Cao Fang 曹芳

The Prince of Qi's personal name was Fang and his courtesy name Lanqing. Emperor Ming had no sons and raised him and Cao Xun, Prince of Qin, but palace affairs were kept secret and no one knew where they had come from. The Annals of Emperor Ming record that in the 8th month of the 3rd year of Qinglong (235) the imperial son Fang was made Prince of Qi and Xun Prince of Qin. In the 1st month of the 3rd year of Jingchu (239), Emperor Ming summoned Sima Yi, who had reached Henei, by post horse, took his hand, entrusted him with affairs after his death and told him to assist his young son together with Cao Shuang, and died the same day in the Jiafu Hall. Records, Wei 4 §2Records, Wei 3 §44 · 65

On the dinghai day, the first day of the 1st month of the 3rd year of Jingchu, when Emperor Ming's illness became very grave, Cao Fang was made crown prince, ascended the imperial throne the same day and proclaimed a general amnesty. The empress was honored as Empress Dowager, and the General-in-Chief Cao Shuang and the Grand Commandant Sima Yi assisted in the government. An edict ordered that, in accordance with the testamentary edict, all palace construction works be stopped, and that government slaves aged sixty and over be freed and made commoners. In the 2nd month the Grand Commandant Sima Yi was raised to Grand Tutor, and in the 7th month the emperor for the first time attended court in person and heard the matters reported by the ministers. In the 12th month an edict restored the Xia calendar, making the jianyin month the 1st month of the 1st year of Zhengshi. Records, Wei 4 §2–3 · 5–7

In the 7th month of the 1st year of Zhengshi (240), saying that while the people were in want the imperial treasury was making many gold and silver articles, he had 150 kinds of gold and silver objects, more than 1,800 jin, melted down for military use. In the 2nd month of the 2nd year of Zhengshi (241), when he first mastered the Analects, he had the Minister of Ceremonies sacrifice to Confucius at the Biyong with the great offering, with Yan Yuan as co-recipient, and in the 5th year of Zhengshi (244) and the 7th year (246) the same sacrifice was held each time he completed the study of the Book of Documents and the Book of Rites respectively. Records, Wei 4 §9–11 · 15 · 21

In the 1st month of the 4th year of Zhengshi (243) he underwent the capping ceremony, and in the 4th month Lady Zhen was made empress. In the 7th month he ordered that twenty meritorious ministers, including Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu, Xiahou Shang, Zhang Liao and Dian Wei, be honored with sacrifices in the court of the Grand Ancestor's temple, and in the 12th month Himiko, queen of the land of Wa, sent envoys bearing tribute. Around this time, in the 5th year of Zhengshi, the General-in-Chief Cao Shuang set out to attack Shu and returned, and in the 7th year of Zhengshi the Inspector of You Province, Guanqiu Jian, defeated Goguryeo and the Ye-maek. Records, Wei 4 §14–15 · 19

In the 8th month of the 7th year of Zhengshi, saying that the government slaves being put up for sale in the market were all over seventy or sick and frail, he had them all freed and made commoners, and ordered the commanderies and counties to give relief to those who could not support themselves. The next day, hearing that old people and children were being flogged to repair the road for his journey to perform sacrifices in person, he declared that a road needed only to be passable and had this repeatedly forbidden. Records, Wei 4 §19–21

In the 7th month of the 8th year of Zhengshi (247), the Master of Writing He Yan memorialized that a ruler must choose upright men as his companions, and asked that whenever the emperor went to the Shiqian Hall or took his leisure in the rear garden, senior ministers should attend him. In the 12th month the Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary and Grandee Remonstrant Kong Yi memorialized that the emperor should give up practicing horse riding in the rear garden and ride in a palanquin or carriage when going out. Chen Shou recorded that He Yan and Kong Yi both offered their remonstrances on account of the emperor's faults. Records, Wei 4 §23–26

