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When Cao Cao escorted Emperor Xian of Han to Xuchang in 196 AD and established a new imperial court under his control, he achieved more than a military victory—he secured a decisive moral and political advantage. By acting in the name of the Son of Heaven, Cao Cao positioned himself as the defender of…
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In 195 AD, the warlords Li Jue and Guo Si, former subordinates of Dong Zhuo, turned on each other in a brutal power struggle that plunged Chang’an into chaos. Amid the violence, Emperor Xian of Han, the young and powerless figurehead of the crumbling Han dynasty, became a pawn in their conflict.
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The famous episode of Tao Qian’s Three Cessions of Xuzhou is not a historical fact, but a fictional narrative created in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In this dramatized account, the aging governor Tao Qian, offers the governorship of Xu Province (Xuzhou) to Liu Bei repeatedly, who in turn humbly…
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In 188 AD, Liu Yan, a member of the Han imperial clan and former Governor of Nanyang, was appointed Inspector of Yizhou (modern Sichuan and Chongqing). Upon his arrival, he implemented a policy of leniency and benevolence, offering refuge and stability to a population ravaged by war elsewhere.
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In 193 AD, though the main wave of the Yellow Turban Rebellion had been suppressed, scattered remnants continued to wreak havoc across the Han Empire. Kong Rong, serving as the Chancellor of Beihai Commandery (in modern-day Shandong), found himself at the center of a dire crisis.
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As tensions between Li Jue and Guo Si escalated, their covert rivalry erupted into open warfare. In March 195 AD, the conflict reached a critical point: Li Jue seized Emperor Xian of Han as a hostage, while Guo Si retaliated by detaining the imperial ministers.
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Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as a historical novel, blends historical events with literary imagination and fictions. Authored by Luo Guanzhong, it dramatizes figures like Liu Bei as the paragon of benevolence, Guan Yu as the embodiment of loyalty, and Zhang Fei as the epitome of bravery.