Zhao Yan, the speaker whom Cao Cao killed: Is the unjust case unjust in the end?

In the last program, we explained in detail how Cao Cao controlled the imperial court after he welcomed Tianzi, and clearly pointed out that the way Cao Cao controlled the imperial court at this time was no more powerful than the power of the Eastern Han court in the previous 100 years, and it can even be said that due to the existence of Yuan Shao, he was only the second-ranked courtier.

Because the foreign relatives of the Eastern Han Dynasty often held the military power as a general, and one of the three dukes, Lu Shangshu, controlled the government, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao just followed this practice, one outside and one inside.

So, is the final parting of Yuan Cao and Yuan Cao related to Emperor Xian of Han?

Cao Cao lived in the imperial hall, naturally to control the Son of Heaven, but this kind of control is not the general imagination of the moment to monitor, the Han Xian Emperor is precarious, on the contrary, as an emperor, he still retains enough majesty and power in the palace.

In the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, The Biography of the Empress records:

Zhao Yan (赵彦) tried to be the emperor's words, and Cao Cao killed him for evil. The rest of the inside and outside are often seen in the curse.

It was zhao yan who once talked to emperor Of Han about timely political countermeasures, Cao Cao killed Zhao Yan in disgust, and the rest of the people inside and outside were also killed.

In this passage, there is a lot of information, the first of which is the death of Zhao Yan, the speaker, and this matter is even listed in the "Discussion with Cao Cao", which is compared with the former lieutenant Yang Biao's imprisonment, which shows its importance, but there is no detailed record of why he was killed, but only summarized as the evidence of Cao Cao's power.

In fact, the devil is still in the details.

First look at Zhao Yan's position, and then look at his possible related records, it is very interesting.

Zhao Yan was then a parliamentarian, according to the Book of Later Han and the Hundred Officials Chronicle:

Doctor Guanglu, than two thousand stones. Taichu Doctor, Sengoku. Doctor Nakasan, six hundred stones. Counselor, six hundred stones. The speaker, six hundred stones, is unincorporated.

There is no fixed number of deliberative langs of six hundred stones, and the duties of the post can be found in Li Xian's annotation of the Book of later Han:

All the doctors and the councillors are in charge of the advisers to deal with, impermanent things, only the edicts.

That is to say, these four doctors and the councillor were all responsible for the emperor's advisers and when he needed them, and there was no daily work, all depending on the edict to arrange the envoys.

Yi Lang also happened to be cao Cao's own official for many years before, such as Yi Lang leading the Yanzhou Assassination History, during the Jian'an period, Cao Chun used the position of Yi Lang to "participate in the Sikong Military", and "supervise the tiger and leopard ride" from Wei Nanpi, and Cao Ren used yi Lang to supervise the ride.

These three examples can precisely explain the meaning of "impermanence, only the edict is made", and during Cao Cao's tenure as a parliamentarian, he returned to his hometown to study and hunt in the fields, Pang Xi recruited troops with yilang, and led several of Liu Yan's grandsons into Shu, all of which show that the position of yilang did not need to participate in the "Chang Dynasty" and "Inner Dynasty" at a fixed time, but the role of listening to the instructions of his superiors.

The so-called "Chang Dynasty", which began with emperor Xuan of the Western Han Dynasty, said "five days and one dynasty", and the elders and ministers paid attention to "chao shuowang", that is, fifteen days a dynasty, the participants were more than 600 stone officials, this system as the eastern Han emperor grew younger and younger, the empress dowager's dictatorship, gradually abolished in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and replaced by more emphasis on the "inner dynasty" within the forbidden provinces.

The participants of the "Inner Dynasty" were more "selected", and from the time of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, there were generally officials who were servants, Chang Shi, Grand General Sima Da, Scattered Horsemen, Left and Right Cao, and Officials who gave the matter to the middle rank, but in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the basic system still existed, but the candidates for participation changed, because the empress dowager and foreign relatives were in power, the status of eunuchs rose, and the main participants in the Inner Dynasty changed.

The Book of The Later Han Dynasty Li Gu wrote:

Now he who rules the world with His Majesty, the outer secretary shangshu, the inner constant attendant, the yellow door.

That is to say, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the eunuchs served as Zhongchang attendants and Yellow Gates, replacing the inner dynasty dominated by scholars, and extensively interfered in the discussion of forbidden matters, while the scholars still retained the officials of The Left and Right Cao, which is recorded in Wei Hong's "Supplements to the Old Yi of Han Officials":

Left Cao Ri on the pilgrimage, rank 2,000 stones.

