Chapter 12 (12) The world returns to the heart

Cao Cao's ability to employ people is almost recognized in history, and he can be said to be well aware of the "opportunity to employ people".But the question is not what he did, but how and why.In other words, what is important is not "skills", but "Tao".So what is the "way" of Cao Cao's way of employing people?Why can he master this "Tao"?Please pay attention to "Yi Zhongtian Pin Three Kingdoms: The Heart of the World". As mentioned in the last episode, many people left Yuan Shao to defect to Cao Cao in the talent dispute between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and one of them was a key figure—Guo Jia, the counselor.Guo Jia had great ambitions since he was a child. At the age of twenty, he had already keenly felt that the world was about to go into chaos, so he lived in seclusion to wait for the opportunity.At first, Guo Jia defected to Yuan Shao, who was the most powerful at that time, and Yuan Shao also respected him very much and treated him as a talent.However, Guo Jia mysteriously left Yuan Shao and defected to Cao Cao's tent when Cao Cao was recruiting talents.It can be said that Guo Jia has unique insights into both Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, so why did Guo Jia leave Yuan Shao and go to Cao Cao?What kind of mystery is there?Professor Yi Zhongtian of Xiamen University will give you a detailed taste of Cao Cao's way of employing people. "The Heart of the World" is currently being broadcast, so stay tuned.

In the last episode, we mentioned that the five important counselors of Cao Cao in the early stage - Xun Yu, Xun You, Cheng Yu, Guo Jia, and Jia Xu - all took the initiative to defect to Cao Cao, and four of them came from the camp of Cao Cao's opponents, Guo Jia and Xun Yu defected to Cao Cao from Yuan Shao.When Guo Jia was leaving, he said something to Yuan Shao's advisers. These words were very important. Guo Jia said this. He said: "A wise man judges the master of measure, so he can do everything well, and his fame can be established. Yuan Gong only imitated Zhou Gong's subordinates, but he didn't know how to use people. He had many ends and few important things. He was eager to plan but never decided. , It is difficult to determine the career of the overlord."

Guo Jia’s words have three meanings: the first meaning is that a wise person, especially a person who is going to be a counselor, must be able to choose a good boss for himself.If your boss chooses the wrong one, then your knowledge, knowledge, and strategies will be useless; if your boss chooses the right one, then you will be successful.The second meaning is that Yuan Shao is not a good boss, why?Yuan Gong only imitated Zhou Gong as a corporal, so how did Zhou Gong do a corporal, "one bath, three hair shakes, one meal, three spit feedings", that is to say, he was washing his hair, and suddenly someone reported that a talent had come, and stopped immediately Shampoo, grab your hair and go for an interview.While eating, someone announced that he was asking for an interview, so he immediately spit out the food in his mouth and went out to meet him.He shakes his hair three times after washing his head, spits out food three times after eating a meal. He respects talents very much and is eager to seek talents.Guo Jia said that Yuan Shao has learned it like this, but he has not learned the essence of Duke Zhou, so Yuan Shao's virtuous corporal is not reliable, not to mention Yuan Shao himself has some problems, so Yuan Shao is not a good boss.There is a third meaning, Guo Jia didn't say it clearly, we can guess that Cao Cao is a good boss.

From this we can see that in the eyes of counselor Guo Jia, Cao Cao is the one who can accomplish great things, so he resolutely left Yuan Shao and went to Cao Cao.That is to say, all talents are attached to a virtuous boss, because talents can realize their greatest life value only under the hands of a good boss.So what kind of person can be a good boss?Why does Mr. Yi Zhongtian think Cao Cao is a good boss? So why is Cao Cao a good boss?There are also the following performances: The first is: Knowing people and being good at their duties is only suitable for talents.Appropriate talent is Xun Yu and Guo Jia's evaluation of Cao Cao's way of employing people. Appropriate talent is the same as knowing people to use or knowing people to do well.What does it mean to know people well?It includes three contents: first, to know which people are talents; second, to know what kind of talents these people are, or what kind of talents; third, to know the most appropriate position to put these people.This is called "knowing people and being good at assignments". To know people and be good at assignments is to know people first, and secondly to be good at assignments.For example, we have repeatedly mentioned Cui Yan and Mao Jie, what are their characteristics?With a decent style, honesty and integrity, Cao Cao asked them to preside over the work of the Organization Department and the Cadre Department, and select officials. Sure enough, the two of them selected and recommended were both capable and political.Another example is Zaozhi and Ren Jun. What are the characteristics of these two people?After working hard, Cao Cao asked them to farm. As a result, Cao Cao's farm system was implemented and implemented, and Cao Cao obtained a rich food and economic foundation.This is the first characteristic of Cao Cao's employing people.This characteristic, even the person who hates Cao Cao the most, such as Hong Mai who wrote "Rong Zhai Essays", also admitted that Hong Mai also had such an evaluation of Cao Cao's employment: "One official with wisdom and power, one county with power, no small No matter what, Zhuo Ran is qualified for his job", that is to say, no matter who he arranges to do, they are all very suitable and competent. This is the first characteristic.

