On October 23, 1994, the TV series of the same name adapted from the famous Chinese book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by Luo Guan of the Ming Dynasty premiered on CCTV-1. The TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has made great achievements in character building, successfully creating a series of vivid characters such as Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Quan, Zhuge Liang, etc., and Cao Cao played by Bao Guoan is particularly praised.
Bao Guoan graduated from ** Drama Academy and is a national first-class actor, who can be called an old actor. In 1991, he won the opportunity to play Cao Cao. After reporting to the crew, he quickly devoted himself to the equestrian class, martial arts class, and etiquette class arranged by the crew, and at the same time, read a large number of materials provided by the crew, listened to many expert lectures, studied the script, and discussed the characters.
* Cao Cao in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is suspicious, vicious and cruel by nature, extremely talented, cunning and treacherous, extremely scheming, extraordinary open-minded and self-confident, talented, and good at knowing people......It can be said that it is a complex character image of a traitor and a hero.
What is the real Cao Cao in history?
Cao Cao was a famous politician, military strategist, and writer during the Three Kingdoms period, a powerful minister in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and the founder of the Cao Wei regime. 
When he was a teenager, he was a chivalrous man, and when he was twenty years old, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant in the north of Luoyang. Later, he served as a cavalry lieutenant and participated in the suppression of the Yellow Turban Army uprising. When Dong Zhuo was in power, he scattered all his wealth and raised troops to fight against Dong Zhuo. After defeating Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao welcomed Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty to Xu County, and from then on issued orders in the name of Emperor Xian and took charge of the government. Later, he defeated Yuan Shao, who had seized Hebei, in the Battle of Guandu, and subsequently unified most of the northern region. In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), Cao Cao became prime minister. In the same year, he led an army to the south and subdued Jingzhou, but was defeated by the Sun-Liu coalition army in the Battle of Chibi. In the twentieth year of Jian'an (215), he captured Hanzhong, and in the following year (216), he became the king of Wei from the Duke of Wei. In the twenty-fifth year of Jian'an (220), Cao Cao died of illness in Luoyang at the age of sixty-six. 
Cao Cao employed people on the basis of meritocracy, suppressed the strong and strong, and strengthened the centralization of power; In the northern tuntian, water conservancy was built. His various measures have led to a certain degree of social and economic recovery and development in the areas under his rule.
In addition, he knew the art of war, calligraphy, and poetry. Most of his poems express political aspirations, reflect the suffering life of the people in the late Han Dynasty, and are majestic, generous and sad, creating the style of Jian'an literature. In terms of literature, he also left a lot of popular poems, such as "Singing about wine, the geometry of life", "Lao Ji is in the woods, aiming for a thousand miles" and so on. Through careful study and full discussion of the script and various materials, Bao Guoan believes that Cao Cao in the script of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a military strategist, politician, and a versatile poet, and this kind of demeanor must live on the actors. At the same time, Cao Cao's romantic and eclectic feelings, bold bearing, witty character, and thoughtful, suspicious, changeable and deceitful personality should also run throughout. These constitute a unique sense of mystery and unpredictability of Cao Cao's character.
During the filming period of more than three years, Bao Guoan pondered the character of Cao Cao every day. When filming this scene at the end, he said: "This is not only Cao Cao's heart, but also my heart." ”
Bao Guoan's wonderful performance in the drama "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", especially the successful shaping of Cao Cao's treacherous and ruthless character, can be described as superb, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and can be called a classic. Sometimes when he came home, his son said, "Why do your eyes look a little like Cao Cao?" I see you're scared. It can be seen how much effort this old actor has put into shaping the characters.
In a recent interview show, Bao Guoan said that when he arrived in Anyang not long ago, he saw that Cao Cao's tomb was very frugal, it was simply too thin, and it didn't look like an emperor's mausoleum at all, which caused infinite emotion. He bowed in Cao Cao's tomb and said from his heart: "Cao Gong, I'm sorry for you!" Because he blackened Cao Cao "enough".