Cao Huan 曹奐

Cao Huan's courtesy name was Jingming; he was a grandson of Emperor Wu, Cao Cao, and the son of Cao Yu, Prince of Yan. In the 3rd year of Ganlu (258) he was enfeoffed as Duke of Changdao District in Anci County. His father Cao Yu had lived with Emperor Ming, Cao Rui, in childhood and enjoyed his special favour, and when Emperor Ming became critically ill Cao Yu was appointed General-in-Chief and entrusted with affairs after the emperor's death, but within four days he firmly declined and was removed from office. Records, Wei 4 §113Records, Wei 20 §18–19

When the Duke of Gaogui Village died in the 5th month of the 5th year of Ganlu (260), Sima Yan, holding the Staff of Authority, Acting Protector of the Central Army and General of the Central Fortifications, was sent north to welcome Cao Huang, Duke of Changdao District, as the heir of Emperor Ming. On the guichou day of the 6th month an edict was issued saying that the personal name of the Duke of Changdao District was very hard to avoid as a taboo, and that the court officials should discuss it widely and change it. On the jiayin day he entered Luoyang and saw the Empress Dowager, and that same day he ascended the imperial throne in the front hall of the Taiji Palace, proclaimed a general amnesty and changed the era name. The Biographies of the Princes of Emperors Wu and Wen record that Cao Yu's son Cao Huan entered to continue the main line of succession. Records, Wei 4 §98 · 105 · 111 · 113Records, Wei 20 §19

On the bingchen day of the 6th month of the 1st year of Jingyuan (260), he raised the General-in-Chief Sima Zhao to Chancellor of State, enfeoffed him as Duke of Jin, added two commanderies to his fief to make ten in all, and granted him the rites of the Nine Bestowments. All the young men of Sima Zhao's family who were not yet marquises were to be enfeoffed as village marquises, and ten million cash and ten thousand bolts of silk were to be granted, but Sima Zhao firmly declined and the matter was dropped. On the jiwei day, when Cao Jie, the wife of the former Emperor Xian of Han, Liu Xie, died, the emperor mourned her in the Hualin Park and conferred on her the posthumous title Empress Xianmu, and the carriages and dress at her funeral all followed the old precedents of Han. Records, Wei 4 §114–115

In the 11th month of that year the Prince of Yan submitted a memorial congratulating the emperor on the winter solstice and styled himself a subject. An edict said that in ancient times there were those whom even the king did not treat as subjects, so it was right that he not style himself a subject in his memorials; that one who succeeds to the main line lowers the rites toward his own parents, but that treating his father at once like a subject would also not sit easily with natural feeling, so the matter should be handled as fittingly as possible according to the rites. The officials in charge proposed that edicts from the palace be worded 'The Emperor respectfully inquires after the attendants of the Great Prince' and formal decrees 'Decree to the Prince of Yan', and that, except in matters of assisting at the sacrifices of the ancestral temple, the prince's personal name not be used. Records, Wei 4 §116–119

In the 8th month of the 2nd year of Jingyuan (261) and the 2nd month of the 4th year (263) he again ordered the rank of Duke of Jin and the position of Chancellor of State for the General-in-Chief, but each time Sima Zhao firmly declined and the matter was dropped. On the jiayin day of the 10th month of the 4th year he again gave the same order as in the earlier edicts, and then on the guimao day he established Empress Bian. The Biographies of Empresses and Consorts record that Bian Lin's daughter became the empress of the Prince of Chenliu. Records, Wei 4 §121 · 123 · 126Records, Wei 5 §15

In the 5th month of the 4th year of Jingyuan (263) he issued an edict saying that the only one Shu relied on was Jiang Wei, and that since Jiang Wei was far from his lair, Deng Ai, General Who Conquers the West, should hasten to Gansong and Tazhong, and Zhuge Xu, Inspector of Yong Province, to Wudu and Gaolou, to capture Jiang Wei, and then advance side by side from east and west to sweep away Ba and Shu. He also ordered Zhong Hui, General Who Guards the West, to attack Shu by way of the Luo Valley. In the 11th month Liu Shan, the ruler of Shu, went to Deng Ai and surrendered, and Ba and Shu were wholly pacified; in the 12th month Deng Ai was made Grand Commandant and Zhong Hui Minister over the Masses. Records, Wei 4 §124–127

