Cao Rui

Cao Rui, a young adult when he became emperor, quickly showed a knack for finding capable officials to empower while maintaining steady control over them. His father had appointed three regents for him—his distant cousin Cao Zhen, the steady administrator Chen Qun, and the shrewd strategist Sima Yi. Once Cao Rui became emperor, however, he, while knowing the value of the advice of these senior officials, chose perhaps the best path to deal with them: honoring them and making them regional governors with full authority in the provinces they governed. By doing this, he showed that he was his own man while at the same time continued to receive the wisdom of their advice.

Throughout Cao Rui's reign, he showed great diligence in seeking out advice from multiple officials, rather than concentrating on listening to several, before making important decisions. He was generally cautious and not willing to take risks, but at the same time was, therefore, able to avoid major disasters for his empire.

One immediate threat that Cao Rui had to deal with after he became emperor were attacks from Shu Han's chancellor, Zhuge Liang. Zhuge had, after the death of Shu Han's founding emperor, Liu Bei, initially taken a passive posture militarily with regard to the Shu Han-Cao Wei border, while reestablishing an alliance with Sun Quan's Eastern Wu, in order to rest the people and the troops. In 227, he, under the theory that Shu Han was naturally a weaker state than Cao Wei and, if it had just sat and done nothing, would eventually be swallowed up by Cao Wei anyway, started a series of five campaigns north.

During these campaigns, Cao Rui's response generally was to head to the metropolitan Chang'an—a politically important city that Wei could not afford to lose—and then commission generals to the frontlines to ward off Zhuge's attacks. This strategy had the effect of boosting the morale of the troops and shortening the communication line. Being fairly quickly updated as to the events at the frontlines, Cao Rui could also keep the central empire under his watch. Ultimately, Zhuge's campaigns were futile; after his death in 234, his plan was largely abandoned by his successors Jiang Wan and Fei Yi. That did not mean that there was peace on the borders with Shu Han, however, as nearly yearly there were battles between the two states. However, there would be no major confrontations on the scale of Zhuge's campaigns for the rest of Cao Rui's reign.

During Cao Rui's reigns, there were also many battles waged against the other rival empire, Eastern Wu. The very first came only two months after Cao Rui had become emperor in 226. It was during that campaign that Cao Rui showed his acumen for judging a situation correctly—believing that by the time that reinforcements could be sent, Eastern Wu's monarch Sun Quan would have already withdrawn, and therefore sending reinforcements was pointless. Throughout his reign, he would generally take a similar stance during campaigns against Eastern Wu as he did with Shu Han—head east personally to be close to the theater of the war, while remaining some distance away from the frontlines, which also proved to be effective. He also entrusted the southeastern border to the capable Man Chong, and Man's stewardship averted many disasters.

Cao Rui's greatest military loss came in 228, when the Eastern Wu general Zhou Fang tricked Cao Rui's distant cousin and regional governor Cao Xiu into believing that he was ready to surrender his troops to Cao Wei, while instead laying a trap for Cao Xiu. Instead of realizing that it was indeed a trap, Cao Rui enthusiastically approved Cao Xiu's plan, and this led to a major military disaster, but Cao Xiu's forces were saved by Jia Kui from total annihilation.

Another serious crisis posed by Eastern Wu occurred in 234, when Eastern Wu, in a semi-coordinated effort with Shu Han, launched an attack against Cao Wei simultaneously with Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions. At the time, many frontline officials were on vacation visiting families, so Man Chong requested Cao Rui to call them back to fight Sun Quan. Cao Rui refused to cancel his subordinates' vacation, and ordered Man to focus on the defense. Cao Rui then personally led the royal army as reinforcement, and acted as an effective coordinator of the various forces that Cao Wei had on Eastern Wu's borders, and Eastern Wu was unable to make substantial gains.

The only real military gain for Cao Wei during Cao Rui's reign was the end of the Gongsun clan's hold on Liaodong (modern central and eastern Liaoning), which was started by Gongsun Du in 190. In 228, Gongsun Du's grandson Gongsun Yuan deposed his uncle Gongsun Gong in a coup and asked for an official commission from Cao Rui. Acting against Liu Ye (劉曄)'s advice to attack the Gongsuns while there was dissension within, Cao Rui instead gave Gongsun Yuan an official commission as governor of Liaodong Commandery.

In 232, Gongsun Yuan's repeated communicated with and sales of horses to Eastern Wu angered Cao Rui, who ordered his generals Tian Yu and Wang Xiong (王雄) to attack Liaodong against Jiang Ji (蔣濟)'s advice; the attacks were not successful, although Tian was able to intercept the Eastern Wu horse-buying fleet and destroy it. After the incident, although Gongsun formally maintained vassalage to Cao Wei, the relationship was damaged.

The next year saw that relationship would be somewhat improved. Gongsun, apprehensive of another attack from Cao Wei, sent ambassadors to Eastern Wu to formally submit to its emperor Sun Quan. Sun was so pleased that he immediately created Gongsun the Prince of Yan and granted him the nine bestowments, which were typically reserved for officials so powerful that the bestowments were typically viewed as a sign that the emperor was about to abdicate to them. However, Gongsun realized later that Eastern Wu would be of little help in an expedition against him. He betrayed Eastern Wu, slaughtered Sun's ambassadors as they arrived in Liaodong, and seized their troops. In response, Cao Rui created Gongsun the Duke of Lelang. (Part of the Eastern Wu troops were able to escape and eventually returned home with the assistance of Goguryeo, a rival of the Gongsuns.)

