Cao Hui 曹徽

Emperor Wu had twenty-five sons, and Lady Song bore Cao Hui, Prince Ling of Dongping. Records, Wei 20 §2

Cao Hui was made heir to his great-uncle Cao Yu (曹玉), Marquis Ai of Langling. He was enfeoffed as Marquis of Licheng in the 22nd year of Jian'an (217), and in the 2nd year of Huangchu (221) his rank was raised to duke. In the 3rd year (222) he became Prince of Lujiang, in the 4th year (223) he was moved in enfeoffment to Prince of Shouzhang, and in the 5th year (224) he was re-enfeoffed at Shouzhang County. In the 6th year of Taihe (232) he was re-enfeoffed at Dongping. Records, Wei 20 §67

Gaotang Long, whom Taizu had summoned and made Officer for Military Counsel under the Chancellor, later became Literary Scholar to Cao Hui, Marquis of Licheng, and was then transferred to be his chancellor. When Cao Hui, in mourning for Taizu, showed no grief but instead went hunting and galloping about, Gaotang Long remonstrated with him on the grounds of righteousness. Chen Shou wrote that Gaotang Long fully observed the proper conduct of one who assists and guides. Records, Wei 25 §60

In the 2nd year of Qinglong (234) Cao Hui had his officials beat a clerk of Shouzhang County and was impeached by the officials in charge, and an edict deprived him of one county and 500 households. That same year the county taken from him was restored. Records, Wei 20 §67–68

This affair also appears in the sealed letter that Emperor Ming sent in the same 2nd year of Qinglong to admonish Cao Gan, Prince of Zhao, who had been impeached for privately associating with retainers. The letter said that recently the Prince of Dongping had again had his officials beat a clerk of Shouzhang County, so the officials in charge had impeached him and a ruling had been made to take a county from him. Records, Wei 20 §41 · 43

Cao Hui died in the 3rd year of Zhengshi (242). The Annals of the Three Young Emperors in the Records of Wei records that Cao Hui, Prince of Dongping, died in the 1st month, in spring, of that year. His son Cao Xi (曹翕) succeeded him, and in the Jingchu, Zhengyuan and Jingyuan eras his fief was increased several times, reaching 3,400 households together with what he held before. Records, Wei 20 §68Records, Wei 4 §13

When Cao Hui died, Cao Mao (曹茂), Prince of Quyang, another son of Emperor Wu, claimed that his throat hurt, refused to wail, and went about his life and came and went as usual. When the officials in charge proposed abolishing his fief, an edict deprived Cao Mao of one county and 500 households. Records, Wei 20 §73

In his assessment at the end of the volume, Chen Shou said that the princes and dukes of Wei had only the name of states and lands and none of the substance of a state, that, hemmed in by prohibitions and surveillance, they were no different from men in prison, and that, their ranks and titles never fixed, their fiefs great and small changed year by year. Thus, he wrote, the kindness owed to one's own flesh and blood was perverted and the duty taught in the ode 'Changdi' was abandoned, and the faults of the system had come to this. Records, Wei 20 §93