Cao Pi was enthroned by Zen, and the last dragon spirit of the Han family gradually dimmed under the complicated crown. He may not have expected that when the power of the Sima family became increasingly stable in Cao Wei's court, the fate of the Han family that he had personally ended was quietly reincarnating in a more grim manner. Sima Yi's oath of alliance on the bank of Luoshui is still in his ears, but his grandchildren's swords are already pointed at Cao Wei's ancestral temple.
The skirt of the Luo Shen in Cao Zhi's painting once passed by the moonlight of Yecheng. The clear glow contained the lingering charm of Jian'an character, but it was shattered into powder in the coup of Gaopingling. In 254 AD, when Sima Shi deposed Cao Fang, the bronze camel in front of the palace seemed to be wailing silently, just like the loneliness when Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty took the Zen throne. Cao Mao's angry shout that "Sima Zhao's heart is known to all passers-by" is just like the accusations made by loyal ministers against the Cao family in the late Han Dynasty, only this time, the blood stained the palace of the Cao family.
When Sima Yan finally proclaimed himself emperor on behalf of Wei, and the banner of the Jin Dynasty was fluttering at the top of Luoyang City, he might think of his grandfather Sima Yi's forbearance when he was under Cao Cao's command, and his father Sima Zhao's determination when he pacified Huainan. The ambitions suppressed by the Cao family were released by the Sima family's tactics, but they also planted the seeds of extravagance and disputes in the new dynasty.
The change of Wei and Jin Dynasties is like the passing of fate. When Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty, he actually committed rebellion in the name of "concession"; when the Sima family seized Wei, they actually attempted to replace it in the name of "clearing the emperor's side". Every time power changes hands, it is accompanied by the collapse of loyalty and the growth of ambition. The Cao family took the Han Dynasty as a lesson, but failed to defend their own country; the Sima family took Cao Wei as a warning, but also fell into the cycle of history.
