Chapter 53 Fourth, Sima Yi became an official

At this stage, Cao Cao was also frantically recruiting talents while occupying territory.Among the various separatist forces, Cao Cao is the biggest beneficiary of the human resources strategy. On the one hand, he benefits from the unique sign of the emperor in his hand, and on the other hand, because he understands the value of talents best, and can respect and reuse talents Talent, care about talent. However, not everyone responded positively to Cao Cao, who was thirsty for talent, and some people refused to buy him. Sima Yi, the second child in Sima's "Bada", was one of them.

Sima Yi ranked second in his family, eight years younger than his elder brother Sima Lang, the same age as the famous philosopher Zhong Changtong, and twenty-four years younger than Cao Cao, more than a generation behind. According to the "Book of Jin Xuandi Ji", the Sima family in Wenxian County is a famous family. It started with the famous general Sima Yang during the struggle between Chu and Han. ; Sima Jun had a son named Sima Liang, who was the prefect of Yuzhang County; Sima Yi was only ten years old when Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang, and his brother Sima Lang was eighteen years old. It is estimated that he had several younger brothers at that time, but they were younger, so Sima Fang told Sima Lang to take his brothers back to his hometown to hide. Disaster.Sima Yi was 17 years old when Cao Cao welcomed the emperor to Xu County, and he was 21 years old when the battle of Guandu was held.

"Book of Jin" said that Sima Yi had great ambitions since he was a child, was extremely clever, ambitious and broad-minded, and at the same time was well-read and knowledgeable, and had a deep understanding of Confucianism (few oddities, smart and broad-minded, erudite and well-known, deeply rooted in Confucianism), Facing the troubled times, he often sighs in his heart and worries about the world. "Book of Jin" was edited by Fang Xuanling, a famous official in the Tang Dynasty and a famous historian. This book takes Sima as the main body of writing, and there are many praises and praises for Sima in the middle. I can't say anything about the above description of Sima Yi. It's nothing, but you can't believe it's all.

Sima Yi did have a great talent in his early years, which can be seen in the evaluation of him by Yang Jun, Cui Yan and others, but the part of worrying about the country and the people is obviously fabricated and exaggerated in order to create a glorious image of Sima Yi who was revered as Emperor Xuan by the Jin Dynasty up. As mentioned above, Yang Jun, who is good at knowing people, met Sima Yi in his early years. At this time, Sima Lang had already come out to work and was a little famous, but no one knew about Sima Yi.Cui Yan has a good relationship with Sima Lang, and he also has the same opinion. He once said to Sima Lang: "Your brother is smart, wise, fair in dealing with things, and has a plan, you are incomparable (you can't match it). "

In the sixth year of Jian'an (201), Sima Yi's hometown Hanoi County had become the "Cao Tong District". At the age of 22, Sima Yi took part in the work and was elected as the entourage of the director of the county government's Beijing office (Shang Ji 掾). I am a section chief, so I have to travel to Xu County, the capital every year.At this time, Cao Cao was looking for talents everywhere. He heard that Sima Yi was a little famous, so he sent someone to summon him and wanted him to work in Sikong Mansion. Transferred from the local area to the central government, and working beside Cao Cao, the future is naturally limitless. This is a beautiful thing that others can't find with a lantern, but it was rejected by Section Chief Sima.

This incident is still recorded in the "Book of Jin". It is said that Sima Yi's reason for rejecting Cao Cao's conquest was that he saw the decline of the Han Dynasty's national fortune, and he refused to submit to Cao Cao (the emperor knew that the Han fortune was weak, and he did not want to submit to Cao).The reason for this is very vague. It seems that Sima Yi wanted to say that Sima Yi felt aggrieved when he saw that the Han Dynasty was weak and the power was in the hands of Cao Cao.But this kind of thinking may not have been the mainstream thinking at the time. Even people like Xun and Kong Rong who were very loyal to the Han Dynasty were not officials in Xu County at the moment?

There is no such record in "Three Kingdoms" and Pei Songzhi's notes, which were written closer to that era. In "Three Kingdoms Xun Zhuan", there is a list of talents recommended by Xun to Cao Cao, including Sima Yi's name, which shows that Sima Yi was recommended by Xun to become an official. However, "Book of Jin" insisted on the plot of Sima Yi's "rejection of Cao". In order to convince everyone, it also made up a vivid story: Sima Yi rejected Cao Cao's enlistment on the grounds that he was suffering from wind paralysis and could not take care of himself.Cao Cao was a little skeptical, thinking that this kid might be a fraud, so he sent someone to visit Sima Yi's house at night, and found that Sima Yi was lying there motionless, so he believed it and stopped forcing him to apply.

