Cao Cao (; [tsʰǎʊ tsʰáʊ]; Chinese: 曹操; c. 155 – 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde, was a Chinese statesman, warlord, and poet who rose to power during the end of the Han dynasty (c. 184–220 AD), ultimately taking effective control of the Han central government. He laid the foundation for the state of Cao Wei (220–265 AD), established by his son and successor Cao Pi, who ended the Eastern Han dynasty and inaugurated the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD). Beginning in his own lifetime, a corpus of legends developed around Cao Cao which built upon his talent, his cruelty, and his perceived eccentricities.
Cao Cao began his career as an official under the Han government and held various appointments including that of a district security chief in the capital and the chancellor of a principality. He rose to prominence in the 190s during which he recruited his own followers, formed his own army, and set up a base in Yan Province (covering parts of present-day Henan and Shandong). In 196 AD, he received Emperor Xian, the figurehead Han sovereign who was previously held hostage by other warlords such as Dong Zhuo, Li Jue, and Guo Si. After he established the new imperial capital in Xuchang, Emperor Xian and the central government came under his direct control, but he still paid nominal allegiance to the emperor. Throughout the 190s, Cao Cao actively waged wars in central China against rival warlords such as Lü Bu, Yuan Shu, and Zhang Xiu, eliminating all of them. Following his triumph over the warlord Yuan Shao at the Battle of Guandu in 200 AD, Cao Cao launched a series of campaigns against Yuan Shao's sons and allies over the following seven years, defeated them, and unified much of northern China under his control. In 208 AD, shortly after Emperor Xian appointed him as the Imperial Chancellor, he embarked on an expedition to gain a foothold in southern China, but was defeated by the allied forces of the warlords Sun Quan, Liu Bei, and Liu Qi at the decisive Battle of Red Cliffs.
His subsequent attempts over the following years to annex the lands south of the Yangtze River never proved successful. In 211 AD, he defeated a coalition of northwestern warlords led by Ma Chao and Han Sui at the Battle of Tong Pass. Five years later, he seized Hanzhong from the warlord Zhang Lu, but lost it to Liu Bei by 219. In the meantime, he also received many honours from Emperor Xian. In 213 AD, he was created Duke of Wei and granted a fief covering parts of present-day Hebei and Henan. In 216 AD, he was elevated to the status of a vassal king under the title "King of Wei" and awarded numerous ceremonial privileges, of which some used to be reserved exclusively for emperors. Cao Cao died in Luoyang in March 220 and was succeeded by his son Cao Pi who accepted the abdication of Emperor Xian in November 220 AD and established the state of Cao Wei to replace the Eastern Han dynasty— an event commonly seen as an usurpation. This marked the transition from the Eastern Han dynasty to the Six Dynasties period. After taking the throne, Cao Pi granted his father the posthumous title "Emperor Wu" ("Martial Emperor") and the temple name "Taizu" ("Grand Ancestor").
Apart from being lauded as a brilliant political and military leader, Cao Cao is celebrated for his poems. Opinions of him have remained divided from as early as the Jin dynasty (266–420 AD) that came immediately after the Three Kingdoms period. There were some who praised him for his achievements in poetry and his career, but there were also others who condemned him for his cruelty, cunning, and allegedly traitorous ways. In traditional Chinese culture, Cao Cao is stereotypically portrayed as a sly, power-hungry, and treacherous tyrant who serves as a nemesis to Liu Bei, often depicted in contraposition as a hero trying to revive the declining Han dynasty.
The authoritative historical source on Cao Cao's life is his official biography in the Records of the Three Kingdoms written by Chen Shou in the third century. His sources for his work on the Wei portion of his book (魏志; Wei Zhi) included the Dongguan Ji (東觀記; now lost), the Book of Wei, and possibly other records. Chen Shou worked in the history bureau and had access to a variety of sources, but followed the traditional method of incorporating information into a single synthesis without citing his sources, so it is not clear how broad a pool of documentation he drew upon.
