When it comes to Cao Cao, the tyrant at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, many people will talk about his favor for his wife, and even the death of his eldest son Cao Ang. However, what most people do not know is that because of Cao Ang's unfortunate sacrifice, Cao Cao also broke with his original wife, Ding Shi, that is, Cao Ang's adoptive mother, and has never had any contact since. It is not known whether it is a coincidence or a "family tradition" that after that, Cao Cao's son Cao Pi and grandson Cao Rui successively gave their empresses to death, making the Cao family's daughter-in-law a truly "high-risk profession".
According to the Wei Luo, Cao Cao initially married Lady Ding, but never had any children, and later he took another Lady Liu and gave birth to his eldest son, Cao Ang, and princess Qinghe. Later, Lady Liu died at a young age, and Cao Ang was transferred to Lady Ding to raise. In the second year of Jian'an (197), Cao Ang gave up his mount in order to let Cao Cao escape, and eventually fought with the enemy and died. After this incident, Lady Ding, who regarded Cao Ang as her own, was distraught and often blamed Cao Cao for killing her son, but Cao Cao was overwhelmed and simply sent him back to her mother's house.
After the anger subsided, Cao Cao also had some regrets, so he personally went to Lady Ding's house and stroked her back to persuade her to go back with him. However, Lady Ding's overtures and redemptions to Cao Cao were always silent, and Cao Cao's persuasion was fruitless, so she had to sever the conjugal friendship between the two. In addition, Cao Cao also expressed his hope to Lady Ding's family that he wanted ding to remarry and find a good family again, but the Ding family did not dare to do so.
After severing ties with Lady Ding, Cao Cao took Lady Bian as his main chamber. Although In the past, Lady Ding had bullied Lady Bian and her children with her original identity, Lady Bian did not remember revenge, but often gave gifts to The Ding Clan, and even secretly invited the Ding Clan to the palace several times when Cao Cao was out, and took the initiative to let her sit on the upper seat and treat her with the same etiquette as before. After Lady Ding's death, Lady Bian asked for her to be buried, and Cao Cao complied. It wasn't until his death that Cao Cao finally regretted that if he saw Cao Ang in another world, he didn't know how to explain to him about breaking with Lady Ding.
After Cao Cao's death, his son Cao Pi succeeded to the throne and established Cao Wei in the same year, honoring Cao Cao as Emperor Wu of Wei. Compared with Lady Ding and Lady Bian, Cao Pi's main chamber Zhen is much more famous, after all, according to legend, Cao Zhi's famous article "Luoshenfu" was written for Zhen. Zhen was born in Wuji County, Zhongshan County, originally the wife of Yuan Shao's second son Yuan Xi, and later Cao Cao attacked Yecheng, and Cao Pi saw that Zhen was beautiful, so he accepted her as a wife and was very fond of him.
According to the Book of Wei, after Cao Pi ascended the throne, all his courtiers suggested that Zhen be made empress, but Zhen believed that his talent and virtue were not enough to be qualified as empresses, and he was seriously ill, so he rejected Cao Pi's seal three times in succession to make him empress. It was the hot summer, so Cao Pi planned to wait until the weather was cool and Zhen's condition improved before appointing her as the queen, but unfortunately, Zhen died of illness soon after. Cao Pi was deeply saddened, but he could only masturbate by posthumously making him empress.
However, there is a huge discrepancy between the statement of the Book of Wei and the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms. According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, after Cao Pi ascended the throne, he not only married the two daughters of the abdicated Emperor Xian of Han, but also greatly favored Guo Gui's concubines, Li Guiren, and Yin Guiren. The snubbed Zhen gradually became dissatisfied and even complained. Cao Pi was furious when he learned of this, so he gave Zhen death. According to the "Spring and Autumn of the Han Dynasty", when Zhen was buried, Cao Pi also ordered that "the face be covered with chaff to plug the mouth", in order to make his Huangquan Road faceless and difficult to speak.
It is worth mentioning that the Wei Luo and the Han Jin Spring and Autumn Period have recorded that after Zhen's son Cao Rui became emperor, he often felt sad about his mother's death. After learning that his birth mother was framed by Guo Gui's concubine, who was now the empress dowager, Cao Rui forced her to kill him, and also ordered that Guo be punished with "being covered with chaff and plugging his mouth", completing his revenge.
Cao Rui's birth mother was killed because of Cao Pi's empathy, and although Cao Rui avenged his mother, he also gave death to his empress Mao because he liked the new and tired of the old. Born in Hanoi County, Mao has been very favored since he was elected to Cao Rui's mansion during the early Huang Dynasty, often sharing the same car with Cao Rui. After Cao Rui ascended the throne, he first made Mao a noble concubine, and then made him an empress the following year, which shows how favored he was.
However, as Mao grew older and declined, Cao Rui began to favor the younger and more beautiful Lady Guo, and even deliberately did not call Mao at a banquet with the concubines. Although Cao Rui ordered that the matter should not be passed on, it was still known to Mao, and in the face of the empress's persecution, Cao Rui's choice was to kill all the retinues who might leak secrets, and killed Mao and made Lady Guo the new empress.
To sum up, the reason why Cao Cao broke up with Lady Ding was because Cao Ang's death caused a rift between the husband and wife; the reason why Cao Pi gave death to Zhen was because he transferred his favor to Guo and others, but he was dissatisfied with Zhen and felt resentful; and the reason why Cao Rui gave death to Mao was similar to his father Cao Pi, coincidentally, the object of their empathy was still surnamed Guo. It is often said that "the companion is like the companion of the tiger", and the encounters of the above three can be said to be exactly what they say.