Book Description

Cho Zhi (192-323) was the son of Cao Cao (155-220), the famous -- sometimes thought infamous -- adventurer, general and politician at the end of the Later Han dynasty (25-220). Cao Zhi was a younger son but had such great talent that there was at one time a prospect that he might become his father's heir. If that had happened he could have been a king. However, his elder brother, Cao Pi (187-226), became the heir and the two brothers' rivalry over this question had a major effect on Cao Zhi's life.Their rivalry was probably aggravated by Cao Pi's jealousy of Cao Zhi's brilliance and greater poetic gifts, and possibly over a woman who, according to some stories, inspired one of Cao Zhi's greatest poems. After Cao Cao's death, China became formally divided into the Three Kingdoms which gave their name to that period of Chinese history. Many of the traditional stories in early Chinese novels and plays derived from that period. But, in all the stirring doings at the time -- the "Robin Hood" age of China -- Cao Zhi played little part. With all his gifts, his faults of character and the distrust of his brother, by now King of Wei, frustrated his chance of giving real service to the state. Many of his poems reflect that frustration.Cao Zhi is, however, a far from unimportant figure in Chinese literary history. He lived at a time of division, of change and of constant warfare and popular distress. Buddhism was spreading fast and new poetical forms were coming into use. Cao Zhi is one of the first figures in Chinese history to be remembered as a poet alone, and not as an emperor, statesman or general who also wrote poetry. He also wrote essays which contained some of the earliest literary criticism of writers of his age. He was also renowned as a calligrapher -- and as a bon viveur. His life was in large part a tragedy of wasted gifts -- but he does not lack touches of comedy.