The second feature: honesty and trustworthiness, no doubt in employing people.This is the general principle of employing people. Do not use people who are suspicious, and do not doubt people when they are employed. People who know how to employ people do this.But Cao Cao is a little special here, what is so special?It is because Cao Cao is in troubled times. What are the characteristics of troubled times? People’s hearts are fluctuating, interpersonal relationships are tense, and there is a lack of trust and sincerity between people. In Cao Cao’s words, this is called "the autumn of mutual trust". Everyone Don't trust them, this is the first feature.The second feature is Cao Cao's dual role. In Zhou Yu's words, Cao Cao is called "Han Xiang, but actually a Han thief". Of course, we can't say for sure whether Cao Cao is a Han thief. At least we can say with certainty that Cao Cao still wanted to maintain the Han Dynasty in the early stage, but his personal ambitions swelled in the later stage, and he became a traitor and wanted to replace it.But even in the early stage, Cao Cao did not have his own little abacus. He nominally recruited talents for the Han Dynasty, but in fact he hoped that these talents would be used by him.But in this way, he has another advantage, and he also has a disadvantage, that is, Cao Cao's "serving the emperor to order but not ministers" or "taking the emperor to order the princes", he has advantages and disadvantages, what are the advantages?He can use the name of the central government, the Han Dynasty, and the current emperor, as well as the official position, title, and salary of this government to recruit talents, which is more convenient than Liu Bei and Sun Quan; what are his disadvantages?It's just that he can't figure out who he recruited to serve, whether he is loyal to the emperor or to him. If he can't figure it out, suspicion will inevitably arise.The third feature is that Cao Cao’s camp is complex. In his camp, there are officials from the original Eastern Han Dynasty, newly recruited and newly selected officials, people brought out by Cao Cao himself, and people from other camps who defected to Cao Cao, surrendered to Cao Cao, and defected to Cao Cao. of.Then these people are also suspicious of each other, that is to say, for Cao Cao, trust and sincerity are extremely important at this time, in this environment, and under this condition.And Cao Cao, as a leader at this time, must show his tolerance and sincerity.

We have repeatedly said before that Cao Cao was so tolerant to those who betrayed him. He was so tolerant to Zhang Xiu, Wei Zhong, Bi Chen, and those who once viciously attacked him, such as Chen Lin. Why is he?He just wanted to show the world that I, Cao Cao, sincerely hope that all the talents in the world will come here to serve the country. I am very sincere. Even if you betray me, I don’t care, and I don’t regret it. , I don't care about it, and I don't even punish you, as long as you come again, he just wants to express this sincerity.So what did he get in exchange for such a kind of trust and sincerity?In exchange for loyalty.For example, Yu Jin, Yu Jin was a general promoted from the ranks by Cao Cao himself.When Cao Cao conquered Zhang Xiu in the south for the first time, didn’t Zhang Xiu surrender to Cao Cao and then rebelled? The ground was tidy, organizing their own team all the way, beating drums all the way, and retreating in an orderly manner.On the way to retreat, he met a few other soldiers who were in disheveled clothes. Yu Jin asked them what happened. They said, we were robbed by Qingzhou soldiers. What are Qingzhou soldiers?The Qingzhou soldiers were the Yellow Turban Army who surrendered to Cao Cao. After the Yellow Turban Army surrendered to Cao Cao, Cao Cao incorporated them into the Qingzhou Army. Cao Cao was very tolerant of them. When these people saw Cao Cao's defeat, they rose up to riot and robbed Cao Cao's other troops.Yu Jin saw that this was okay, since they were all Cao Gong's teams, how could they do this!Then the team drove over to clean up the Qingzhou soldiers, and then retreated.At this time, the Qingzhou soldiers had been punished by Yu Jin, so they hurried to Cao Cao to sue Yu Jin for making trouble. Going down to the camp, I didn't go to see Cao Cao in time.At that time, someone told Yu Jin that Qingzhou soldiers have sued you, why don't you go and explain to Cao Gong clearly, why are you doing these things in the camp now?Yu Jin said, the enemy soldiers are behind and come as soon as they say they come. How can we meet the enemy if we are not ready?The official business should be put first, and my personal honor and disgrace should be put behind. Besides, Cao Gong is such a wise person, how could he listen to slander?After the troops were settled and prepared for battle, Yu Jin went to see Cao Cao. Cao Cao praised him greatly, saying that General Yu, you really have the demeanor of an ancient good general, which is great.what is this?Trust for loyalty.

