Cao Cao is a very contradictory historical figure, in recent years, some jokes have been circulating on the Internet, Cao Cao's most criticized is probably everyone's much-talked about lover wife, and also left an allusion to "one shot harms the three sages".
So is Cao Cao really corrupt in his personal morality that he has such a bad taste? In fact, it is not, and if you look carefully at the historical materials, there are at least the following reasons:
For the sake of succession.
The warlord melee in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, among the warlords of all kinds, in fact, Cao Cao was a late bloomer, he was more than ten years older than Liu Bei, and almost thirty years older than Sun Quan, especially after the Battle of Red Cliffs, Cao Cao already knew that his generation could no longer complete the unification.
To put it mildly, Cao Cao, an old rascal, has never seen it in the world? Do you really think that he likes other people's wives?
In that era when the infant mortality rate and dystocia mortality rate were very high, a woman who had successfully married and had children was simply a treasure, at least representing health;
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, women's marriage age was relatively young, girls generally married at the age of thirteen or fourteen, and the war led to the death of a large number of adult men, and their widows, in fact, were women around 20 years old, both in age and appearance, were in the golden age.
Cao Cao may not have coveted the beauty of these warlords' widows, but to a large extent befriended the family forces behind them
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was a period when gate lords were prevalent, and the widows of the warlords were often local nobles with considerable power, and marrying them was actually out of political alliance considerations. It is equivalent to telling those wealthy families entrenched in the local area, although your son-in-law is gone, I can also be your son-in-law, and I will protect the interests of your family, provided that you and I form an alliance.
After Sun Quan stabilized in Eastern Wu, he married Xu, the widow of Lu Shang, a wealthy family in Wu County, and Liu Bei, after acquiring Yizhou, married Wu, the daughter-in-law of Liu Yan, the pastor of Yizhou. It is difficult to say that these male lords of the divided side went to marry the widows of local wealthy families for the sake of beauty, especially when Liu Bei married the Wu family, who is presumed to be close to 50 years old.
Compared with the previous two bigwigs, Cao Cao's battle of Wancheng was defeated, and the death of his eldest son, nephew and bodyguard was actually an accident. Cao Cao was preparing to marry the warlord Zhang Xiu's aunt Zou, not necessarily thinking about encircling the wealthy family of Liangzhou. Zhang Xiu's army has always been a private army under the control of his uncle Zhang Ji, who had just died, and Zhang Xiu's control was limited. Xiliang Iron Cavalry has been participating in warlord melee battles in the Central Plains since Dong Zhuo's period, and Cao Cao must have wanted to marry Zhang Ji's widow in order to master this heroic army.
What really caused Zhang Xiu to turn his face was that on the day of Zhang Xiu's return, Cao Cao rewarded Zhang Xiu's fierce general Hu Che'er, a bounty, a wine, and a chat. What will Zhang Xiu think? As soon as I returned to obedience, you won over the number one fierce general I accepted, and then did you want to overthrow me? In troubled times, military power is the root of life, and Zhang Xiu can't help but turn his face.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was impossible for women to survive independently, and Cao Cao's acceptance of them may not have given them a way to live
Before Cao Cao, a generation of heroes, died, what did he think?
No, it's a trivial matter for his mother-in-law, it's how those concubines will live after his death? You see what his will says. "They live a miserable life with me, and after I die, you must treat them well, and you can't drive them away, and let them live in Tongquetai. If you don't have anything to do, then learn needlework, make shoes and sell them, you can earn a little is a little, save some money... ”
This attitude of respecting and appreciating women, not to mention at that time, even in modern society, many men lacked it, right?
To sum up, Cao Cao's love for his wife was based on the comprehensive consideration of the medical level, social development level, gate politics and other reasons at that time, as well as some of Cao Cao's own personality reasons.
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