Biography
Family Background and Early Life
Cao Huan was born in 246, the seventh year of Zhengshi, under the original name Cao Huang and with the courtesy name Jingming. His father, Cao Yu, Prince of Yan, was a son of Cao Cao and Lady Huan. As Cao Cao's grandson, Cao Huang belonged to a collateral branch of the Cao imperial clan and was not initially a leading candidate for succession. In 258, the third year of Ganlu, at the age of twelve, he was enfeoffed as Duke of Changdao Village in Anci County, a relatively ordinary noble title that attracted little notice.
In the fifth month of 260, the fifth year of Ganlu, the reigning Duke of Gaogui Village, Cao Mao, attempted to strike against Sima Zhao rather than remain his puppet. Cao Mao led palace guards out but was killed near the palace gate by Cheng Ji, a subordinate of Sima Zhao. After Cao Mao's death, Sima Zhao consulted senior ministers about a successor. He ultimately selected Cao Huang, son of Cao Yu. To give the succession formal legitimacy, Sima Zhao had Cao Huang adopted as heir of Cao Rui, Emperor Ming, and ordered his name changed to Cao Huan. Sima Zhao then sent his son Sima Yan to Dongwuyang to escort him to the capital.
Puppet Emperor
On the jiayin day of the sixth month in 260, Cao Huan ascended the throne in the Front Hall of the Taiji Palace in Luoyang. He proclaimed a general amnesty and adopted the era name Jingyuan. He was only fourteen and had no independent political base. Military and political power rested completely with Sima Zhao. In the same month, Cao Huan elevated Sima Zhao as Duke of Jin and chief minister and granted him the Nine Bestowments, part of the political sequence that preceded the eventual transfer of the throne.
In the seventh month of 261, leaders from the Samhan, Yemaek, and other groups associated with Lelang Commandery came with followers to offer tribute. In the fourth month of 262, officials in Liaodong reported that the Sushen had sent envoys bearing bows, arrows, stone crossbow bolts, armor, sable skins, and other goods. In the twelfth month, Cao Huan issued an edict separating part of Yi Province to establish Liang Province and granted an amnesty to the people of Yi, reducing their taxes and levies by half for five years. These measures were issued in Cao Huan's name, although the source states that real decisions were made by Sima Zhao.
In 263, the fourth year of Jingyuan, Cao Huan made Lady Bian, daughter of Bian Lin, empress. In the fifth month he issued an edict for a major invasion of Shu Han. General Who Conquers the West Deng Ai led thirty thousand men from Didao toward Tazhong and Gansong to pin down Jiang Wei; Zhuge Xu, Inspector of Yong Province, led more than thirty thousand from Qishan toward Wudu and Gaolou to cut off Jiang Wei's retreat; and General Who Pacifies the West Zhong Hui commanded more than one hundred thousand troops advancing through Xiegu, Luogu, and Ziwu valleys toward Hanzhong. The three Wei columns advanced simultaneously. In the eleventh month, Liu Shan, ruler of Shu Han, surrendered in Deng Ai's camp and Shu Han ceased to exist. Cao Huan rewarded the commanders: Deng Ai became Defender-in-chief and Zhong Hui Minister over the Masses.
Abdication and Later Life
In the first month of 264, Deng Ai came under Sima Zhao's suspicion and was arrested and sent toward the capital in a prison cart. Zhong Hui and Jiang Wei plotted to establish control in Shu, triggering the Chengdu mutiny, in which both men were killed; Deng Ai was also killed on the road by forces under Wei Guan. In the third month, Cao Huan enfeoffed Sima Zhao as Prince of Jin and added ten commanderies to his fief. In the eighth month Sun Xiu, Emperor Jing of Eastern Wu, died and Sun Hao succeeded him. The source also records that in the tenth month Cao Huan was compelled to confirm Sima Zhao's title as Prince of Jin. In 264, the first year of Xianxi, Cao Huan ordered the abolition of local Tuntian administrative offices: agricultural-colony officials were dismissed or reassigned, with former Agricultural Household Generals becoming administrators and Agricultural Commandants becoming county magistrates.
In the fourth month of 265, Eastern Wu sent Ji Zhi and Hong Qiu to Luoyang with local products and an expression of willingness for peace. Cao Huan received them and asked after the ruler of Wu. Ji Zhi replied that when he departed, the imperial carriage had come in person, the hundred officials attended, and the ruler's meals and health were normal. In the fifth month Cao Huan granted Sima Zhao exceptional honors, while Sima Yan became heir of the Prince of Jin. Sima Zhao died in the eighth month. Sima Yan succeeded as chief minister and Prince of Jin. Cao Huan appointed him General-in-Chief of the Pacifying Army, granted banners and carriages of imperial style, and confirmed him as chief minister and Prince of Jin. At this point government was entirely controlled by Sima Yan.
On the bingyin day of the twelfth month of the first year of Taishi, February 8, 266, Sima Yan compelled Cao Huan to abdicate and founded the Jin dynasty. Cao Huan was then enfeoffed as Prince of Chenliu with ten thousand households and moved to Ye. As Cao Huan left the capital, Grand Tutor Sima Fu took his hand and said: “Until death, I remain a loyal subject of Great Wei.” Following the precedent by which the abdicated Emperor Xian of Han had been made Duke of Shanyang, Emperor Wu of Jin allowed Cao Huan to retain imperial ceremonial insignia, conduct ancestral rites with royal ritual, and avoid calling himself a subject of Jin. Western Jin established the office of Supervisor of the Military Affairs of Ye to watch over him. When Sima Ying, Prince of Chengdu, later held that office as General-in-Chief and Supervisor of Ye, even his Right Sima Lu Ji was not permitted to meet Cao Huan.
In 278, the fourth year of Xianning, Cao Huan's biological father Cao Yu died. Emperor Wu of Jin issued an edict that the Prince of Chenliu, as heir to Emperor Ming and bearer of the Wei dynastic line, should not mourn for his biological father. The *Tongdian* records the principle that “the prince serves the Wei house; what he has inherited is weighty, and he may not wear mourning for his private kin.”
Cao Huan died at Ye in 302, the first year of Tai'an. Pei Songzhi's annotation to the *Records of the Three Kingdoms*, citing the *Genealogy of Wei*, gives his age as fifty-eight. He was buried with imperial rites and received the posthumous name Emperor Yuan. Because he died during the War of the Eight Princes, the names of his descendants were not preserved. The source records only that a later holder of the Chenliu title once supplied imperial robes when Emperor Hui of Jin was brought to Ye. From the Eastern Jin onward, the title Prince of Chenliu was held by Cao Mai, a great-great-grandson of Cao Cao, and his descendants, though their precise relationship to Cao Huan is unknown.