In 237, Cao Rui once again considered attacking Liaodong, angered by reports that Gongsun had repeatedly defamed him. He commissioned Guanqiu Jian to prepare for an attack, and then ordered Gongsun to come to Luoyang for an official visit. Gongsun refused and instead declared independence. Guanqiu attacked him, but was stopped by torrential rains. Gongsun then declared himself the Prince of Yan and entered into alliances with the Xianbei tribes to harass Cao Wei's borders.

The following year, Cao Rui sent Sima Yi with 40,000 men to attack Liaodong. Upon hearing this, Gongsun again requested aid from Eastern Wu. Sun, angry at Gongsun's previous betrayal, pretended to agree, but did not send Gongsun any actual help. Although Sima's expeditionary force was also initially halted by torrential rains as Guanqiu's was, Sima waited out the rains and eventually surrounded Gongsun's capital of Xiangping (襄平, in modern Liaoyang, Liaoning), starving Gongsun's troops. After nearly three months of siege, Xiangping fell, and Gongsun fled, but was captured and executed by Sima. Liaodong became part of Cao Wei's domain.

Almost immediately after Cao Rui ascended the throne, he started out large scale palace and temple-building projects. Part of it was to be expected—the Luoyang palaces had been remnants of the ones not destroyed by Dong Zhuo, and the temples were needed for the cults of his ancestors. However, he went beyond the minimally required, and continued to build temples and palaces throughout the rest of his reign, severely draining the imperial treasury. While he occasionally halted projects at the officials' behest, the projects would restart after brief breaks. He not only built palaces in Luoyang, but also built a palace in Xuchang. In 237, he further moved many of the magnificent statues and monuments that were commissioned by Emperor Wu of Han from Chang'an to Luoyang, costing great expenses and lives. He further built gigantic bronze statues of his own and placed them on a man-made hill inside his palace, surrounded by rare trees and plants and populated by rare animals.

Cao Rui was also increasing his collection of women, as his concubines and ladies in waiting numbered thousands. His palace-building projects might have been with intent to house them. The contemporary historian Yu Huan said that in 237, Cao Rui even ordered that beautiful married women all be formally seized unless their husbands were able to ransom them, and that they would be married to soldiers instead—but that the most beautiful among them would become his concubines. Despite some officials' protestations, this decree was apparently carried out, much to the distress of his people.

When Cao Rui became emperor, it was commonly expected that his wife, Princess Yu, would be created empress, but she was not. Rather, he created a favorite concubine, Consort Mao, empress in 227. Princess Yu was exiled back to their original palace. He loved Empress Mao dearly, and a number of her relatives, including her father and brother, became honored officials (but without actual powers).

Despite his collection of women, however, Cao Rui was without any son who survived infancy. He adopted two sons to be his own—Cao Fang and Cao Xun, whom he created princes in 235. (It is usually accepted that they were sons of his cousins, although the exact parentage is not clear.) In 237, Cao Rui took the unprecedented (and unrepeated in Chinese history) action of setting his own temple name of Liezu and ordering that his temple, in the future, never to be torn down. (Based on Confucian regulations, except for the founder of the dynasty, rulers' temples would be destroyed after six generations.) He carried out these actions apparently in apprehension that he would be given an unflattering temple name (or none at all) and that his temple would eventually be destroyed, due to his lack of biological issue and unclear origin.

By 237, Cao Rui's favorite was no longer Empress Mao, but Consort Guo. Once, when Cao Rui was attending a feast hosted by Consort Guo, Consort Guo requested that Empress Mao be invited to join as well, but Cao Rui refused and further ordered that no news about the feast is to be given to Empess Mao. However, the news leaked, and Empress Mao talked about the feast with him anyway. He became exceedingly angry, and killed a number of his attendants whom he suspected of leaking the news to Empress Mao, and, inexplicably, ordered Empress Mao to commit suicide, even though she was still buried with honors due an empress, and her family remained honored.

In 238, Cao Rui grew ill. He created Consort Guo empress in preparation of allowing her to become empress dowager after his death. He initially wanted to entrust his adopted son, Cao Fang the Prince of Qi, to his uncle Cao Yu, to serve as the lead regent, along with Xiahou Xian (夏侯獻), Cao Shuang, Cao Zhao (曹肇), and Qin Lang (秦朗). However, his trusted officials Liu Fang (劉放) and Sun Zi (孫資) were unfriendly with Xiahou and Cao Zhao and were apprehensive about their becoming regents, and managed to persuade him to make Cao Shuang (with whom they were friendly) and Sima Yi regents instead. Cao Yu, Cao Zhao, and Qin were excluded from the regency. In the spring of 239, Cao Rui created the seven-year-old Cao Fang crown prince, and died the same day of that creation. Cao Fang succeeded him as emperor.

• Chen Shou (3rd century). Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi).
• Pei Songzhi (5th century). Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi zhu).