The relationship between the Cao and Xiahou clans was very good. In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", there is a special article "Biography of Xiahou Cao", which lists the various Cao clans and xiahou clan's sons and daughters into one biography, which can be said to be the backbone of The early stage of Cao Cao Group's entrepreneurship. The reason why Cao Cao trusted and reused the children of Cao and Xiahou was also very simple, and the connection between blood, in-laws and regions was more stable. In fact, there is another family, and the relationship with the Cao clan is also very deep, no less than the Xiahou clan, but it is deliberately diluted by the history books, that is, the Pei Guo Ding clan. Let's talk about this family.
The in-law relationship between the Ding clan and the Cao clan began at least with Cao Cao's father Cao Song. The Cao clan was a relatively influential family, with the famous scholar Cao Jie, the eunuch Cao Teng, cao Song who ranked in the position of the three dukes, and then Cao Cao, both financially and politically influential. In ancient times, intermarriage paid attention to the door-to-door pair, and the intermarriage of two families with certain strength was more conducive to the development of the two families. It can be seen that the Pei Guo Ding clan is also very influential, at least locally.
Cao Song intermarried with The Ding clan and was a proper wife. This can be seen in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Shu, and Emperor Wen: "(Cao Song) Lady Ding Shi was known as Empress Dowager. Not only Cao Song, cao Cao also intermarried with The Ding clan, and was also the right wife, known as Lady Ding in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The relationship between Lady Ding and Cao Cao was still relatively complicated. Lady Ding had no children, and another of Cao Cao's concubines, Lady Liu, died early, and Cao Cao gave his eldest son Cao Ang and Princess Qinghe to Ding to raise.
In the first year of Jian'an (i.e., 196 AD), Cao Cao attacked Zhang Xiu in Wancheng, and Zhang Xiu surrendered to Cao Cao. However, because Cao Cao wanted to take Zhang Xiu's aunt for himself, and also co-opted Zhang Xiu's warrior Hu Che'er, causing Zhang Xiu to surrender and rebel, Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang, nephew Cao Anmin, and the general Dianwei all died in this battle. Lady Ding blamed Cao Cao for Cao Ang's death and complained about Cao Cao. Cao Cao drove Lady Ding back to her mother's house, meaning that she wanted to fold Lady Ding's anger. As a result, Lady Ding directly broke up with Cao Cao, and only then did Lady Bian have a chance to ascend to the throne.
Cao Song and Cao Cao both intermarried with the Ding clan, and cao Cao's children also had the possibility of intermarrying with the Ding clan. The princess of Qinghe mentioned above was the eldest daughter of Cao Cao. Cao Cao originally wanted to give Princess Xu of Qinghe to Ding Chong's son Ding Yi, both of whom will be mentioned below. But Ding Yi has a physical defect, and he has some problems with his eyes.
Cao Pi believes that women like to be handsome, and Princess Qinghe will not be happy to marry Ding Yi. He persuaded Cao Cao to marry Princess Qinghe to Xiahou Shu's son Xiahou Shu. Here Cao Pi probably also has selfish intentions in it, and Xiahou Shu is Cao Pi's good buddy. However, because of this, Cao Pi also set up an enemy for himself. This is also explained in more detail below.
The Ding clan and the Cao clan had a long-term in-law relationship, of course, in the early days of the Cao Cao Group, they also occupied a not low position, and had an active performance, just like the relationship between the Xiahou clan and the Cao clan. The Ding disciples of the Cao Cao Group that xiaobian can find are Ding Fei, Ding Mi, Ding Chong, Ding Yi, Ding Xi and others, the number is not small, and it also has a relatively large impact on the direction of historical development.
Ding Fei, Ding Mi father and son
First of all, let's talk about Ding Fei and Ding Mi father and son. Ding Fei's relationship with Cao Cao was very good, and one of his shortcomings was that he was greedy for money, and he was unable to get it, and often made some economic mistakes. For example, once Ding Fei exchanged his own thin cattle for the fat cattle of the public. After the incident was discovered, Ding Fei lost his official position. Cao Cao also teased Ding Fei and asked him where yin shui had gone, and Ding Fei replied that he had changed the pie.
Even with bad deeds, Cao Cao chose to appoint Ding Fei. According to Cao Cao, Ding Fei was a dog who was good at catching rats but loved to steal food, and his contribution was much more than the losses caused. One example might prove it. In the "Battle of Tongguan" in the sixteenth year of Jian'an (that is, 211 AD), Cao Cao's army crossed Pusakajin, and Cao Cao, Xu Chu, Zhang Gao and others personally broke off, and were attacked by Ma Chao and others. At this critical moment, Ding Fei released cattle, horses and other large livestock to attract Ma Chao's army to rob, providing Cao Cao with room to escape.
