Cao Zhi 曹植

Cao Zhi's courtesy name was Zijian. At a little over ten years of age he recited and read the Book of Songs, the Analects and several hundred thousand words of rhapsodies and verse, and he wrote well. When Cao Cao saw his writing and asked whether he had had someone else write it for him, Cao Zhi knelt and replied, 'When I speak, it becomes discourse, and when I set down my brush, it becomes literature; please test me in person.' When the Bronze Sparrow Terrace at Ye was newly completed, Cao Cao took all his sons up onto it and had each of them compose a rhapsody; the one Cao Zhi wrote the moment he took up his brush was worth reading, and Cao Cao thought him quite extraordinary. He was easygoing by nature and did not cultivate a dignified bearing, and he answered even difficult questions as readily as an echo, so he enjoyed special favor. Records, Wei 19 §12–13

In the 16th year of Jian'an (211) he was enfeoffed as Marquis of Pingyuan, and in the 19th year (214) as Marquis of Linzi. When Cao Cao went to attack Sun Quan, he left Cao Zhi to guard Ye and admonished him that he himself had been twenty-three when he became Prefect of Dunqiu, and that Cao Zhi was now twenty-three too, so he should exert himself. As Cao Zhi received special treatment for his talent, Ding Yi (丁儀), Ding Yi (丁廙), Yang Xiu and others became his wings, and Cao Cao, wavering, several times came close to making him crown prince. According to the Biography of Cui Yan, when Cao Cao secretly sought opinions in sealed documents, Cui Yan, even though Cao Zhi was the husband of his niece, answered in an unsealed document that the eldest son should be made heir. Records, Wei 19 §14Records, Wei 12 §11–12

But Cao Zhi acted as he pleased, did not discipline or exert himself, and drank without restraint. Cao Pi dealt with this by artifice, restraining his feelings and presenting himself well, and the palace women and attendants all spoke well of him, so that in the end he was settled on as heir. The Biography of Jia Xu records that when Cao Cao sent his attendants away and asked him, Jia Xu replied that he had been thinking of Yuan Shao and Liu Biao and their sons, and the crown prince was thereby decided. Records, Wei 19 §15Records, Wei 10 §84–85

In the 22nd year of Jian'an (217) he received an additional fief of 5,000 households, bringing the total with his earlier fief to 10,000. Cao Zhi once drove his carriage down the middle of the imperial carriageway and had the Sima Gate opened to go out; Cao Cao was furious, and the Prefect of Official Carriages was put to death for it. From then on the laws and prohibitions on the marquises were made stricter, and Cao Cao's favor toward Cao Zhi waned day by day. Cao Cao had Yang Xiu charged with a crime and put to death because he was talented and resourceful and was also a nephew of the Yuan clan, and Cao Zhi grew even more uneasy. In the 24th year of Jian'an (219), when Guan Yu besieged Cao Ren, Cao Cao summoned Cao Zhi intending to make him General of the Southern Household, acting General Who Conquers Caitiffs, and send him to the rescue, but Cao Zhi was too drunk to receive the order, and Cao Cao regretted it and dropped the plan. Records, Wei 19 §16–17

When Cao Pi became king, he put Ding Yi (丁儀), Ding Yi (丁廙) and the men of their households to death, and Cao Zhi went to his fief along with the other marquises. In the 2nd year of Huangchu (221), Guan Jun, Internuncio Supervising the State, playing to the emperor's wishes, reported that Cao Zhi had been drunk and insolent and had threatened an envoy. The officials concerned asked that he be tried for the offense, but the emperor, out of regard for the Empress Dowager, merely reduced his rank, making him Marquis of Anxiang, and in the same year changed his fief to Marquis of Juancheng. In the 3rd year (222) he became King of Juancheng with a fief of 2,500 households, and in the 4th year (223) he was moved to King of Yongqiu. Records, Wei 19 §18–20Records, Wei 29 §51Records, Wei 2 §30

In the 4th year of Huangchu (223), when he came to court at the capital, he presented a memorial saying that since returning to his fief bearing his guilt he had been reflecting on his offenses as though they were carved into his flesh and bones, together with two poems. The emperor commended the writing and its sentiment and replied with a gracious edict. In the 6th year (225), returning from a campaign in the east, the emperor stopped at Cao Zhi's palace in Yongqiu and increased his fief by 500 households. Records, Wei 19 §20 · 22–23

In the 1st year of Taihe (227) his fief was moved to Junyi, and in the 2nd year (228) he returned to Yongqiu. Cao Zhi always resented holding a sharp tool with no place to use it, and he submitted a memorial asking to be put to the test. Whether attached to the General-in-Chief in the west and given command of a single colonel's unit, or attached to the Grand Marshal in the east and leading a single flotilla of boats, he would go ahead of the troops, and even if he could not capture Sun Quan or cut off Zhuge Liang's ears, he would capture their generals and wipe out their hosts. Records, Wei 19 §24 · 31

In the 3rd year of Taihe (229) his fief was moved to Dong'e. In the 5th year (231) he again memorialized, saying that the estrangement among brothers was worse than among strangers on the road, and asking to be allowed to inquire after his kin. The emperor said that there had never been an edict forbidding contact among the various states, and that it had come to this because lower officials feared reprimand, and ordered the officials concerned to do as the king had pleaded. In a memorial on recommending talent with care, Cao Zhi said that the court kept the imperial clan at a distance and drew men of other surnames close, and asked that, if his words were not fitting, they not be destroyed but kept in the archives, to be considered after his death. Each time the emperor answered with a gracious reply. Records, Wei 19 §37 · 40–41 · 46–48 · 59–61

In the winter of that year an edict ordered the kings to come to court in the 1st month of the 6th year, and in the 2nd month of the 6th year of Taihe (232) Cao Zhi was enfeoffed as King of Chen with the four counties of Chen, with a fief of 3,500 households. He hoped to see the emperor alone and discuss the affairs of the day with him in private, so as to be given a trial, but in the end this did not happen, and he went back disheartened. The regulations governing the fiefs were strict and harsh, and because of his earlier offenses everything Cao Zhi had was again cut by half; in eleven years he moved his capital three times. Always anxious and joyless, he fell ill and died at the age of forty-one. The Annals of Emperor Ming record it under the gengyin day of the 11th month of that year. Records, Wei 19 §62–63Records, Wei 3 §27

In his will he asked for a frugal funeral. He had once climbed Mount Yu and, looking down on Dong'e, had felt that he wished to end his life there, so his tomb was built there. His son Cao Zhi (曹志) succeeded him. An edict of the Jingchu era said that Prince Si of Chen had never let a book leave his hand from youth until his death, ordered that the memorials accusing him of crimes in the Huangchu era be destroyed, and had his more than one hundred rhapsodies, eulogies, poems, inscriptions and miscellaneous essays compiled and kept inside and outside the palace. Records, Wei 19 §64–65

In his assessment, Chen Shou wrote that Prince Si of Chen's literary talent was rich and splendid, enough to carry his name to later generations by itself, but that he did not show the humility to ward off misfortune from afar, so that in the end a rift opened. Records, Wei 19 §69