In the fifth century, Pei Songzhi annotated the Sanguozhi by incorporating information from other sources to Chen Shou's original work and adding his personal commentary, as well as commentary from other historians.
One of the major sources for information on Cao Cao's life employed by Pei Songzhi was the official history of the Wei dynasty, the Book of Wei, largely composed during the Wei dynasty itself by Wang Chen, Xun Yi, and Ruan Ji. It was completed by Wang Chen and presented to the court during the opening years of the succeeding Western Jin dynasty. This work is understandably typically very favourable to Cao Cao as the founding figure of the dynasty under which the initial compilation was performed.
As a counterpoint, another significant source for Cao Cao's life as cited by Pei Songzhi was the Cao Man zhuan (曹瞞傳), an anonymous collection of anecdotes said to have been compiled by a person from Eastern Wu, a rival kingdom to Cao Cao's own. This work is overall very hostile to Cao Cao, depicting him as cruel and untrustworthy, although not every anecdote is negative. Cao Man zhuan has been characterised as "hostile propaganda", and certain contents as "slanderous". Such a work cannot be considered a reliable source, but informs an exaggerated perspective contraposed to the glowing portrait painted by his own dynasty's official history.
For much of his career, Cao Cao hosted and controlled the final Han emperor, whose doings and correspondence it was standard to record. Especially useful for noting things like official appointments, three titles of this type were used by Pei Songzhi to add detail to Chen Shou's account: Xiandi Ji (獻帝記; Records of Emperor Xian) compiled by Liu Ai (劉艾), Xiandi Qiju zhu (獻帝起居注; Notes on Emperor Xian's Daily Life), and Shanyang Gong zaiji (山陽公載記; Records of the Duke of Shanyang [Emperor Xian's post-usurpation title]) by Yue Zi (樂資).
Other early sources for Pei Songzhi included Yu Huan's privately composed histories Dianlüe (典略; Authoritative Account) and Weilüe, written prior to Chen Shou's own work; and Sima Biao's Annals of the Nine Provinces (九州春秋), also from the 3rd century.
Later sources included works by the moralistic historian Sun Sheng, most saliently his Chronicles of the Clans of Wei (魏氏春秋), but also his more critical Yitong Ping (異同評; Commentary on Similarities and Differences) and Yitong Zayu (異同雜語; Miscellaneous Words on Similarities and Differences), which may have been parts of the same work. Although Pei Songzhi sometimes pointed out flaws in Sun Sheng's methods, he often cites him as an authority. Other Jin dynasty historians he gave less credence to, while still including parallel passages from their work, such as Jiangbiao zhuan (江表傳), by Yu Pu (虞溥), and Wei Jin Shiyu (魏晉世語; Tales of the Worlds of Wei and Jin) by Guo Ban (郭頒), a work which Pei Songzhi denigrated in very strident terms.
The official standard history of the Eastern Han dynasty, the Book of the Later Han by Fan Ye, was not available to Pei Songzhi. He and Fan Ye were contemporaries, but Fan Ye did not begin work on his history until a few years after Pei Songzhi completed his. The Book of the Later Han does not contain a full biography of Cao Cao, but records of him and his actions can be found scattered in disparate locations in the book.
Some of Cao Cao's own writing – both literary and in the form of government edicts – has been preserved in later collectanea. His commentary on The Art of War is extant, but offers little insight into his life.
Background and early life (155–184)
Cao Cao's ancestral home was in Qiao County (譙縣), Pei State, which is present-day Bozhou, Anhui. He was purportedly a descendant of Cao Shen, a statesman of the early Western Han dynasty. His father, Cao Song, served as the Grand Commandant during the reign of Emperor Ling (r. 168–189), buying his way into high government office for an exorbitant sum, and serving less than half a year. Cao Song was a foster son of Cao Teng, a eunuch who served as a Central Regular Attendant and the Empress's Chamberlain under Emperor Huan (r. 146–168), and held the peerage of Marquis of Fei Village (費亭侯).