The Lantai actors Cao Cao and Cao Pi, father and son, in Peking Opera are rare in history"Writer"Father and son. Cao Cao is known to everyone as a great writer, but many may not know that Cao Pi's literary achievements are not inferior to his father's.
Mr. Lu Xun even praised Cao Pi, thinking that his era was"The Age of Literary Self-Consciousness"。So, why did Cao Cao and Cao Pi father and son achieve such high literary achievements?
This is not because they advocate Confucianism, in fact, both father and son are descendants of eunuchs. Although Cao Cao claimed to be a descendant of Cao Shen, the prime minister of the early Han Dynasty, in fact, the Cao family originated from his grandfather, the eunuch Cao Teng.
This is also where many people who like the history of the Three Kingdoms are confused, why Cao Cao's father used to be a lieutenant, and the Cao family served as a ** of many two thousand stones, but there are still many historians who believe that Cao Cao's family was"Cold"This?
The reason lies in the meaning of Confucianism. As I have said many times before, one of the manifestations of the prosperity of Confucianism during the Eastern Han Dynasty was the full involvement of Confucianism in all aspects of social life. For the scholars of the Eastern Han Dynasty,"Self-cultivation and family governance, peace in the world"It is no longer just the ideal state of Confucianism, but a real portrayal of their lives.
The comprehensive involvement of Confucianism in social life is reflected in the fact that the Eastern Han monarchs and ministers all cited the Book of Rites and other Confucian scriptures to interpret the imperial court decrees, or to interpret the imperial court decrees. For example, Lu Gong in the Eastern Han Dynasty used the power of interpretation of the Book of Rites and the Lunar Order to successfully induce the Eastern Han court to revise the bad practice of interrogating prisoners in the summer.
In order for a Confucian scholar to enter the ranks, he first needs to be proficient in the Confucian classics. Under the Eastern Han Dynasty inspection system, except for special families such as the Cao family and the Yuan family, other scholars must be proficient in the scriptures and righteousness if they want to be filial piety.
It's as easy as picking up mustard. At the same time, the probationary system places more emphasis on the virtue and demeanor of the scholars than on their personal abilities. For example, Kong Rong, who is a typical scholar whose virtue is higher than ability, although his advice is not in line with current affairs.
In order to protect their children from negative influences, Confucian families generally set strict rules on their children's behavior. For example, Sima Fang had strict restrictions on the behavior of Sima Yi and his brothers.
However, for the descendants of eunuchs like Cao Cao, their future did not depend on Confucianism and village sentiments, but on the imperial power of the family. Therefore, the eunuch family did not attach importance to the training of scriptures and righteousness and the cultivation of manners.
Cao Cao's behavior when he was a child looked like he had no home school or tutor. However, he was not the only one, and there was a clear difference between the descendants of eunuchs and the families of Confucian scholars at that time.
The former emphasizes the word endowment, and the latter emphasizes the study of scriptures. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the scholars were trained by scriptures, and the children of scholars were immersed in the scriptures in order to seek fame and fortune, and all kinds of talents were regarded as small skills of carving insects. The eunuchs were the trendsetters of the times, and they quickly accepted the changes of the times and introduced them into the palace because they did not value the scriptures.
Influenced by this, the emperor also "all have good talents", and the establishment of "Hongdu Gate School" originated from this. Of course, as long as the emperor liked something, the eunuchs would naturally promote it.
And this kind of promotion has also affected their own children. Cao Cao is certainly no exception. Although we cannot find any historical information about Cao Cao's education as a teenager, we can clearly see from Cao Pi's own account that Cao Pi's education when he was young was obviously more inclined to "Hongdu Men Studies" than Confucian classics.
Cao Pi loved rhetoric, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and was largely influenced by Cao Cao.
Cao Cao's father and son's views on resignation were completely different from those of Confucian scholars. Yang Xiong, a famous writer in the Western Han Dynasty and a Confucian scholar, once said that the rhetoric should not pay too much attention to the ornate rhetoric.
The beauty of people is to rule, and the beauty of resignation is to be lewd. - Yang Xiong, "Fa Yan Wuzi" However, Cao Pi openly advocated "the desire for beauty in words", pushing the entertainment function and stylistic beauty of poetry to the extreme, completely ignoring practical functions such as moral education.
Cao Cao's father and son's love for Cifu, interpreted from a political point of view, is a kind of reaction to the Eastern Han Dynasty's heavy Confucianism, as Mr. Chen Yinke said, is the destruction of the spiritual beliefs of the Eastern Han scholars before preparing to usurp the Han Dynasty.
Behind Cao Cao's "ascending must be endowed, and creating new poems, and being orchestrated into music", there must be no trace of "anti-scripture" pleasure in his heart. Cao Cao and Cao Pi's father-son emphasis on literature also led to a large number of literati and scholars who were forced into exile due to social turmoil.
These people surrounded Cao's family, feasted on public opinions, chanted poems, and expressed their melodious hearts and heroic feelings of sympathizing with the times and helping the people in the world, setting off a climax of literati creation in the history of Chinese literature.
The literary achievements of Cao Cao's father and son are not inferior to those of Taixue in the Qing Dynasty. However, there were serious problems with Taixue during the Cao Wei period, and many Taixue doctors did not have a good understanding of the scriptures, making it impossible for students to study.
Even during the reign of Cao Pi, there were less than 10 people who were proficient in the scriptures, which was in stark contrast to the requirement of Cao Wei's court to skillfully quote Confucian classics.
In contrast, Sima Yi received a complete education in Confucian classics, but it was difficult for him to achieve significant literary success. Therefore, we can see that the reason why Cao Cao's father and son became "literary heroes" was not because they were well educated, but because they were "eunuchs and ugly" in the eyes of scholars.