Cao Cao's usurpation of the Han Dynasty was a long process that gained the support of many people. One of them was very important, only in the aspect of usurpers, and even the most important strategist, and that was Dong Zhao. Dong Zhao had two strategies to help Cao Cao usurp the Han Dynasty, helping Cao Cao to "blackmail the Son of Heaven to order the princes" and to ascend the throne as duke of Wei. It was precisely because of Dong Zhao's complete betrayal of the Eastern Han court that his image in the eyes of traditional scholars and doctors was very bad, and he was reprimanded by his colleagues as a courtier. The following small editor will talk about Dong Zhao' person.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "blackmail the Son of Heaven to order the princes"</h1>
When it comes to the strategy adopted by the Cao Cao clique in the chaotic world, many people will think of "blackmailing the son of heaven to order the princes" . Although the strategy of Cao Cao Group is more than this, this strategy is indeed the most distinctive. Speaking of "holding the Son of Heaven hostage to order the princes", many people also think of the character of Mao Jiu for the first time, and think that Mao Jiu is the proposer. This is true, but in this strategy, Mao Jiu is not the person who has contributed the most and achieved the most results. So who is this character? It is dong zhao that the editor wants to say.
Dong Zhao originally had nothing to do with Cao Cao, he was earlier a subordinate of Yuan Shao, and in the "Battle of Jieqiao" between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zhan, Dong Zhao also helped Yuan Shao stabilize the chaotic Julu Commandery and was appointed as the Taishou of Wei County. Later, Dong Zhao was suspected by Yuan Shao because his younger brother Dong Zhao was in Zhang Miao's army (Yuan Shao and Zhang Mi were at odds), and thought that he was an emissary to the Eastern Han Court, but was detained by Zhang Yang, the Taishou of Hanoi.
We see that Dong Zhao's early experience has nothing to do with Cao Cao, and if we have to say that there is a relationship, there is only one point: Dong Zhao is a Yanzhou native, and Cao Cao leads Yanzhou Mu. Perhaps for this reason, Dong Zhao was very partial to Cao Cao in his heart. Cao Cao wanted to contact the Eastern Han court, Zhang Yang intercepted the emissaries, Dong Zhao, because Cao Cao was "the hero of the world", persuaded Zhang Yang to befriend Cao Cao; Dong Zhao wrote a letter in the name of Cao Cao to Li Dai, Guo Feng and other dong Zhuo's old departments who controlled the Han Dynasty, and Cao Cao also took the opportunity to give Zhang Yang a gift, and finally established contact with the central government.
In the second year of the Eastern Han Dynasty (i.e., in 195 AD), Emperor Xiandi of Han escaped from Li Dai and Guo Feng and temporarily lived in Anyi, Hedong. At this time, Dong Zhao chose to break away from Zhang Yang and become a parliamentarian in the Eastern Han Dynasty court, an idle petty official, but relatively close to the center of power. At this time, the figures who controlled the Eastern Han court were Han Xian, Yang Feng, Dong Cheng, and Zhang Yang. They are at odds with each other. Among these four people, Dong Zhao was not optimistic about anyone, and he liked Cao Cao, who was rapidly expanding in the Yan and Yu areas.
Dong Zhao "returned to his old business" and wrote letters to Yang Feng instead of Cao Cao, pretending that Cao Cao was Yang Feng's ally and helping Cao Cao gain the opportunity to enter Luoyang. Later, Dong Zhao met with Cao Cao and proposed that Emperor Xian of Han move to Xu County, which was a specific plan to "blackmail the Son of Heaven to order the princes". This suggestion was approved by Cao Cao, but Yang Feng, who was stationed in Liang County, was a huge obstacle.
To this end, Dong Zhao also put forward a proposal: on the grounds that Luoyang had no grain and Luyang was close to Xu County for convenient transportation, the Eastern Han Court should first be transferred to Luyang, crossing Yang Feng's soldiers and horses in Liang County, and then moving the capital to Xu County. From Cao Cao's entry into Luoyang to the transfer of the Eastern Han court to Xu County, dong Zhao was almost entirely in charge (in addition to Ding Chong writing to Cao Cao, who also advised Cao Cao to "blackmail the Son of Heaven to order the princes"). In this strategy alone, Dong Zhao was more important than Mao Jiu.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "Jianfeng Fifth Class" to enter the Wei Gong</h1>
In addition to "holding the Son of Heaven hostage to order the princes", another important strategy of Dong Zhao against Cao Cao's usurpation of han was to "establish a fifth class". More specifically, it is to restore the knighthood system of dukes, marquises, counts, viscounts, and barons in the pre-Qin period. At that time, the two Han Dynasties inherited the twentieth rank of the Qin Dynasty, and the emperor and prince were followed by the Marquis of Che, and later changed his name to Marquis because of avoiding Liu Che.
