Legend has it that once Cao Cao had a dream, dreaming that there were three horses eating forage in the same manger, Cao Cao did not understand the meaning, and a strategist interpreted the dream for him, saying that in the future, there would be people with the surname "Ma" who would rob him of his country and need to strengthen his guard. Cao Cao thought about it again and again, and felt that the three horses referred to Ma Teng's father and son, so he launched a war in Pingliang Prefecture and killed most of Ma Teng's family.
But what Cao Cao didn't know was that the three horses actually referred to Sima Yi's father and son, but this can't be blamed on Cao Cao, because when he was in charge, Sima Yi was just a very low-level **, and he couldn't get into Cao Cao's eyes at all.
However, because the Sima Yi family is not a first-echelon family, the road to the usurpation of the Sima family is very difficult, and Sima Yi, Sima Shi, Sima Zhao, father and son had to establish their authority through brutal killing, and finally won the world but lost the hearts of the people.
Maybe it was because he had done too many bad things, and Sima Yi also got a prophecy that made him afraid, and once Sima Yi got a picture scroll called "Xuanshi Tu", which read the prophecy of "Ox follows horse". Sima Yi, who believed in the prophecy very much, was very frightened in his heart, he always wanted to know the meaning of this prophecy, and suddenly he thought that he had a general named Niu Jin under him, who was not only brave in battle, but also very talented, isn't this his own when he was young?
So Sima Yi set up a banquet and poisoned Niu Jin with poisonous wine, and his son Sima Shi was puzzled and asked: "Niu Jin is very useful, so why kill him?" Sima Yi reprimanded: "There is a prophecy in the book of prophecies, there is a cow behind the horse, if you don't poison the cow gold, the descendants will have troubles!" ”
But Sima Yi didn't expect that the prophecy Niu was not Niu Jin at all, but a small official surnamed Niu who didn't know his name. It turned out that after the establishment of the Western Jin Dynasty, Sima Yi's grandson Sima Jin was enshrined as the king of Langya, and Sima Ji's wife Xiahou was born **, and hooked up with a small official surnamed Niu in the palace and gave birth to Sima Rui, who was the founding emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
In the Book of Song, the Book of Wei, the Book of Jin and the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty, it is recorded that Sima Rui is actually the illegitimate son of the surname Niu, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty is the imperial court with the surname Niu, which means that Sima Rui's true identity has been officially recognized.
In addition, Sima Rui's various performances are also very intriguing, for example, after the Western Jin Dynasty was destroyed by the Hu people, the Sima royal family in the north was basically ended, and Sima Rui became one of the few surviving heirs, but no matter how everyone persuaded him, Sima Rui just refused to be the emperor.
It wasn't until later that someone suggested that Sima Zhao could first imitate Sima Zhao to be crowned king of Jin, and then call him emperor, Sima Rui immediately agreed, which is very strange here, because according to the patriarchal system of the ancient Chinese, if Sima Rui is directly called the emperor, then whether he is a descendant of the Sima family or not, he is essentially succeeded to the Sima family, and if he is called the king first and then the emperor, it is equivalent to accepting the Zen position of the Sima family, so that what surname he loves has nothing to do with the Sima family.
Therefore, whether Sima Rui is a descendant of Sima Yi or not is actually a serious controversy, and if you want to know the truth, you can only wait for archaeological research.