Who is the "extraordinary man, the master of the world" in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms?

Speaking of Cao Cao, the world thinks that he is a traitor and a traitor. When Cao Cao was young, he went to Xu Shao's Yuedan Meeting, and Xu Shao commented on him as:

The traitor of Qingping, the hero of the chaotic world.

After Cao Cao heard this, he left happily. I think this is said in his heart, and I also think that this is the true portrayal of Cao Cao. The above sentence is from the Book of the Later Han Dynasty.

However, in the "Zizhi Tongjian", it was changed to: the ability to rule the world, the adulterous male of the chaotic world. It is obvious that the Zizhi Tongjian hates the act of creating chaos and rebellion.

The world's bad impression of Cao Cao should be influenced by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which classifies Liu Bei's camp as orthodox, the protagonist, and quite beautifies it, excessively scandalizing its opposite, and later seizing the Cao Cao camp of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

First of all, Cao Cao was a literary scholar, and the famous Gui Shou confirmed this very well, and then looking at Liu Bei and Sun Quan, it was very dwarfed.

Moreover, Cao Cao was not as cruel as Dong Zhuo, and many negative stories had no conclusive evidence, Dong Zhuo burned Luoyang to ashes, snatched property at will, and adulterous wives and daughters, which are recorded in the history. Among them, Cao Cao destroyed the Lü Bohao family, which is not recorded in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The Book of Wei records that Lü Bohao was not at home, and that his son and diners robbed Cao Cao of his horses and luggage, and Cao Cao killed them.

The recorded atrocity of Cao Cao was to slaughter the city after the capture of Xuzhou, because Tao Qian's men killed Cao Cao's father Cao Song in Xuzhou, and the slaughter of the city was absolutely excessive.

Cao Cao was actually a very real person, a typical realist, not poisoned by Confucianism. From all of Cao Cao's words and deeds, you can find this. For example, Cao Cao issued a recruitment order, which is one: meritocracy is no longer the first moral behavior of filial piety, and talent is placed first, which is very in line with the actual needs, even if it is a person who steals money from his sister-in-law, as long as he has talent, he will be entrusted with a heavy responsibility.

Another example is Zhang Liao and Guan Yu, both captured by Cao Cao, but both were entrusted with heavy responsibilities. Before the Battle of Guandu, Chen Lin's crusade against The Text bought Cao Cao's ancestors over and over again. But in the end, Cao Cao did not blame Chen Lin, it was also because of love, he simply said: Evil stops his body, why even the father and ancestor evil?

After Yuan Shao's demise, Cao Cao captured a large number of Yuan Shao's documents, and they were burned without looking at them, because in the Guandu War, it is unknown who killed the deer, and many people in Cao Ying had contacts with Yuan Shao. In a chaotic world, turning to the strong is the art of self-preservation. Stepping on two boats is realistic, both for survival. Cao Cao agreed with the actual approach.

For example, he hated cults and obscene shrines, and after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the first thing he did was to ban the worship of evil gods.

Another example is that Liu Biao in Jingzhou has a big bull weighing up to 1,000 kilograms, and he often brags about it. This cow is ten times the size of the average cow, but it is not as good as a cow. After Cao Cao occupied Jingzhou, he killed this treasure and boiled beef for the soldiers to eat, which also shows Cao Cao's realism.

Cao Cao was a famous military expert, and there is no doubt about this. Perhaps because Cao Cao usurped the power of the Eastern Han Dynasty, he was evaluated very negatively, in fact, Cao Cao did not claim the title of emperor in the end. Relatively speaking, the Book of Han is still relatively protective of Cao Cao. Chen Shou, the author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, praised Cao Cao for "not remembering the old evils", which can be seen from his understanding of people and things. Finally, Chen Shou's conclusive assessment of Cao Cao is:

Or can it be said that it is a very special person, a supernatural masterpiece.