspected his own intentions, and killed people with his sword in his hand, Taizu killed Jean, and Shi Qi's family Yuan Zhongheng Shao Ju took refuge in Jiaozhou. Taizu sent an envoy to Tai Shu to inherit the clan.
The above examples are enough to show the existence of the central art of his character, treating the people as dirt, and the grass camp human life, Lu Boyao kindly left him overnight, but he was killed, and his humanity was extinguished to the extreme. It is the unity of human nature and mental art, and in another case, it is nothing more than compassion.
He loved the people like a son and was able to show great tolerance: "The people are left behind, the thought of people is broken, and what is not seen in the plain is white bones." It can be seen that Cao Cao did not have the mind and interests to destroy the truth and goodness of human nature. Cao Cao is treacherous, suspicious, and indifferent to the people around him.
His cruelty and treachery are all like this, but he sometimes shows his true feelings, showing sincerity and Wayne Huaide, and to the extreme, this kind of mental skill and human nature coexist, making Cao Cao's human nature have both positive and negative sides.
In terms of employing people, Cao Cao's talent strategy is summarized as "recruiting talents, only talents, knowing people well, and choosing people to do their job", and it is more clearly pointed out in the "Order on Raising Meritocracy and Not Binding Conduct", and it is more clearly pointed out that those who are "not benevolent and filial, but have the art of governing the country and using troops", each should be known and should not be left out. It fully demonstrates the broad-mindedness, superhuman courage and courage of a generation of heroes.
Self-metaphorically "the mountains are not tired of heights, and the sea is not tired of depth", he expressed his broad mind as a corporal of Lixian. It is precisely the broad-mindedness that makes them magnificent, graceful, stately, and using troops like gods, and the generosity of "burning books without asking", "exempting Zhang Liao" and "Guan" is breathtaking.
As mentioned earlier, Cao Cao's character coexists with the positive and negative sides of mental skills and human nature, and is destined to be extremely narrow-minded. The existence of the heart technique doomed its human cruelty, and killing Yang Xiu by any means showed his narrow-mindedness and short-sightedness.
In order to avenge the momentary revenge regardless of the future career development, because of the small mistake, it can be shown that the existence of mental art has formed the contradiction and opposition between human nature, forming the two sides of his character's character. In this way, the characters show their two sides in the changes of time and space. As mentioned earlier, mental skills and human nature coexist, and it is inevitable that a broad mind is its human side and the manifestation of normal people.
At the same time, in order to achieve domination over others, the existence of mental arts inevitably manifests itself in its human nature as a narrow character, maintaining its own status for all means of domination.
Two sides of the character form the source
The chaos and loss of moral courtesy of the times, the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was an era of stormy turmoil and turmoil, political darkness and decay, officials and local doctors alternately took power, class struggles were fierce, social order was shaken, the economy was in ruins, and the calm phenomenon of "empty fields, empty imperial courts, and empty warehouses" appeared.
It is in this historical call for peace and changing the status quo of society, and in the comparison of many forces, that Cao Cao understood reality and felt the mission entrusted to him by history, and he was determined to change reality and save the people and the world, forming a strong and enterprising character and a broad mentality.
In the chaotic era of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, controlling morality first collapsed, and its collapse was marked by the "party" of the official eunuch group with the Shidafu group as its own responsibility. With the decline of morality and propriety, there is a crisis between people, and people become suspicious, snobbish, and practical. In the context of society's tendency to be sublime and practical, Cao Cao's value orientation is entirely the need of the times.
As the choice of the times, Cao Cao, who is "the talent of the world", must have this anti-traditional practical spirit to control and guide people to gain a foothold in the chaotic world until the chaos is corrected. Cao Cao's slogan "Rather I be responsible for the world than for others to fail me" puts forward the pragmatic mentality formed under this moral abnormality.
Cao Wei was a man of insight who read the scriptures and understood etiquette, and he had too many historical and cultural factors, and was deeply influenced by traditional Confucianism, including the idea of Tiandao and other loyal monarchs as Han courtiers. There is no choice between the two contradictions, which leads to great changes in the positive and negative aspects of human nature.
In the era of moral collapse and social unrest, it also gave birth to human awakening. That is, under the condition of doubting and denying standards and faith values, people's rediscovery, reflection, swing and pursuit of their own life meaning and destiny are exactly the sound of the old traditions of the times.
It is precisely under this social situation that people form a positive and negative crossover under the action of mental techniques, and one positive and one negative traitor and male and male situation. Because people who witnessed the bloodshed of the "party calamity" finally had to believe that the spirit of the user could no longer save this collapsed afterlife, some people first shifted their attention from focusing on the present life to focusing on themselves and life.
