Cao Huan

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.

Major Activities

Abdication and the End of Cao Wei

The most consequential event of Cao Huan's reign was the transfer of the throne to Sima Yan in the second year of Xianxi, ending the Cao Wei state after forty-six years and opening the Western Jin period. After the abdication, Sima Yan enfeoffed Cao Huan as Prince of Chenliu with ten thousand households and granted him exceptionally favorable treatment. Chen Shou wrote in the Records of the Three Kingdoms that the Prince of Chenliu respectfully occupied the throne while ministers governed, followed earlier precedent in yielding the position, then enjoyed a large fief and became an honored guest of Jin; compared with the former Emperor Xian of Han as Duke of Shanyang, his honors were even greater.

Conquest of Shu by Wei

In the fifth month of 263, Cao Huan issued the order for a large-scale invasion of Shu Han. Deng Ai led thirty thousand from Didao toward Tazhong and Gansong to contain Jiang Wei; Zhuge Xu led more than thirty thousand from Qishan toward Wudu and Gaolou to sever Jiang Wei's retreat; and Zhong Hui commanded more than one hundred thousand through Xiegu, Luogu, and Ziwu valleys toward Hanzhong. The three-pronged advance repeatedly defeated Shu resistance. In the eleventh month, Liu Shan surrendered to Deng Ai and Shu Han fell. Cao Huan rewarded Deng Ai as Defender-in-chief and Zhong Hui as Minister over the Masses. The conquest was the most important military victory formally carried out in Cao Huan's reign and marked the beginning of the end of the Three Kingdoms division.

Administrative Reform

Although effective political control remained with the Sima family, several measures issued in Cao Huan's name are noted in the source. In the twelfth month of 262, part of Yi Province was used to establish Liang Province; the people of Yi received amnesty and half their taxes and levies were remitted for five years. In the second month of 264, an amnesty was issued for local inhabitants of Yi. In 265, the Tuntian administrative apparatus was abolished and agricultural-colony officers were transferred into regular territorial administration: Agricultural Household Generals became administrators and Agricultural Commandants became county magistrates. In Shu, migrants were encouraged to move into the interior, with the government supplying two years of food and exempting them from taxation for twenty years. The source attributes these policies some role in administrative adjustment and postwar pacification.

External Relations

In the seventh month of 261, leaders of the Samhan, Yemaek, and related groups from Lelang came to court with tribute. In the fourth month of 262, Liaodong reported a Sushen embassy bearing thirty bows, each three chi five cun long, arrow shafts one chi eight cun long, three hundred stone crossbow projectiles, twenty suits of armor made from oxhide reinforced with iron, and four hundred sable skins. In the fourth month of 265, Eastern Wu sent Ji Zhi and Hong Qiu to Luoyang with local products and a request for peaceful relations. These tributary exchanges helped preserve Cao Wei's external image as the central dynasty even while internal power had passed to the Sima clan.

Personal Relations

• Grandfather: Cao Cao (Emperor Wu of Cao Wei)
• Grandmother: Lady Huan
• Biological father: Cao Yu, Prince of Yan
• Adoptive dynastic predecessor: Cao Rui, Emperor Ming of Cao Wei, whose line Cao Huan was made to continue
• Wife: Lady Bian, Empress Bian, daughter of Bian Lin
• Sima Zhao: Prince of Jin and effective ruler
• Sima Yan: Emperor Wu of Jin and recipient of the abdication
• Sima Fu: Grand Tutor who declared himself loyal to Wei until death
• Deng Ai: Defender-in-chief and commander in the conquest of Shu
• Zhong Hui: Minister over the Masses and commander in the conquest of Shu

Historical Assessment

Contemporary Assessments

• Sima Zhao is quoted in the Book of Jin as saying of Cao Huan: “The present sovereign is sagely and enlightened, covering all without exclusion.”
• Chen Shou, in the “Annals of the Three Young Emperors” in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, wrote that the Prince of Chenliu respectfully occupied the throne while ministers governed, followed previous precedent in yielding it, and then enjoyed a great fief as an honored guest of Jin, receiving even more favorable treatment than the Duke of Shanyang, the former Emperor Xian of Han.

Song and Yuan Periods

• Yuan scholar Hao Jing wrote that Cao Huan understood that the dynastic mandate had already shifted, ruled by non-interference while others completed affairs, and accepted the loss of the dynasty, placing him in the same category as Emperor Xian of Han.

Ming and Qing Periods

• Ming and Qing historians generally followed the assessments of Chen Shou and Hao Jing and treated Cao Huan as a final ruler who accepted the prevailing political situation and transferred the throne peacefully. In Du Tongjian Lun, Wang Fuzhi discussed the Wei-Jin transfer with more criticism of the Sima usurpation than of Cao Huan himself.

Modern Assessments

• Modern historians generally regard Cao Huan as a typical puppet emperor whose reign was controlled by Sima Zhao and Sima Yan. Lü Simian, in Informal Talks on the Three Kingdoms, argued that the decline of the Cao imperial clan began after Cao Pi's accession and that Cao Huan was primarily a transitional figure in the Sima takeover.
• Chen Changqi, in a study of Zhang Chengji's rebellion at Ye and the destruction of Cao Cao's mausoleum, argued that rumors during the 299 uprising may have involved restoration of Cao Wei. The source reports his suggestion that Sima Ying destroyed Cao Cao's Gaoling and Pingyi Hall, transferred objects from the tomb to the Ye palace as a warning to Cao Huan or his successor as Prince of Chenliu, and that Cao Huan may even have died from fear arising from these events.