Liu Bang stipulated in the "Alliance of the White Horse" that those who are not Liu are not kings, and those who are not meritorious are not hou. Cao Cao was not a relative of the Han Dynasty, and naturally did not have the power to be crowned king; Cao Cao's "merit" was enough to be crowned as a marquis, in fact. However, the highest ranking of the princes is only the county marquis, and only the treatment of the food is not the right to govern. Cao Cao desperately needed a way to elevate his personal political rights and take to a higher level, and Dong Zhao's proposal to restore the fifth-class title met Cao Cao's needs.
Dong Zhao's reason for persuading Cao Cao was also very simple and even explicit: "The people of the world have not achieved today's merits." Those who have the merits of today, those who have not been in the position of a subject for a long time. Cao Cao was already an extremely popular subject, and at this time Cao Cao needed to go further, on the one hand, because of Cao Cao's personal ambitions, on the other hand, he was in a position where it was difficult to ride a tiger. Dong Zhao persuaded Cao Cao to plan his own land feudalism and bureaucratic system, nominally "defending himself", but in fact he also broke away from the control of the Eastern Han court and obtained a more independent position.
Cao Cao of course agreed with Dong Zhao's suggestion, but he also had to face resistance from the court, such as Xun Yu, who was originally a subordinate and colleague of Cao Cao, but then became a political enemy because of his different positions. Sure enough, Xun Yu opposed this suggestion, advising Cao Cao to "uphold the sincerity of loyalty and honesty, and keep the truth of retreat", which also attracted Cao Cao's retaliation or attack. Cao Cao used the pretext of conquering Sun Quan in the south, and with the expression of Xun Yu's labor army in Tan County, he transferred him away from the imperial court to stay in Shouchun; then gave Xun Yu an empty food box and forced Xun Yu to commit suicide. After Xun Yu committed suicide, Cao Cao did indeed ascend to the throne of the Duke of Wei and initially established the state of Wei, with the power to set up its own bureaucracy and plump wings.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the aftersound theory</h1>
Judging from Dong Zhao's entire life experience, he showed no loyalty and greed for the Eastern Han court, although he had acted as a negotiator in the middle of the dynasty, but it was also for the purpose of breaking away from Zhang Yang and perhaps as an internal line for Cao Cao. Dong Zhao's strategy of "holding the Son of Heaven hostage to order the princes" proposed and operated for Cao Cao nominally helped Emperor Xiandi of Han to break away from the control of Yang Feng, Han Xian, Dong Cheng, and others (after all, these people could not be regarded as pure subjects of the Han Dynasty), and helped the Eastern Han court to rebuild and restore order in Xu County, but it fell under Cao Cao's tight control and never had a chance to escape the clutches of the devil.
The proposal to restore the fifth-rank title later helped Cao Cao to create a step of gradual usurpation, from the Duke of Wei and the King of Wei to Cao Pi to replace the Han Dynasty as emperor, and the Duke of Wei was the first step in theory. This is also the reason for the complete breakup between Cao Cao and Xun Yu.
Dong Zhao used all his strength to help Cao Clan usurp the Han Dynasty, and naturally became a traitor in the eyes of traditional scholars. There is a record in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Shu, And Su Ze Biography". Dong Zhao and Su were both Cao Wei's attendants, but the difference was that Su still had very strong feelings for the Han Dynasty. Once Dong Zhao put his head on Su Ze's lap to rest, and Su pushed Dong Zhao down and reprimanded, saying, "Su Ze's knee is not a pillow." However, Dong Zhao was after all an important figure in Cao's usurpation of han, while Su was afraid of his rigidity and repeatedly spoke bluntly to Cao Pi. Dong Zhao later became Situ and was ranked third duke, while Su went abroad to be Dongping Xiang and was squeezed out of the center of power.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Book of the Later Han Dynasty