Cao Cao was able to use his talents according to his ability, and built the best bridge of communication with talents with mutual trust, so the abilities of Cao Cao's talents were brought into full play.Therefore, Cao Cao was often able to work together with the generals to overcome difficulties on the verge of failure, especially in a troubled world of intrigue and deceit, which showed Cao Cao's sincerity and tolerance.But tolerance only shows Cao Cao's kindness. Can a humane army be invincible and invincible?What kind of employment method did Cao Cao rely on to establish his authority?

The third characteristic of Cao Cao's employment is: orders and prohibitions, clear rewards and punishments.Cao Cao was very strict in governing the army. He issued and promulgated various orders many times, requiring strict military discipline.Because Cao Cao knows very well that an undisciplined team cannot defeat the enemy.And Cao Cao can also lead by example.There is a famous story, which may be familiar to audience friends, that is, when Cao Cao was marching, he gave an order not to trample on the farmland. He wanted to protect the peasants. If anyone’s horse stepped on the wheat field, it would be a crime of beheading. So Cao Cao's cavalry all got off their horses and walked on foot, holding the horse with one hand, using a weapon in the other hand, protecting the wheat with a dagger or something, and walking carefully.Cao Cao himself did not dismount, but the horse was startled, and a guy jumped into the wheat field, and Cao Cao's horse trampled the wheat field.Cao Cao immediately got off his horse and called the military judge, what should he do?The military judge said, beheaded.Cao Cao said, then please execute the sentence.Alas, how can it be possible, anyway, there is such a tradition in ancient times, the punishment cannot be punished by a doctor, the courtesy cannot be treated by a common man, the law cannot be imposed on a venerable, how can a commander beheaded.Cao Cao said that there was no way, so let's cut off a piece of hair. He pulled out his sword, cut off a piece of hair and threw it on the ground to show that he had been punished.This story is recorded in a book that is very unfriendly to Cao Cha. The name of this book is "Cao Man Biography". What is it used to explain? To decapitate, you get your hair down.In fact, this is not the case. Cao Cao was also subjected to punishment, called Kun punishment. Kun punishment means shaving off the hair, because the ancients believed that the parents who received the body, skin and hair should not give up, and Kun punishment is insulting. He was punished, so he was still punished, which still showed Cao Cao's strict law enforcement.

Then Cao Cao was punished heavily and rewarded unambiguously.One of the characteristics of Cao Cao's rewarding subordinates is that they are not based on the whim of some handsome men.We know that there will be many so-called heroes when warlords fight. After a battle is won, this battle is won. Come, come, come, brother, share, this is for you, this is for you, this is for you, It seems very bold to take it casually, but it doesn't make sense.If Cao Cao wants to reward a person, there must be two things. First, this person must have made great contributions; second, Cao Cao’s reward must be in place, that is, the reward Cao Cao gives you must exceed the share you hoped for. He overweights, when he rewards you, he is thoughtful, maybe so thoughtful that you can't even think of it yourself, Cao Cao is a very humane person, if he doesn't do it, it's fine, the humaneness must be enough.As a commander, Cao Cao has one outstanding feature, that is, he never competes with his subordinates for limelight, face, or credit. All his credit goes to his subordinates; To get real benefits, Cao Cao is a very, very real person. It is this kind of down-to-earth style that makes everyone feel that following Cao Cao is indeed right.