Ding Fei's son, Ding Mi, was a relatively important historical figure during the reign of The Young Emperor Cao Fang. Emperor Cao Rui of Wei died, leaving Sima Yi and Cao Shuang as auxiliary chancellors. There was a long period of power struggle between the two. Cao Shuang's fame could not compete with Sima Yi's, and he chose to woo many of his fellow countrymen and glitzy celebrities who had been deposed by Cao Rui as henchmen, including this Ding Mi. Ding Mi, He Yan, and Deng Biao were three important henchmen of Cao Shuang, and their historical style was poor, and they were evaluated as "three dogs in Taiwan". Later, Cao Shuang was defeated by Sima Yi, and Ding Mo was buried with Cao Shuang.
Ding Chong, Ding Yi, Ding Yi father and son
Let's talk about Ding Chong, Ding Yi, And Ding Yi's father and son. Ding Chong was also an important figure in Cao Cao's entrepreneurial period, but he was "ignored" by historical materials. Ding Chong was not a Military Servant who joined Cao Cao in the army, he was actually a Zhongdu official of the Eastern Han Dynasty court, and served as a Waiter at the Yellow Gate and a Waiter. From the second year of The Eastern Han Dynasty to the first year of Jian'an (that is, from 195 to 196 AD), Liu Xie, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, finally escaped from the clutches of Li Dai and Guo Feng and returned to Luoyang.
At this time, the situation in the Eastern Han court was that Yang Feng and Han Xian confronted each other with Dong Cheng and Zhang Yang (all four of whom were the heroes who escorted Emperor Xian of Han to the east). At this time, Ding Chong thought of Cao Cao and wrote a letter to Cao Cao asking him to hurry up to meet Emperor Xian of Han. When Emperor Xian of Han moved to Xu County, Xu Chong became a lieutenant colonel, this was a high-weight official position, and it was also Cao Cao's return to Ding Chong. Unfortunately, Ding Chong, such a figure, his cause of death is very embarrassing, and he actually drank to death.
Ding Yi and Ding Yi were Ding Chong's sons, and because Cao Pi had destroyed Ding Yi's in-laws with Princess Qinghe, Ding Yi was quite jealous of Cao Pi, and the brothers turned to Cao Zhi, who had formed a competitive relationship with Cao Pi. Everyone knows the struggle between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, and the two have their own henchmen, Cao Pi has the support of Chen Qun, Sima Yi and others, and Cao Zhi has the support of Yang Xiu, the Ding brothers and others. In the end, Cao Zhi failed, and Cao Pi became emperor. Cao Pi carried out a brutal purge of Cao Zhi's henchmen, and the Ding brothers were not spared.
From the above content, it can be seen that the Pei Guo Ding clan has a deep connection with the Cao Cao clique, both in terms of their relationship and their political contributions. However, in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, only the Xiahou and Cao clans are listed together, completely ignoring the record of the Ding clan. Most of the current records of Pei Guoding's characters are either the contents of other historical materials quoted by Pei Songzhi, or some negative images. For example, the Ding Yi brothers who supported Cao Zhi but failed; Lady Ding, who was deposed by Cao Cao; and Ding Mi, who supported Cao Shuang's failure.
Xiaobian believes that the most fundamental reason is the complete failure of Ding's political speculation. First of all, Lady Ding and Cao Cao's farewell was indeed a bad breath personally, but the result was that Ding Shi lost the opportunity to be Cao Wei's foreign relative, which was simply a surrender; in the battle between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, the Ding Yi brothers took the wrong side, and finally in exchange for the fate of all the male Ding being killed, Ding's power was weakened and suppressed; later, Ding Mi had a hard time hugging Cao Shuang's thigh, and as a result, Cao Shuang also failed, and Ding Mi was yi of the three tribes. All three opportunities to change the fate of the family were missed.
After two blows, as well as political suppression, Ding's power had probably become very weak; and Ding Mi, as Cao Shuang's henchman, Sima Yi's former opponent and persecutor, and Chen Shou as a Jin courtier, could not have failed to take Sima Shi's position into account when revising history. First, there are no prominent figures and family forces, and second, Chen Shou must conform to Sima Shou's position, so it is very understandable that the situation of peiguo Ding clan deliberately diluted in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is also a good thing.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Later Han Dynasty