The most popular dynasty in Chinese history is none other than the Three Kingdoms. On the one hand, there are countless stories and folk tales about the Three Kingdoms in the past dynasties, and on the other hand, the legendary description of the history of the Three Kingdoms in the strange book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" born in the Ming Dynasty. Both of these have enabled the historical popularity of the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty to achieve a leap-forward increase. Of course, if you want to find a most well-known figure in this most well-known history, it is not so simple, Guan Yu, Zhuge Liang, Cao Cao, Liu Bei and other people have countless fans among the public. But if you want to say who is the most complex and who is the most controversial among the three kingdoms, it is Cao Cao. Benevolence and treachery, impulsiveness and prudence, intelligence and stupidity and other complete opposite words coexist harmoniously in Cao Cao, and have converged for a long time, one of the most typical cases is that many Lovers of the Three Kingdoms believe that Cao Cao is a monarch who attaches more importance to talent than to birth, that is, the so-called "meritocracy", but if you really understand Cao Cao's series of measures in employing people, you will find that this sentence is not very reliable.
Below, let's talk about Cao Cao's "meritocracy".
In the fifteenth year of Jian'an, that is, in 210 AD, Cao Cao issued the "Order of Seeking Merit", the last sentence of the edict said: "The second and third sons of qizuo I am clear and ugly, only the move, I have to use it." He issued this edict in the hope that more wise men and gentlemen would rule the world with him." Meritocracy" hence the name.
So, is Cao Cao really "meritocracy"? The reality can be much more brutal.
Let's first look at the composition of Cao Cao's talents. According to Chen Shou's record in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, the civil and military forces under Cao Cao's command mainly included the following people:
The group of conspirators led by Xun Yu, Xun You, Jia Xu, Guo Jia, and Cheng Yu, these five people were known as Cao Cao's five great strategists. Among these people, Xun Yu and Xun You's uncle and nephew were born in the Yingchuan Xun clan, which had always belonged to the top rank of scholars within the bureaucratic group of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and had been occupying the position of the Three Dukes and Nine Qings for many years; Guo Jia and Erxun were fellow villagers, and the Guo family was a family that controlled the judicial department within the Eastern Han Dynasty and served as the head of the judicial department for successive generations; Jia Xu and Cheng Yu, the former's family was a local tyrant in Liangzhou, and the Jia family was also a shi clan that served as jiuqing for many years, and the latter's family was also active frequently in the local officials in their hometown. It can be said that the aspect of the big member. This proves that at least none of Cao Cao's main advisers were ordinary intellectuals of humble origins.
A group of martial generals consisting of Xiahou Huan, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, Yu Ban, Le Jin, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and Zhang Guo. Among these people, the two Xiahou were Cao Cao's cousins, playing together from childhood to adult partners, Cao Ren was Cao Cao's cousin, and he was also a horse boy who had been following Cao Cao, they were more or less related to Cao Cao, and they were in-laws and dead parties who had contact with each other for several generations. Yu Ban and Le Jin were concubines that Cao Cao single-handedly promoted from the soldiers and focused on cultivating. Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and Zhang Gao were generals who surrendered from other military groups, and their role in the Cao army was mainly that of fire brigade leaders. Although the three men fought bravely and bravely, they almost never had the opportunity to lead the large army to fight independently, and the reason for this was self-evident. Cao Cao never trusted these outsiders. This method of employing people is inconsistent with the "meritocracy" he advertises.
In 210 AD, it was already the late stage of Cao Cao's life, and ten years after the edict was issued, Cao Cao died of illness. During this decade, the territory ruled by Cao Cao did not achieve large-scale expansion, and the government did not change greatly. Therefore, if we really take the desire for talents and the willingness expressed in the "Order of Seeking Talents" seriously, we cannot explain why Cao Cao has clearly defined the policy of recruiting talents, but there has been no progress in his career. Is the land of China really "wild and untouchable"? Or are the talents recruited by Cao Cao incompetent? Moreover, in the two years before the promulgation of the "Qiuxian Order", Cao Cao was defeated by Sun Liu's army in the Battle of Chibi, and there was a turning point in the development of his career, and it can even be said that the Battle of Chibi broke Cao Cao's hope of unifying China, so the real role of the "Qiuxian Order" issued at this time may be to publicize and stabilize the hearts of his talents or express a positive attitude towards the cause, so as to recover the prestige lost in the previous battle. This symbolic attitude is actually far greater than what it can actually do, and "meritocracy" is probably the real value here.
To sum up, on the whole, the main talents appointed by Cao Cao were either scholars from very noble families, or family members who had in-laws with their own in-laws and were 100% reliable in loyalty, and the bottom line was the generals they cultivated. From this point of view, how did Cao Cao achieve what he called "meritocracy"?
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