The fourth characteristic is: be open-minded, think like a virtuous man.Cao Cao doesn't compete with his subordinates for limelight, face, or credit, not to mention that, and if his subordinates give him advice, if he doesn't adopt it, he will criticize him if he makes a mistake, and he will take all the mistakes on himself.Of course, in many cases, Cao Cao accepts advice with an open mind, which is also a very important factor in attracting talents, because as a talent, he certainly hopes to exchange his hard work and wisdom for the reward he deserves. One hope, but what he hopes more is that he can display his talents and his suggestions and plans can be adopted.We can see from history books that there are a large number of such records, Taizu listened to it, followed it, and acted kindly.Once when Cao Cao beat Sun Quan, Cao Cao made a decision to move all the people in Huainan to the north. At that time, a man named Jiang Ji objected.Cao Cao said, you see, when I fought Yuan Shao at Guandu last time, I moved the people of Baima to Yanjin. Jiang Ji said, Cao Gong, the situation is different now from when you and Yuan Shao fought Baima. They are all soil-loving and family-loving. Who wants to move around? Don't move them.Cao Cao didn't listen, and after he didn't listen, when these common people heard that Cao Cao was going to move them to the north, they all ran to Sun Quan's place.So later Jiang Ji went to see Cao Cao. When Cao Cao heard that Jiang Ji was coming, he immediately went out to greet him. Those who wanted them to hide from the sun thief for a while, who knew that they would all be driven to the sun thief, look at what I did, review it.And we have to learn from him, that even in self-criticism we don’t have to always have a sad face. Some of our current leaders have made mistakes and don’t want to self-criticize because they seem to cry when they do self-criticism. You can also criticize with a smile, you don’t lose face when you criticize with a smile, and the person who accepts your review still thinks that you are sincere.

