Cao Cao, China's favourite villain, looks different in his own records
As a young man, Cao Cao visited the famous character judge Xu Shao and was told he would be a treacherous villain in peaceful times and a hero in chaotic ones. The verdict stuck. Centuries of storytelling cast him as the scheming tyrant of the Three Kingdoms, while the historical sources pull in opposite directions.
Much of the confusion comes from who wrote what. The core account is Chen Shou's third-century Records of the Three Kingdoms, which blended sources without naming them. A fifth-century commentator, Pei Songzhi, added material from the Book of Wei, compiled under Cao Cao's own dynasty and naturally glowing, and from the Cao Man zhuan, an anonymous anecdote collection attributed to someone from the rival state of Wu and so hostile it has been called propaganda. Between flattery and slander, a real statesman is hard to pin down.
His career itself is well documented. Born around 155 to an official's family in what is now Bozhou, he was known in youth for hunting, idling and playing vigilante. He started in government at about 19, keeping order in a district of the capital, Luoyang, and in the chaotic 190s raised his own army with a base in Yan Province. In 196 he took in Emperor Xian, the powerless Han ruler, moved the court to Xuchang and governed in his name while keeping up formal loyalty.
Victory over Yuan Shao at Guandu in 200 and seven more years of campaigning gave him most of northern China. In 208 he pushed south and was defeated at Red Cliffs by the combined forces of Sun Quan, Liu Bei and Liu Qi, and the lands beyond the Yangtze always eluded him. He was made Duke of Wei in 213 and King of Wei in 216.
He was also a celebrated poet, and his commentary on The Art of War survives. He died at Luoyang in March 220; months later his son Cao Pi accepted the last Han emperor's abdication and founded the state of Wei, opening the Three Kingdoms era.
Source: Cao Cao
