Although a Romance of the Three Kingdoms portrays Cao Cao as a treacherous villain, we can look at other historical documents, such as The History of the Three Kingdoms, The History of the Later Han Dynasty, Zi Zhi Tong Jian and so on. And all the comments on Cao Cao are more positive than negative. In the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao said: Cao Gong is "the most understanding", and when he succeeds, he is "the magic of giving and trading". The unique strategy of the Koreans and Bai has been given official materials, each for his own sake, and he does not forget the old evils. They have been fighting against the army for more than ten years, but they never put down their books. They are bound to be endowed when they climb high, and they are better at cursive Go. Live frugally and don't pay attention to clothes. Discuss with others, laughing and laughing. Honor and reward, do not hesitate to spend money; Nothing can be done, nothing can be done. This is the unique style of first-class politicians, military strategists and writers. Imagine, in the era of Jin Ge's iron horse, one is not from a noble family (Sun Jian after Sun Wu), nor is it from a royal family (Liu Bei, the son of the so-called emperor), nor is it a noble family (Yuan Jia brothers), but only a descendant of the eunuch's adopted son. His family is just some money. In troubled times, he stood up and stabbed Dong Zhuo (Wu Weiluo) to death, relying on his personal charm to stand on his own feet in troubled times, and then he had a clear strategy, entered the capital, relied on the emperor to make friends with princes, unified the north, and achieved great things.

From ancient times to the present, people who scold Cao Cao have only two excuses: First, Xu Shao of Runan once commented that Cao Cao was a capable minister in charge of the world and a traitor in troubled times. In that case, Cao Cao is certainly a traitor in the troubled times of the Three Kingdoms. Besides, Cao Cao himself said: I would rather lose the world than lose me. This is conclusive evidence of the treacherous man, so all just people in the world take it as the basis and regard Cao Cao as an unjust person; In fact, Xu Shao's original words are: a minister who manages the country well is a hero in troubled times. Later opponents, especially Sun Sheng, the chronicler of Wei Chunqiu, turned the protagonist into a traitor for the purpose of belittling Wei Yangshu. A word difference. Alas, sometimes, a person is destroyed by one sentence, and Cao Cao is like this.

Second, support the emperor to make the princes. In some people's eyes, the son of heaven is the biggest person in the world, and the affairs of the son of heaven are the affairs of the world. There is not a saying: the world belongs to the emperor; The world, is the land of the king, the land of command, and the minister of the king? It doesn't matter whether the son of heaven has the ability or not. As his subjects, you must listen to him. If you want to live, you can live If you want to die, you must die and die with gratitude. Cao Cao, on the other hand, dared to hold the emperor as a minister, hold a sword to the court, and regard the emperor as a puppet. Of course, it is a big violation. So Cao Cao became an unfaithful and unfilial traitor. He should go to eighteen hells and never turn over.

Of course, many people (many people still think so) don't think so now: Cao Cao was born in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the people were poor and farmers revolted frequently. There is little true love between people, but it is of great use. As a person who wants to survive in troubled times and make a difference, vigilance is very important. Although Cao Cao has gone too far (history says he is suspicious) and has the saying that "it is better to die than to die" (even this statement can't find historical basis), it is also forced by the situation. How many people in the world don't think so? Only Cao Cao dares to speak out. The reason why Cao Cao formed such a character was also caused by being fooled.

As for relying on the emperor to make the princes, it is only a strategic move of Cao Cao. Just as Cao Cao said: If you don't have an emperor as a vassal, you don't know how many people in the Central Plains dominated at that time, and how many people claimed to be emperors, when the world would be in chaos. The history of the whole three countries is about one hundred years, but the real turmoil is only twenty or thirty years before and after. After that, although it was divided into three countries, the people's lives were still relatively stable. On the other hand, during the famous Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in China's history, domestic turmoil lasted for more than a hundred years, and wars continued, even worse than during the Three Kingdoms period. In fact, in the early days of the Three Kingdoms, the princes dominated, and the domestic turmoil was far more chaotic than in the Warring States period. Without Cao Cao's emperor as his ministers, this turbulent situation could not be controlled. Therefore, it is not only not a crime for Cao Cao to hold the emperor to make the princes, but also to make contributions to the people.

At the same time, as a vassal overlord, Cao Cao's domineering attitude is unprecedented, but he is very aggressive. Cao Cao is a famous literary master in the history of China. Not to mention the achievements of his own poems and songs, we can see that he promoted the great national integration and adopted a series of heavy-text policies to return Wenxi to Khan, which were unmatched by other overlords in the Three Kingdoms period. Even if he was killed, Zhuge Liang, a famous young hero in history, and Zhou Yu, who is known as the ancient Zhou Lang, left several poems. Except for killing several literati (such as Kong Rong) for political reasons, Cao Cao was extremely tolerant of the gentry and never persecuted the literati, otherwise there would be no seven scholars in Jian 'an. He killed Kong Rong and others because they hindered their political ambitions, not because they were too loyal to the emperor, but because they could not tolerate him. Political struggle is a life-and-death struggle. Is this bloody political repression only done by Cao Cao in history? Not to mention things that are too far away, that is, political repression in the history of one or two hundred years in modern times, do we know little? I'm afraid these struggles are more cruel than Cao Cao's. Why are you so hard on Cao Cao? On the contrary, Cao Cao is very fond of and tolerant of talented people. The love for Guan Yu and Zhao Yun, the necessity to kill Chen Gong, and the sadness of killing the giant hand all show Cao Cao's love for talents. Those who oppose Cao Cao say that he is all putting on airs. However, many people in history, such as Yuan Shao, Zhang Lu and Sun Quan, could not make such posturing. Liu Bei cried at that time, and I believe people can see it now.