These are the four characteristics of Cao Cao in employing people. Based on these four characteristics, we can summarize eight sentences: Sincerely, treat people with emotion; confide in the heart, treat people with sincerity; be open and honest, convince people with reason; match words with deeds, win people with trust; Orders and prohibitions, rule people according to the law; put yourself in the place, to be tolerant of others; promote others to blame themselves, to give credit to others; to reward others by rewarding meritorious deeds. As a good boss, Cao Cao is very good at employing people. He knows very well that "to fight for the world, you must first fight for people."But in troubled times, the wife chooses the talent, and the talent also chooses the boss. This is similar to today's two-way choice, so to win the talent, you must first conquer the heart of the talent.And Mr. Yi Zhongtian thinks that Cao Cao can be kind and powerful at the same time, and is good at self-criticism and empathy. Is this the exclusive secret of Cao Cao to win people's hearts?So, what kind of mystery is hidden behind Cao Cao's many tricks of employing people? In fact, the important thing is not what Cao Cao does, but why he does it. That is to say, what is important is not the technique of employing people, but the way of employing them. What is "Tao"?Tao is human nature, the human heart.The core of Cao Cao's way of employing people is: insight into human nature and people's hearts.He knows what is going on with people so well, and he knows what his soldiers follow him through life and death for, so there is a saying of "rewarding people with credit".He knows that all people have weaknesses and shortcomings, so he "rules people with the law and tolerates people."He also knows that people are rational animals, and people are reasonable in most cases, so there is a saying of "convincing people with reason and winning people with faith".He also knows that people have feelings, and sometimes the maintenance of feelings is more important and more effective than the maintenance of interests, so there is a saying "treat people with sincerity and treat people with emotion".So Cao Cao's greatness does not lie in his skills and specific methods, but in his way, but in his thorough understanding and grasp of human heart and human nature. There is an example that illustrates the problem very well. After the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao seized a large number of books, materials, documents, and letters from Yuan Shao, and found that among them were letters written by his own people to Yuan Shao.According to the reaction of ordinary people, this is evidence of collusion with the enemy, and evidence of betrayal. I should take out these letters one by one and find out those traitors, those who have two hearts, and those wavering elements. No, Cao Cao didn't. After Cao Cao discovered such a pile of letters, he didn't even read them, and immediately ordered them to be burned.What Cao Cao did was so beautiful. At that time, many people didn't understand, so they asked Cao Cao, why did you destroy such important evidence?Cao Cao said, oh, forget it, to be honest, when I fought with Yuan Shao, the weak defeated the strong, Yuan Shao was strong, and I was weak. To win this battle, let alone everyone?It's normal!Cao Cao's move is really clever, where is the cleverness?He knew very well that the situation at that time was exactly what he said. Since it was such a situation, the people who had secret contacts with Yuan Shao at that time must not be a small number, not one, two, three, five, or dozens One, hundreds, you liquidate all these people, you can't liquidate them, since you can't liquidate them, why don't you liquidate them at all? Feng, I didn't read it. I don't know who is colluding with Yuan Shao. I will burn all the evidence now. Don't worry, everyone. As long as you follow me, Mr. Cao, and be loyal, I don't know about the past. .Cao Cao knows very well that in such complicated political struggles, sometimes you have to pretend to be confused. Only by pretending to be confused can you tolerate others, and you can win people's hearts by being tolerant, and only by winning people's hearts can the world be established. Therefore, it is called Lao Bai. There is a saying "neither dumb nor deaf To be a grandpa” sometimes means pretending to be deaf and dumb.It is not easy to understand people's hearts and human nature, but it is even more difficult to put yourself in the shoes of others. What is even more rare is that when Cao Cao did these things, for example, he destroyed these evidences, he rewarded his generals, and he gave his own shortcomings and mistakes. When doing the review, he thanked those who gave him advice. When he did all these things, he did it honestly, generously, naturally, and honestly, without any pretentiousness, which was too difficult. Cao Cao was able to gain insight into human nature and people's hearts, so he mastered the way of employing people.Cao Cao has mastered the way of employing people, and he also knows what his talents need most.When Cao Cao knew the needs of talents, he also knew what he could give to talents.So in the final analysis, Cao Cao's way of employing people is also his way of being a man, so what exactly is Cao Cao's way of being a man? Why can Cao Cao do this?There are several reasons. First, Cao Cao is smart. He knows that it is impossible for a person engaged in political struggle and a person who fights on the battlefield to tell all the truth, and it is impossible to tell all lies. Such a person One must know when to tell the truth, when to tell the lie, and to whom to tell the truth and to whom to tell the lie.To the enemy, you must tell lies, soldiers are not tired of deceit, you can't tell the truth; but to your own advisers, they are all smart people, then you have to tell the truth, you can gain trust by telling the truth, you In exchange for trust, he will do his best to advise you, and you can defeat the enemy.Cao Cao can grasp the degree between the true and the false, which is called cleverness. The second reason is that he is easy-going. One of the good things about Cao Cao’s character is that he is a man of temperament. We all know that Cao Cao is a poet. He has both the qualities of a military general and the temperament of a poet. He is very easy-going when he is in official office or in official combat. He will tell jokes, jokes, and jokes with everyone, so that he has a kind of affinity.As a leader, it’s not good to be too serious, people think you can’t get close to you if you’re too serious; it’s not good to be too casual, you don’t have prestige if you’re too casual, it’s better to be like Cao Cao, who doesn’t get angry when he needs prestige And Wei, he is kind and easy-going at ordinary times, so that his subordinates respect him and love him at the same time. Cao Cao also grasped this scale very well.So Cao Cao often joked about serious things. For example, he had a man on his enemy's side, and his father was imprisoned by Cao Cao. Cao Cao wrote him a letter saying, Your Excellency is in my prison. Life is not bad, but the country can't always pay for other people's father's pension, you can figure it out, it's very fun. The third reason is his sincerity. Cao Cao is sincere and sincerely hopes that many people will help him. He really feels that he is alone and weak. This is his truth.Cao Cao has a poem called "Duan Ge Xing", in which there is such a sentence: "Qingqing Zijin, my heart is leisurely. But for the sake of the king, I have pondered it so far." The translation is, the green one is your lapel, and the long one is me Your love is only because of you, let me miss it until now.Missing who?Not a lover, not Xiaomi, but a friend who can help him achieve a career. This relationship is real, so the third reason is his sincerity. The fourth reason is depth. Cao Cao is a very deep person. Let’s take a look at this song "Duan Ge Xing". What is the sentence at the beginning of his song? "Sing to wine, how much life is. Like the dew in the morning, the past is bitter." Life is very short, and we should use this short life to do something vigorous. Therefore, we need a lot of talents and friends to help I.Therefore, his way of employing people is produced from such a height of philosophical thinking about the universe and life, and it is by no means a way of employing people in the general sense, so Cao Cao is very easy-going and deep.Guo Jia has such an evaluation of Cao Cao, which is called "simple on the outside but smart on the inside", that is, he looks casual on the surface, but in fact deep down in his heart, he can shake hands with you and talk happily, he can Talking and laughing with you, he can laugh and laugh with you, he can hook up with you, but please pay attention, when he shakes hands with you and laughs and laughs, he is observing you, and he can see people very clearly, he will put his The person opposite sees it in his eyes, remembers it in his heart, and rots in his stomach, and then he knows how to treat you, or how to deal with you.Cao Cao is very good at seeing people, Yuan Shao is so arrogant, Yuan Shu is so arrogant, Cao Cao didn't pay attention to them, but Liu Bei who sold straw sandals before and then sent him under the fence treated him differently, Cao Cao even said such words : "Today, the hero is here to make the king and the ear".This sentence is very strange, is Liu Bei a hero?If Liu Bei is a hero, then Cao Cao's words are equivalent to saying that we are the ones fighting for the world.So if Liu Bei is not a hero, then why did Cao Cao say this?So we really wanted to find out whether Cao Cao saw Liu Bei accurately, and whether Liu Bei was a hero?Did Cao Cao say "today the heroes are the only ones who make the king and Cao's ears"?Please see the next episode - Plum Boiled Wine.