On the jiawu day of the 1st month of the 1st year of Jiaping (249), the imperial carriage went to pay respects at the Gaoping Mausoleum. At this time the Grand Tutor Sima Yi memorialized that the General-in-Chief Cao Shuang and his younger brother Cao Xi and others be dismissed from office and retire to their residences, and on the strength of the testimony of the Yellow Gate eunuch Zhang Dang that Cao Shuang had plotted rebellion, Cao Shuang, together with He Yan, Deng Yang and others who had shared in his treacherous plots, had their three branches of kin exterminated. It was intended to make Sima Yi Chancellor, but he firmly declined and the matter was dropped; in the 4th month the era name was changed. Records, Wei 4 §28–30

In the 4th month of the 3rd year of Jiaping (251), on hearing that the Grand Commandant Wang Ling was plotting to depose the emperor and set up Cao Biao, Prince of Chu, Sima Yi marched east to attack him. In the 5th month Wang Ling killed himself, and in the 6th month Cao Biao was ordered to die. In the 7th month Empress Zhen died and was buried as Empress Huai Zhen, and when Sima Yi died, Sima Shi became General-in-Chief Who Pacifies the Army and Intendant of the Affairs of the Imperial Secretariat. In the 1st month of the 4th year of Jiaping (252) Sima Shi was made General-in-Chief, and in the 2nd month Lady Zhang was made empress. In the 12th month of that year Wei suffered a great defeat at Dongguan at the hands of Zhuge Ke of Wu. Records, Wei 4 §32–34

In the 8th month of the 5th year of Jiaping (253), Guo Xiu, who had stabbed Shu's General-in-Chief Fei Yi with his own blade at a banquet, was posthumously enfeoffed as Marquis of Changle District, and in the 2nd month of the 6th year of Jiaping (254) the soldiers Liu Zheng and Zheng Xiang, who had been captured during the siege of Hefei New City but would not yield, were posthumously granted the rank of Marquis Within the Pass (guanzhonghou). Records, Wei 4 §36–37 · 39–42

On the gengxu day of the 2nd month of the 6th year of Jiaping, the Prefect of the Palace Writers Li Feng, together with the empress's father, the Grandee of Splendid Happiness Zhang Ji (張緝), and others, plotted to replace the chief ministers and make the Minister of Ceremonies Xiahou Xuan General-in-Chief; the plot was discovered and all those implicated were executed. According to the Biography of Xiahou Xuan, they planned to kill the General-in-Chief Sima Shi when the emperor came out to the hall on the day an Honored Lady was to be invested, and the Commandant of Justice Zhong Yu reported that they had intended to coerce the Most Exalted. In the 3rd month Empress Zhang was deposed, and in the 4th month Lady Wang was made empress. Records, Wei 4 §43Records, Wei 9 §122–124

In autumn, in the 9th month, the General-in-Chief Sima Shi plotted to depose the emperor and informed the Empress Dowager. On the jiaxu day the Empress Dowager issued an order saying that the emperor Fang, though now of age, did not attend to the affairs of state himself, indulged in his favorites in the inner palace, daily summoned jesters and actors to indulge in vulgar frolics, and kept the families of the six palaces in the inner chambers, destroying the order of human relations, so that he could not uphold the ancestral temple. The acting Grand Commandant Gao Rou carried the document of investiture and reported to the ancestral temple, and that same day Cao Fang moved to a detached palace; he was twenty-three years old. Envoys bearing tallies escorted him, and a palace for the Prince of Qi was built at Chongmen in Henei according to the rites of a vassal state. Three days later, on the dingchou day, the Empress Dowager made Cao Mao, Duke of Gaoguixiang, the heir of Emperor Ming. Records, Wei 4 §44–46

In his assessment Chen Shou said that Emperor Ming, his heart bound by private affection, took in and raised an infant and passed on the great inheritance to him, and that he did not entrust affairs after his death wholly to one man but insisted on including collateral kinsmen, so that in the end Cao Shuang was executed and the Prince of Qi was deposed from his throne. Chen Shou's main text in the Records does not record the Prince of Qi's life and death after that. Records, Wei 4 §152 · 47–150