They have deeply thought about the times and the world, and believe that tradition can no longer be trusted, and if they change the status quo, they will definitely break through traditional stereotypes. Cao Cao was one of them.
Social reality has created Cao Cao's inhumane but miserable but pathetic, narrow-minded but broad-minded, strong but brittle character. There must be reasons for the formation of contradictions between the two sides, the turmoil of the times and the loss of social morality and etiquette are the main reasons, but the impact of changes in human nature and the family environment cannot be ignored.
The deeds and ugliness of human nature in the family caused by the "Zange Ugly" are deeply imprinted on a person and are indelible. Just as there is a spot on a piece of jasper, it is a defect, which detracts from the beauty of the entire jasper.
No matter how much Cao Cao avoided and tried to change his own image, he was branded as a "castrated ugly" from the moment he was born.
The character 赘 means that Cao Cao is a descendant of the Zhao dynasty. Castration was the heir of the eunuch[7]e1-22) The family lineage of his grandfather Cao Teng accompanied him during his lifetime, cursing him for being happy, and the fact that this eunuch was born is indelible. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, although the power of officials was high, they were despised by others. The ancients "gentlemen do not approach the torturer, and the torturer is not human."
The body is dead and thick in the afterlife, so there is no shame in being virtuous. According to the book "History of Eunuchs in Ancient China", Kangxi's evaluation of eunuchs was: "Insects are general, the lowest animals." It can be seen that at that time, eunuchs were inferior people and abnormal people. It can be imagined how Cao Cao could endure the imprint of this distorted family background.
Although Cao Teng was a well-known eunuch, it was difficult to escape the infamy. The invisible shadow was imprinted on Cao Cao, and the psychological pressure was extremely great, resulting in the deformation of his human nature, forming a broad and narrow, bohemian, but suspicious psychology.
Under such a notoriety, Cao Cao inevitably doubted and denied the truth and goodness, fairness and morality of society, and even showed rebellious behavior towards traditional Confucian benevolence and righteousness.
Breaking out of the imprint of his family background, doing an earth-shattering career in society, and clearing his shadow by getting out of difficulties in adversity, he promoted Cao Cao's entrepreneurial heart, strengthened his ambition to help the world, and created his complex and changeable character.
From historical sources, Cao Cao was very afraid of his father Cao Song since he was a child, and he was not very loved and trusted by his fathers. His uncle often spoke ill of his father behind his back, and Cao Cao often played cleverness to deceive his family. During the war, Cao Song took his young son to Lang to take refuge, ignoring Cao Cao's affairs.
From an early age, Cao Cao witnessed the survival methods of the elders who tended to follow the flames and speculated in the drilling camps. When Cao Song was spurned by the world because of the official buying incident, Cao Cao's psychology also accumulated a block, on the one hand, he was not ashamed of what his father did, what child did not want his father to be a man who stood tall against the sky?
Cao Song's actions not only left a stain on Cao Cao's reputation, but also shattered Cao Cao's childhood idol; On the other hand, because Cao Cao himself was born in filial piety, because his father Wen Guo played Fei, he did not have the confidence of a scholar who had aspired to be a gentleman since childhood.
Cao Cao, who lacks the warmth and care of home, floats around like an orphan, without the discipline and love of his father and mother, and without the guests to confide in.
In the face of indifferent families and snobbish relatives, how can Cao Cao, who lives in them, not become practical and snobbish? It was this family situation that forced Cao Cao to break out of the family and find his own path in life. His life experience from childhood doomed him to distrust, suspiciousness and fickle towards others in society
Looking at both sides of the personality
It is the social and historical turmoil, family ugliness and family warmth that created Cao Cao's generous, narrow, kind and cruel, strong and fragile traitorous and male character. As a generation of traitors, Cao Cao has both outstanding martial arts and ghost tricks that are difficult to figure out.
He does not disdain the petty evil of chickens and dogs thieves, nor does he like the small favor of needles and threads, and if he wants to do good, he will do great merit, and if he wants to be evil, he will be the most evil and evil. Whether it is good or evil, it shows the image characteristics of its adulterous male. This positive and negative, contradictory, and conflicting character is perfectly and harmoniously unified in Cao Cao.
《References》
Luo Guanzhong, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Changsha: Yuezang Society,
Zhong Yang, when false is true, it is also false. Ming Novel Research.
Zhang Zhongxiao Wumenglou essay. Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press,