After the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui ascended the throne, he posthumously honored his ancestor Cao Teng as Emperor Gao, and Cao Teng's wife Wu Shi as Empress Gao, a title that remained until the Western Jin Dynasty Wei. Cao Teng also became one of the five emperors of the Cao Wei Dynasty (Emperor Cao Teng of Wei, Emperor Cao Song of Wei, Emperor Cao Song of Wei, Emperor Cao Of Wei, Emperor Cao Pi of Wei Wen, Emperor Cao Rui of Wei Ming, and none of Cao Rui's successors were allowed to enjoy the imperial title because of Sima Wei's monopoly). Historically, the eunuch who was officially awarded the title of emperor of the Orthodox Dynasty was only Cao Teng, which was unprecedented. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of The Later Han Dynasty contain the Biography of Cao Teng. The Song Dynasty poet Liu Kezhuang's poem "Miscellaneous Songs of One Hundred Pieces of Cao Teng" wrote of him: "Fei Tinghou is in Japan, and chaos has sprouted." If you raise a borer seed, you can still cover the Han family. ”
Cao Teng was Cao Cao's grandfather, Ji Xing, a famous eunuch of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Cao Teng's father was Cao Jie (曹節), a character wei who had three sons. Cao Teng was the third in line and was sent to the imperial palace as a eunuch from an early age. Sima Biao's "Book of Continuation of the Han Dynasty" records a small story of Cao Jie: Cao Jie's neighbor lost a pig, went to Cao Jie's house to look for it, identified one of the cao family's pigs as his lost pigs, and Cao Jie did not argue with him, and asked the neighbors to lead the pig back. Later, the neighbor's lost pig ran home by himself, and the neighbor felt ashamed, hurried to the door to apologize, and returned the pig of the Cao family. Cao Jie did not blame either, and accepted with a smile. Therefore, the townspeople praised Cao Jie as a benevolent and generous person. Judging from this story, Cao Jie should be an ordinary rural farmer, perhaps because of his poor life, he sent Cao Teng to the palace as a eunuch.
During the reign of Emperor An of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Teng entered the palace as a eunuch. Empress Deng considered him young, meek, and loyal, and chose him to accompany the crown prince (Liu Bao, The Shun Emperor) to study in the Eastern Palace. Because of his courtesy, he was very popular with the prince. Later, he married the woman Wu Shi and adopted the young man of the Xiahou family as a son, that is, Cao Cao's father Cao Song.
After Emperor Shun of Han ascended the throne, Cao Teng was promoted to zhongchangshi (中常侍). He had been serving in the palace for more than thirty years, and he had always been cautious, and his family had never been overbearing in his hometown. Moreover, Cao Teng also often recommended some famous scholars to the emperor, such as Chen Liuyufang, Bian Shao, Nanyang Yangu, Zhang Wen, Hongnong Zhang Yi, Yingchuan Tangxi Dian, and so on. At that time, a Shu Commandery Taishou sent some gifts to Cao Teng by the way through a Ji official (an official who went to the imperial court every year to report on local work), and as a result, he was found out by Yizhou Assassin Shi Zhongzhuang at Xiegu Pass. He wrote a letter denouncing The Taishou of Shu Commandery( 蜀郡太守), and thus impeached Cao Teng and requested that he be handed over to Ting Wei for punishment. The emperor said, "The letter comes from outside, and the book cannot be written, but it is not his crime." This is to say that the letter came from the outside, not Cao Teng's fault. So I buckled down. As a result, Cao Teng did not mind this matter at all, and often praised In front of the emperor, ZhongXuan was a talented official who could grasp the law of being a subject, so that Zhongsong was constantly promoted and promoted to the position of Situ. Later, Zhongxuan also sighed and said, "I can become a superior, all with the help of Cao Changshi!" Cao Teng restrained the family and was close to the scholars, which was widely praised by all walks of life at that time.
In the fourth year of Emperor Yonghe of Han shun (139 AD), Zhongchang served Zhang Kui and Yu Zheng, and the internal servants Ling Shiguang and Shangfang ordered Fu Fu to frame Cao Teng and Meng Ben in order to seize power, but they were killed by Emperor Shun.
After the death of Emperor Shun of Han, his youngest son, Emperor Han Chong, who had just turned two years old, died a year after succeeding to the throne. At that time, the ministers all believed that an elderly and virtuous clan should be appointed as emperor, and all of them belonged to Liu Garlic, the king of Qinghe, and the foreign general Liang Ji, in order to continue to hold power, made Liu Yi, the son of the Prince of Bohai, who was only eight years old, as emperor, that is, the Han Emperor. But this little emperor was also very clever, and pointed at Liang Ji at the imperial meeting and said to the courtiers, "This general is also." The terrified Liang Ji poisoned the young emperor who had only been on the throne for more than a year. At this time, the ministers strongly demanded that Liu Garlic, the king of Qinghe, and Liang Ji originally planned to set up his brother-in-law Liu Zhi the Marquis of Liwu, but when he saw the anger of the crowd, he had no idea and did not know what to do.
Liu Garlic, the king of Qinghe, "was a serious person, and his movements were moderate, and the courtiers li gu and so on did not return to their hearts." However, Cao Teng and other eunuchs once met Liu Garlic, and Liu Garlic did not treat him with courtesy, which aroused the hatred and fear of Cao Teng and others. Cao Teng and others rushed to Liang Ji's home overnight to persuade him, saying to him: "The generals have been relatives of the emperor and the state for generations, the prime minister is in charge of the government, the interpersonal relationship is complicated, and there are many violations of the law." The King of Qinghe was strict, and if he finally became a monarch, then the general's calamity would not be far away. It is better to be a lily marquis, and the rich can be maintained for a long time. Liang Ji took his advice and forcibly made Liu Zhi the Marquis of Liwu emperor, that is, Emperor Huan of Han. With this merit, Cao Teng moved to the rank of Grand Changqiu, reached the peak of the eunuch official position, and was given the title of Marquis of Feiting. Da Changqiu can be said to be the largest eunuch, in charge of the Fengxuan Palace, Feng Lu 2,000 stones, belonging to the high-ranking officials of the rank of Lieqing.
After Cao Teng's death, his adopted son Cao Song (Cao Cao's father) succeeded to the title. In the last year of Emperor Huan's reign, Cao Song was already a lieutenant of the Imperial Household, and when Emperor Ling ascended the throne, he was promoted to the post of Great Si Nong and Da Hongxu, and successively took charge of the country's financial etiquette, ranking nine secretaries and holding a high position of authority. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a system of spending money to donate officials, and Cao Song was not satisfied with the position of Dahongxu, and spent ten thousand gold to donate the position of taiwei for himself. Taiwei was at the head of the "Three Dukes", and Cao Song reached the peak of his political career.
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