What kind of person is Sima Yi? We can say for sure that Sima Yi is a very capable person. He has both ability and endurance, and his endurance is even more unusual. He can even wait and be good at waiting in front of the younger generation and the vulnerable rats like Cao Shuang. He tolerates humiliation, pretends to be crazy, and asks me to do anything, but in the end I want to achieve my goal. Or that sentence: who laughs last, who laughs best. I’m not in a hurry to laugh, but I want to laugh last. It must be me who laughs last. This is Sima Yi.
After removing Cao Shuang, Sima Yi could do whatever he wanted. Cao Fang, the Lord of Wei, appointed Sima Yi as prime minister, adding nine tin, which was equivalent to Cao Cao’s position in the Han Dynasty when he offered the emperor, and made Sima Yi and his son lead the state affairs together.
At this time, Sima Yi reached the peak of his career. After two years, he died of old age. Sima Yi’s death is written simply in the novel. On his deathbed, he said to his two sons, “everyone thinks I have different aspirations. How dare I? After my death, you two will do good to your master. Don’t be angry with him. You’ll be very unfilial.” (Volume 22 battle between Xu Tang and Wu Wei) he charged his son: after my death, you must not betray, do not usurp power, and must defend your position.
Sima Shi and Sima Zhao lived up to his orders, kept their promises and did not usurp power in the end. Although it is said that “everyone knows Sima Zhao’s mind”, he did not usurp power after all. However, when simayan, the grandson of Sima Yi, arrived, he could not care so much. After all, he forced Cao Huan, the emperor of Wei and yuan, to ascend the throne and establish the Jin Dynasty.
To put it bluntly, the Jin Dynasty was able to win the world, the last three parts of the world were unified, and the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu fought for a long time, so that the Jin Dynasty finally won the world. Isn’t it all due to Sima Yi?
On the whole, Sima Yi was indeed a man with evil intentions and good at concealment. “Emperor Xuandi Ji”, Volume I of the book of Jin, praised him: “we are in the same world with each other, we are relaxed with the times, we hide our wings, and we think about the situation.” In the most dangerous political game of succession in China, he has always been able to handle with ease. In the state of Wei, he served four masters and three dynasties. Although he was left out in the cold for several times and was deprived of military power for several times, he has always been able to avert danger in the political storm, “salted fish turned over”, and finally occupied a high position and the peak of power. It should be said that Sima Yi was the most outstanding politician at the end of the Three Kingdoms period.
Later generations often compare Sima Yi with Cao Cao when evaluating Sima Yi. They think Sima Yi is very similar to Cao Cao, or Sima Yi and Cao Cao are the same kind of people. Some people even think that both Cao Cao and Sima Yi are shameless. A man and a man actually bully others’ orphans and widowed mothers by virtue of his power.
Sima Yi in the Wei Dynasty and Cao Cao in the Han Dynasty were almost the same in appearance. The position of ministers and the use of power were extremely high. But there are still great differences in their personalities. To put it simply, Cao Cao is more ruthless and Sima Yi is more yin.
In the romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao is a powerful man who is bold enough to do anything. He is not afraid of being told that he is good or bad. Anyway, I am who I am. I can do whatever I like. I can do whatever I want. No one can stop me and no one can stop me. He doesn’t care what other people think or think. He acts freely and freely. Cao Cao has such indomitable and courageous spirit, whether heroic or treacherous. Anyway, he has such spirit and can burn you like fire.
Sima Yi is different. If you use a metaphor, he is like water. Even if you are flooded, you won’t feel it at all. You can feel when you are burned, but you can feel when you are flooded, because water is feminine. Seeing the fire, no one dared to rush forward; If you see water, you may be in danger. When summer is hot, everyone wants to dive into the water. So although “fire and water are merciless”, water is more dangerous than fire, or the danger is more hidden.
Lao Tzu talks about the superiority of softness over hardness, saying: “the world is not weaker than the water, and the strong can not win, and it is not easy. The weak wins the strong, the soft wins the hard, and the world knows nothing about it and can not do it.” Like water, Sima Yi is good at overcoming hardness with softness. There is a profound truth in Chinese philosophy.
Sima Yi is ambitious, but he has ulterior motives. He is very good at hiding himself. You can’t guess him at all. He always wants to achieve a certain goal, but in order to achieve this goal, he can bear it again and again, wait and wait, and do not worry at all. You have no patience to wait, you can’t wait, and he can kill you with the last knife. This is Sima Yi. So no matter how Sima Yi was demoted, ignored, or defeated, he never worried, never feared, never feared. Because he knows he can wait, he can endure, he can wait until the end, he can endure until the end – of course, he can laugh until the end.
It can be said that Cao Cao basically belongs to a self expanding personality, while Sima Yi basically belongs to a self restrained personality. If Cao Cao is the kind of person who is very enthusiastic and publicized, Sima Yi is the kind of person who is very calm and steady. Because of his self expansion, Cao Cao has outstanding advantages and disadvantages in his character, so we can feel that he is a real and complete person, and we can understand him and see through him. Sima Yi seems to be consistent from inside to outside because of his introverted self. To us, he is more like a shadow, a concept. Although he can leave us a deep impression, he is difficult to see through and understand.
Cao Cao and Sima Yi both galloped on the political battlefield, but their galloping methods were totally different: one was to gallop on the political battlefield by constantly forging ahead, and the other was to gallop on the political battlefield by constantly retreating. However, Sima Yi was the biggest winner in the history of the Three Kingdoms. Because he was good at waiting and picking the fruits of victory when everything was ripe. This was true of Zhugeliang and the Wei regime. Instead, he got what he wanted.
Sima Yi was also a winner, even if he did not look at it from other points of view. I have made statistics. Cao Cao lived 66 years, Liu Bei 63 years, Sun Quan 72 years, Zhugeliang 54 years, while Sima Yi was 73 years old and lived longer than Sun Quan. Sun Quan was also a very tolerant and gentle man. There may really be some vague connection between a person’s character and his life span.
Therefore, Sima Yi is the most successful player in the political game of the Three Kingdoms. In the political game, his “waiting strategy” of “laughing to the end” is really remarkable. In the history of the Three Kingdoms, Sima Yi was the greatest winner who won the victory by patience, resourcefulness, tact and cruelty.
Although the winner was a winner, Sima Yi eventually fell into the trap of treacherous ministers in history. Sima Yi is really good in mind, but to maintain this good mind, his goal is to achieve a very bad political plot, so it is difficult to make people like him because he is too Yin. On the stage of later generations, Sima Yi did not escape the image of a white faced and treacherous minister. The evaluation of history and the people on him finally put him on the shame book.
Even later generations, when compiling the history books of the Jin Dynasty, made it very clear: “the ancients said, ‘if you accumulate good things for three years, few people will know it; if you do evil, you will hear it all over the world’. Is that not true? Although you have hidden away from that year, you will eventually see your descendants. You still steal the bell and cover your ears, and people will not hear it; if you are determined to steal gold, you will be invisible in the market.” (Jin Shu Volume I Xuandi Ji Zan) although Sima Yi had been concealing his mistakes and ambitions, he still could not escape the harsh judgment of history. It’s like that you cover your ears to steal the clock, thinking that no one can hear you. You rob the bank blindfolded, thinking that no one else can see you. Isn’t that self deception? Sima Yi’s ambition throughout his life could not be ignored by the common people and the old people of history.