Obviously, the foreign court officials who had left and right Cao Jia officials enjoyed the treatment of two thousand stones and participated in the inner dynasty every day.

Specific to the era of Emperor Xian of Han, there was a big change, that is, the eunuchs were killed, what to do?

The Notes on the Living of the Emperor Xiandi records:

The officials of the Xiang people, known as Lang Lang and Lang Zhong, are as they were.

Zhu Yanren officials, that is, a bunch of positions in Daxingzhong and Huangmen officials since emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in the era of Emperor Xian of Han, all of them were appointed as Yilang and Langzhong, and the rank of Rank Lu remained unchanged.

Knowing the above background, and looking at the death of Zhao Yan, he said in terms of power and responsibility that there were two possibilities for "chen yan shi strategy" to emperor of Han:

First, he was summoned by Emperor Xian of Han to consult with him, mentioning the "Shi Strategy", that is, the strategy against the government at that time;

Second, he served as a "Zhu Yanren official", such as huangmen ling, zhonghuangmen and other positions, and "chen yan shi ce" as a close attendant.

The former possibility belongs to Emperor Xiandi of Han to actively participate in the politics of the dynasty, and the latter possibility belongs to the passive listening strategy of Emperor Xiandi of Han, the situation is different, but in nature, it belongs to the revival attempt of "internal politics".

Judging from the records, it is more likely that the first situation is that Emperor Xiandi of Han took the initiative to ask Zhao Yan to "speak in a timely manner", so why did Cao Cao "kill him evilly"?

The four words "evil and kill" are linked to "the rest of the inside and outside, many see the curse", directly pointing to Cao Cao's tyranny and tyranny, but before the release of the "Seeking Cao Cao" in the fourth year of Jian'an, the records can be seen that the only situation in which Cao Cao killed the imperial officials was Zhao Yan and Xue Hu chong, who had just entered Luoyang, and only mentioned Zhao Yan in the text, that is, there was no practical example of "many seeing and killing".

This has to make us have one more eye for the "evil" and "disgust" in "evil and killing", because the Book of Wei records that Cao Cao once explicitly persuaded Yuan Shao not to kill people because of his personal vendetta, and his original words were:

In the autumn of doubt between the upper and lower levels, although they are treated with no suspicion, they are afraid of not believing, if they are removed, who does not endanger themselves?

It can be seen that at the beginning of cao cao's reign, he was very cautious about the political environment in which the upper and lower levels were suspicious, believing that even if they were treated fairly, the figures of different factions were still suspicious of each other, and if they killed people, everyone would simply endanger themselves, so he killed Zhao Yan, not just for the sake of dictatorship, otherwise Dong Cheng, Yuan Shao, Kong Rong and other political factions would not sit idly by.

So, what did Zhao Yan say?

Refer to the Records of the Book of later Han and the Biography of Fang Shu:

Zhao Yan people, Lang evil people also. There is little magic.

When Emperor Huan of Han was three years old, someone in the state of Langya occupied Juxian and rebelled, and Zhao Yan gave advice to the generals of the imperial court, saying that there was a land of Wuyang near Juxian County, that is, five counties with Yang characters, namely Chengyang, Nanwuyang, Kaiyang, Yangdu, and Anyang, so you had to send Wuyang County soldiers to overwhelm it, that is, shanyang, Guangyang, Hanyang, Nanyang, Danyang and other counties with names with Yang.

The general really believed it and transferred the Soldiers of Wuyang County, and the result was:

Yan pushed the armor, taught the time to enter the army, and broke the thief in a battle.

The Qimen Jia is the one in the Qi men Qijia, which is about calculating the auspiciousness with the heavenly stem, so Zhao Yan is calculating the auspicious day, and then sending troops, and really winning the battle.

Thirty years or so before Yan Xi and Emperor Xian of Han listened to the "Shi Ce", the two Zhao Yan could have been a person entirely, and the so-called "Shi Ce" was most likely some fangshi saying, which attracted Cao Cao's disgust, just like Cao Cao's disgust for the theory of the Taiping Dao when he was flat on the Yellow Turban.

So the question is, why did Emperor Xian of Han do this?

What exactly is the answer, please listen to the next breakdown.