After telling this story, "Book of Jin" was afraid that some people would not believe it, so it told another one: Sima Yi had deceived Cao Cao's spies before, but he had to pretend from then on.One day, when their family was drying books in the yard, there was a sudden heavy rain. Sima Yi got anxious, forgot that he was pretending to be a patient, and got up and ran to collect the books. This incident happened to be seen by a maid at home.Sima Yi's wife is called Zhang Chunhua, she is very powerful, not only killed the maidservant with her own hands, but also "carried out the cooking in person". "Cuan" means to set fire to cook. On the surface, it seems to mean that after the maidservant was killed, there was no one at home to cook, and Zhang Chunhua did the cooking himself.

But what is there to write about?At that time, Sima Yi was a young man in his twenties without a job. In the eyes of outsiders, he was still a disabled person who was seriously ill and unable to move. Is it worth writing in the history books if his wife goes to the kitchen to cook a meal?Take a closer look, there may be something terrifying hidden in these few words. "Cuan" also means to burn and boil. Zhang Chunhua killed someone, so how to hide the body and wipe out the traces?Simply put people into the pot to cook, and she set the fire herself. Other women might not be able to do this kind of thing, but Sima Yi's wife Zhang Chunhua definitely could.She is also from Hanoi County, her father is a county magistrate, her mother's surname is Shan, and she is the aunt of Shan Tao, one of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest".Zhang Chunhua's greatest contribution was giving birth to the two brothers Sima Shi and Sima Zhao. She accompanied Sima Yi all his life and helped Sima Yi a lot, but she was definitely a shrew and managed Sima Yi to be submissive.

Later, Sima Yi doted on a young wife named Bai, which made it difficult for Zhang Chunhua to see him, so Zhang Chunhua resorted to his trump card: a hunger strike. Zhang Chunhua wanted to commit suicide and Sima Yi was not afraid. The key was that Zhang Chunhua mobilized his sons Sima Shi and Sima Zhao to go on a hunger strike. Sima Yi was scared and apologized quickly.Sima Yi said to people: "It doesn't matter if the old woman dies, the key is to ruin my good son (I don't care about old things, worry about my good son)!" Sima Yi's demeanor is indeed conspicuous. In order not to come out to be an official of Cao Cao, he did not hesitate to pretend to be sick and kill people. It seems that his will is firm enough.If the Han Dynasty is revived in the future, it will undoubtedly become his glorious deeds to remember who has fought resolutely with the treacherous minister Cao Cao.

Unfortunately, these stories are full of loopholes and cannot withstand scrutiny. A twenty-two-year-old entourage of the county government official, even if he came from a famous family and has a little reputation, as for making Cao Cao spend so much effort on getting him to work?Where did Sima Yi's unique and firm political beliefs come from?His behavior lacks convincing. Sima Yi's elder brother Sima Lang and younger brother Sima Fu both work in Cao Ying, and their careers are smooth sailing, but he is a maverick and insists on being cool, which makes people a little puzzled. And Sima Yi was not cool to the end, he still came out to do things.According to the "Book of Jin", after Cao Cao became the prime minister, he was recruited to the prime minister's mansion as the director of the culture and education department (literature).This time Cao Cao was impolite, and ordered: "If you want to get a siege again, you will be arrested (if you continue to hang around, you will be taken away)!" Sima Yi was afraid, so he obediently came out to take office. This story is only seen in the "Book of Jin", and it is for Sima Yi to finally become an official.But this makes it even more unreasonable. He didn't come out at the beginning, but now he comes out as soon as he is frightened. Isn't this an admission that he has been deceiving the leaders for so many years?Isn't Sima Yi afraid now? After Sima Yi came to Cao Cao's side, he did a very good job. First, he was really capable and worked hard. Second, he quickly found a good backer for himself, that is, Cao Pi who later became the prince. Sima Yi is known as one of the "Four Friends of the Prince". This once again illustrates a basic fact. He is not a person who is obsessed with studying and admitting death. He will not just pull a cart and ignore the road. The words are all false. Assuming that the records in "Book of Jin" are true, it means that Sima Yi was putting on a show, raising his social status and increasing his popularity by "rejecting Cao", with the purpose of "doing Cao" better, and his goal was basically achieved. But it is more likely that the stories about Sima Yi's "rejection of Cao" in "Book of Jin" and those stories told to make this matter seem more real are all made up to portray Sima Yi's image of "anti-Cao", To explain the rationality and legitimacy of the Jin Dynasty that finally replaced Cao Wei.