The popular image of Cao Cao was that he was suspicious, ruthless and narrow-minded. This image was mainly popularized by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a fiction written by Luo Guanzhong over 1,000 years later. Such a dark character makes good stories. However, the official record of Cao Cao was nothing like that.
Cao Cao (曹操) was a powerful warlord during the Three Kingdoms (三國) period (220-280AD), which ended the Eastern Han dynasty. Although he never claimed the title of Emperor, he was recognized to be the "Emperor Wu of Wei" (魏武帝) after his son Cao Pi (曹丕) overturned the Han Dynasty.
The official history of Cao Cao was the "Records of the Three Kingdoms" (三國志). However, most people's knowledge about this period was formed by the fiction "Romance of the Three Kingdoms)" (三國演義), which was written by Luo Guan Zhong (羅貫中) based on (multiple versions of) various stories told by story-tellers over generations.
The popular image of Cao Cao was that he was suspicious, ruthless and narrow-minded. He had no hesitation killing innocent people. He would not mind letting others down, but never allow others to let him down (寧可我負天下人不可天下人負我). Such an image was mainly formed by the story-tellers over generations, popularized by Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms. They were not supported by the Records of the Three Kingdoms, the official history.
Chen Shou ended his
record of Cao Cao
in the "Records of the Three Kindoms"
by commenting that Cao Cao was a strategist and tactician.
He was competent in administration and organization. He had good judgement of the overall situation.
He was outstanding is personnel management; he used the right people for the right jobs. He was forgiving.
Overall, he was an extraordinary man, a genius out of this world.
評曰：漢末，天下大亂，雄豪並起，而袁紹虎眎四州，彊盛莫敵。太祖運籌演謀，鞭撻宇內，擥申、商之法術，該韓、白之奇策，官方授材，各因其器，矯情任筭，不念舊惡，終能總御皇機，克成洪業者，惟其明略最優也。抑可謂非常之人，超世之傑矣。
Note that Chen Shou wrote the Records of the Three Kingdoms in the Jin Dynasty (晉朝). He did not have to say good things about Cao Cao, who had no influence over him at all. History tends to record what the authors or their masters want to record. If anything, Chen Shou's master would have preferred Cao Cao to be recorded as a bad character, to justify Jin overthrowing Cao Wei (曹魏).
In the Records of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao did not sound like the bad person portraited in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Was he a tough man? Of course he was. Was he calculated? Of course he was. Was he ruthless? He may have been, but so as every successful leader in a warring state. Did he have no integrity? There was not enough evidence to conclude that. He had plenty of opportunities to remove the emperors, but he refused to do so. Yes, he loved power, but he appeared to be loyal to the Han emperors. He had a chance to kill his eventual arch-rival Liu Bei before he was established, but he refused to do so.
The following texts show that Cao Cao was not a bad person. He sounded more like an honorable man:
Luo Guanzhong wrote the Romance of Three Kingdoms as a collection of popular stories told over generations. To keep the audience interested, story-tellers tend to polarize the characters:
Hundreds of popular stories about the Three Kingdoms were not supported by the recorded history. Following are just a couple that I have time to write:
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