(*the faithfully departed*)
(187 – 29 june 226)
(died at age 39)
(*chinese emperor from 220 – 226*)
WIVES:
(“Cao Pi” (courtesy name Zihuan, was the first emperor of the state of ‘Cao Wei’ in the ‘Three Kingdoms’ period)
(he was born in ‘Qiao’ (譙; present-day ‘Bozhou’, ‘Anhui’) as the second son of ‘Cao Cao’, a warlord who lived in the late ‘Eastern Han Dynasty’)
(however, he was the eldest son among all the children born to ‘Cao Cao’ by his concubine (later wife) ‘Lady Bian’)
(of all his brothers, ‘Cao Pi’ was the shrewdest)
(instead of focusing on academic studies or administering military affairs, he was always in the presence of court officials in order to gain their support)
(he was mostly in charge of ‘defense’ at the start of his career)
(after the defeat of Cao Cao’s rival ‘Yuan Shao’ at the ‘Battle of Guandu’, he took the widow of Yuan Shao’s son ‘Yuan Xi’, ‘Lady Zhen’, as a concubine, but in 221 ‘Lady Zhen’ died and ‘Guo Nüwang’ became empress)
(in 220, ‘Cao Pi’ forced ‘Emperor Xian’, the last ruler of the ‘Han Dynasty’, to abdicate the throne to him, and he proclaimed himself ’emperor’ and established the state of ‘Cao Wei’)
(‘Cao Pi’ continued the wars against the states of ‘Shu Han’ and ‘Eastern Wu’, founded by his father’s rivals ‘Liu Beiand Sun Quan’ respectively, but did not make significant territorial gain in the battles)
(inlike his father, ‘Cao Pi’ concentrated most of his efforts on internal administration rather than on waging wars against his rivals)
(during his reign, he formally established Chen Qun’s nine-rank system as the base for civil service nomination, which drew many talents into his government)
(on the other hand, he drastically reduced the power of princes, stripping off their power to oppose him, but at the same time, rendering them unable to assist the emperor if a crisis arose within the state)
(After Cao Pi’s death, his successor ‘Cao Rui’ granted him the posthumous name “Emperor Wen” and the temple name “Shizu”)
(‘Cao Pi’ was also an accomplished poet and scholar, just like his father ‘Cao Cao’ and his younger brother ‘Cao Zhi’)
(he wrote Yan Ge Xing (燕歌行), the first Chinese poem in the style of seven syllables per line (七言詩))
(he also wrote over a hundred articles on various subjects)