On the renxu day of the 1st month of the 1st year of Xianxi (264) Deng Ai was summoned back in a cage cart, and on the jiazi day the emperor made a progress to Chang'an. That month Zhong Hui rebelled in Shu and was put down by his troops, and Deng Ai was also killed. On the jimao day of the 3rd month the Duke of Jin was raised in rank to king and given ten more commanderies, making twenty, and on the dinghai day Liu Shan was enfeoffed as Duke of Anle. In the 5th month the Chancellor of State and King of Jin proposed restoring the five ranks of nobility, and on the jiaxu day the era name was changed. Records, Wei 4 §128–129

On the guisi day of the 8th month an edict commended Xiahou He, Yang Xiu (羊琇) and Zhu Fu, who had kept their integrity unbent and rejected Zhong Hui's words when he was plotting rebellion, and Jia Fu, who had stirred the troops by telling them that Zhong Hui meant to kill all the officers and men. Xiahou He and Jia Fu were raised to district marquises and Yang Xiu and Zhu Fu to Marquises Within the Passes, and Wang Qi (王起), an unattached officer who had spread Jia Fu's words through the armies, was made a company commander. In the 9th month, when the Wu general Lü Xing killed Wu's envoy Deng Ju and others in Jiaozhi and came over to Wei, he was made General-in-Chief of the Southern Regions and enfeoffed as Marquis of Ding'an County, but before the patent of appointment arrived Lü Xing was killed by his subordinates. Records, Wei 4 §131–133 · 135 · 138

In the 8th month of that year, on the gengyin day, Sima Yan was made deputy in the affairs of the Chancellor of State as Central General Who Pacifies the Army; on the wuwu day of the 9th month he became General-in-Chief Who Pacifies the Army, and on the bingwu day of the 10th month he became the Heir of Jin. That year the offices of the agricultural garrisons were abolished: the Agricultural Generals became Grand Administrators and the Commandants became Prefects and Chiefs. Records, Wei 4 §130 · 134 · 144

In the 4th month of the 2nd year of Xianxi (265) Wu sent the envoys Ji Zhi and Hong Qiu to ask for peace. In the 5th month an edict ordered that everything Sun Hao had presented be returned to the King of Jin, but the King firmly declined and the matter was dropped. The King of Jin was also allowed to wear a crown hung with twelve strings of pearls, to raise the banners of the Son of Heaven and to ride in the golden-root carriage drawn by six horses, and his consort was raised to queen and his heir to crown prince. On the xinmao day of the 8th month the King of Jin died, and the next day the crown prince Sima Yan succeeded to his fief and position and took charge of all the affairs of government. Records, Wei 4 §145–148

On the renxu day of the 12th month, declaring that Heaven's bounty had come to an end forever and the succession of fortune now lay with Jin, an edict ordered the dukes, ministers and officials to prepare the ceremony and set up an altar in the southern suburb, and envoys were sent bearing the imperial seal, ribbon and patent to abdicate the throne to the heir-king of Jin, as in the old precedents of Han and Wei. On the jiazi day envoys were made to present the patent. Cao Huan moved his residence to Jinyong City and in the end lived out his days at Ye. He was then twenty years old. Chen Shou's main text does not record when he died after that. Records, Wei 4 §150

In his assessment Chen Shou said that Emperor Ming did not choose a man of virtue from a collateral line but raised a small child and passed the great inheritance to him, so that in the end Cao Shuang and his clan were exterminated and the Prince of Qi was deposed. The Prince of Chenliu merely faced south in reverent humility while the chief minister ran the government; following earlier precedent he yielded the throne with courteous ceremony, was enfeoffed with a great state and became a guest of Jin, and compared with the Duke of Shanyang, the favour shown him was greater. Records, Wei 4 §152–153