It is generally believed that Cheng Ji is a simple-minded rough man, for example, in the old Three Kingdoms, he got a bearded warrior in armor, but from the official position, this person should be a civilian official who failed to engage in political speculation.
Chengji
Chengji's official position was Prince Sheren, originally established by the Qin Dynasty as a subordinate of the crown prince. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms does not have a official record, and the Notes to the Later Han Dynasty record that the Prince Sheren of the Eastern Han Dynasty was "more straight to the guard, such as erzhu Langzhong", and the Book of Jin records that the Prince Sheren "served as a waiter such as a servant of the Post than a Scattered Horseman, Zhongshu and so on". Lang Zhong belonged to lang guan, responsible for carrying out the gates of the various temples and riding the car, so the prince of the Eastern Han Dynasty was naturally responsible for serving as the prince's guard and car.
In addition, Lang Guan was also a reserve talent of the state, and when there was a vacancy in the official position, he often had to choose talents from lang officials to fill the post, for example, after Cao Cao was promoted to filial piety, he first served as a lang official, and then served as a lieutenant in northern Luoyang. The Scattered HorseMan and zhongshu Shilang were responsible for serving as the emperor's advisers and handling confidential documents, while the Western Jin Dynasty's crown princes should be the princes' advisers and handling confidential documents.
Because he often stayed by the emperor and the crown prince, he usually had certain requirements for the origin, morality, and learning of the Langguan and the prince's sheren, for example, Chao Wrong, who proposed to emperor Jingdi of Han, served as a prince. During the reign of Emperor Wu, in order to revitalize Confucianism, the Taixue Institution and the Doctoral Official Position were established, allowing them to become officials by way of examinations, and those who passed the examination became literary masters, and those with higher ranks became Langzhong. During Wang Mang's period, he also set up the examination of the three subjects of A and B, and the first section took forty people as Lang Zhong, the B department took twenty people as the prince sheren, and the C department took forty people to supplement the literary palm.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, similar examinations were conducted many times, and even the imperial court under the control of Li Dai and Guo Feng awarded langzhong and prince sheren official positions according to the ranking of the examinations. During the Cao Pi period, the Five Classics Examination Method was established, and those who studied for two years to pass the First Classics became disciples, those who studied for two years to pass the Two Classics could make up for the literary palm, and those who had studied the three classics for two years in the literature palm were selected as the prince sheren, the prince who studied the four classics for two years, the person who had the higher rank was selected as langzhong, and the person who passed the five classics in the two-year examination of the lang middle school was selected as the person with the higher rank. If you take the path of the Five Classics Examination Method, under normal circumstances, you need to have studied for at least six years and be able to pass through the Three Classics to become a prince and a scholar.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the sons of prince sheren were often used as a kind of yin official, such as Jia Kui, Chun Yugong, Song Jun, Yuan An, Huang Xiang, and other people whose sons were recruited as prince sheren because of their father's outstanding academic reputation. In addition, there were also those who were recruited as prince sheren because of their outstanding virtues, such as Li Shan, a domestic servant in Nanyang, who raised a young lord who had lost his parents, Li Xu, who had been dependent on each other for many years and denounced other slaves who had embezzled the family's wealth, and then were conscripted as prince sherens together, and dozens of people were recruited as Langzhong and prince sherens for Emperor Huan's vigilance, in addition, Dou Xian, a general in the imperial period, once recruited all the children of the two thousand stone officials who accompanied him to recruit the Xiongnu as prince sheren. Therefore, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the princely sheren was usually awarded according to talent, morality, and family lineage.
During the Western Jin Dynasty, the prince sheren was basically monopolized by the second generation of celebrities and officials, such as Fu Yuan, Wang Yan, Le Guang, Pan Yue, Gu Rong, Xiahou Zhan, and others who served as prince sheren. During the Three Kingdoms period, the famous Shu Han ministers Dong Yun, Fei Yi, and the famous general Huo Yi all started as princes, and their fathers were also important ministers under Liu Bei.
Historical records of the Cao Wei period record that in addition to ChengJi, who served as crown princes, liu shao, huan fan, zhang mao, and an official surnamed Huang, Liu Shao huan fan was outstanding in learning, and Liu Shao also had a separate biography in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms. Zhang Mao was appointed Crown Prince Sheren because his writings were approved by the emperor, and the only deed of Prince Sheren surnamed Huang was to oppose the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui 's correction of Shuo together with Shizhong Miao, Shang Shu Chang Shi Wang Su, and Shang ShuLang Wei Heng. It can be seen that these people are very serious civilian officials, and they are promoted because they have only learned. Then Chengji served as a prince either because of his talent or because of his family lineage, even because of the latter, then Chengji should also be from the family of Scholars Xiangmendi or two thousand stone officials, and his cultivation is not comparable to ordinary people.
Cao Xian
In addition, because Emperor Cao Wei generally died early, although the post of prince sheren was established, there was no prince, so the prince sheren should belong to the idle official position of the reserve like langguan. Li Xian's note in the Book of Later Han said that when there was no prince in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the official position of the Eastern Palace would not be established, and only the prince would be retained and placed under the jurisdiction of Shaofu, then Chengji's superior should be Shaofu, even if it was managed according to Langguan, the superior should also be Guangluxun.
Jia served as the Central Protector, managing the forbidden army outside the imperial palace and within the capital, and Cheng Ji was the guardian of the Eastern Palace, and the two had no subordination relationship at all. Even if Sima Zhao had given Jia Chong the middle leader who managed the forbidden army in the palace, he and Cheng Ji were not direct superiors and subordinates.
Prince Chengji ran to ask the Central Defender Jia Chong what to do, this was originally a strange behavior, how could the armed police ask the commander of the garrison area? Wei Shi Chunqiu recorded that after the Chengji brothers were convicted, they disobeyed and ran to the roof to scold Sima Zhao, indicating that Chengji had no intention of helping Sima Zhao carry the pot from the beginning, so it seemed that he went to ask Jia Chong for this matter.
Cheng Ji and Jia Chong
All in all, if Chengji honestly and dutifully follows the route of civil officials and scholars, although it may not necessarily rise as fast as possible, the official road is basically smooth. But this commodity killed the emperor in the street in order to engage in political speculation, and really read all the books into the belly of the dog.