ive-zhu coins of the Wei Kingdom
3 min readZhu is an ancient unit of weight equal to 1/24 liang or a little more than 2 grams.
In the first lunar month of 220 Cao Cao passed away，and Cao Pi naturally succeeded his father aschancellor and Prince of Wei.In the tenth month，he dethroned Emperor Xian of the Eastern Han and proclaimed himself emperor.Whilst granting the title of Duke of Shanyang to Liu Xie，he also forced two daughters of the former puppet emperor to be his concubines.The Eastern Han Dynasty thus formally came to its end.Once founding the Wei Kingdom，Cao Pi adopted Huangchu as the new title for his reign，and moved the capital from Xuchang to Luoyang.
Fearful that his throne might be threatened, Cao Pi made up his mind to get rid of his own brothers.
Cao Zhang, also born of Lady Bian, had accompanied Cao Cao on military expeditions many times and achieved miraculous feats in battles. Cao Pi granted him the title of Prince of Rencheng and sent him to Yanling(the same-named county in present Henan) which was poor and neglected. In this way Cao Zhang lost his control over the armed forces.
A great misfortune then befell Cao Zhi. One day he was ordered by Cao Pi to compose a fraternitythemed poem within the set time of walking seven paces, otherwise he would lose his life. Without much thinking the literary genius recited:”They were boiling beans on a beanstalk fire; there came aplaintive voice from the pot. Oh why, since we sprang from the self-same root, should you kill me with anger hot?”This was the well-known “Seven-pace Song,”hence the Chinese idiom of “burning beanstalks to cook beans”–an allusion to fratricidal strife.
Taking warning from the abuse of power by the emperor’s in-laws during the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Piprohibited the empress dowager, the empress and their relatives from meddling in state affairs.
He also kept those princes or dukes with hereditary titles as well as their children under strict control.
During his seven-year-long reign, another political policy with far-reaching influence was the establishment of nine grades of official rank, which ensured the privileged position of the scholar-officials from powerful families.
According to the Eastern Han system of selecting and appointing officials, the central government relied on the country gentry for the discovery and recommendation of excellent candidates who scrupulously and respectfully obeyed Confucian moral standards. Nonetheless, as the whole nation was thrown into disorder with the warlords fighting for hegemony and floating population increased greatly towards the end of the dynasty, the imperial court–weighed down by numerous troublesome problems–was in a sorry plight and felt impossible to carefully examine the records and qualifications of officials in making appointments. Therefore, the disadvantages of the recommendation method became more and more serious. In order to right the wrong, Chancellor Cao Cao had vigorously advocated discarding uniformity of standards in selecting and employing people of talent.
In 220, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Personnel Chen Qun set up the post of Zhongzheng (literally “unbiased”)–a grade-two official–in all the provincial and prefectural governments. The duty of Zhongzheng was to grade the candidates for official positions from most inferior to most superior–a total of nine levels–mainly according to their family background, moral conduct and talent; his appraisal then served as important reference for the central government to appoint officials.
Since only those who were of noble origin were eligible to hold the post of Zhongzheng, in reality the rich and powerful monopolized the power to select court officials. With the passage of time,a distinguished family background gradually became the only criterion for a person to enter into officialdom, whilst his ability and virtue were of little importance.
