Cáo Cāo jí 曹操集
Collected Works of Cao Cao (Reconstructed) by 曹操 (撰)
About the work
A reconstructed collection (jíyìběn 輯佚本) of the prose and poetry of Cáo Cāo 曹操 (155–220 CE), the warlord who effectively ended the Eastern Hàn dynasty and established the state of Cáo Wèi 曹魏. The present four-juǎn arrangement is compiled from fragments preserved in encyclopaedic compilations such as the Yǔlǎn 御覽, Lèi jù 類聚, and Chūxué jì 初學記, the Sòngshū Yuèzhì 宋書樂志, and the Yuèfǔ shījí 樂府詩集, as well as annotations in the Wénxuǎn 文選. The surviving corpus is dominated by Cáo Cāo’s yuèfǔ 樂府 compositions — notably the four-yán songs 〈度關山〉, 〈對酒〉, 〈短歌行〉, 〈龜雖壽〉, and others — together with administrative memorials and sacrificial texts.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source. This text is an extra-catalog reconstruction not included in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書.
Abstract
Cáo Cāo 曹操 (155–220; zì Mèngdé 孟德, childhood name Āmǎn 阿瞞; posthumous temple name Wèi Wǔdì 魏武帝) was simultaneously the pre-eminent warlord of the late Hàn 漢 and one of the most admired poets and prose writers in the Chinese tradition. Despite his enormous literary output — Cáo Pī 曹丕’s preface to the Diǎnlùn 典論 records that his father composed constantly even on campaign — almost nothing survives in independent transmission. The Suíshū Jīngjízhì 隋書經籍志 lists a Wèi Wǔ Dì jí 魏武帝集 in thirty juǎn plus a lù 錄, compiled around the time of the Liú Sòng 劉宋 by Cáo Cāo’s own court circle; this collection had already been lost by the early Táng 唐, and fragments survive only as citations in later encyclopaedias and commentary.
The received yuèfǔ poems — including the celebrated 〈短歌行〉 (“Duǎn gē xíng”, “Short Song”), 〈龜雖壽〉, 〈觀滄海〉, and the gǔcí 鼓吹 ceremonial pieces — show Cáo Cāo adapting yàfǔ music conventions to express personal reflection on time, mortality, and the hope of recruiting talent. The Sòngshū Yuèzhì attributes to him the revision of the court music of the Hàn, and several sāng 喪 (funerary) melodies. In the Wénxīn diāolóng 文心雕龍, Liú Xié 劉勰 praises his “ancient directness” (gǔzhí 古直); Shīpǐn 詩品 compiler Zhōng Róng 鍾嶸 (ca. 468–518) placed him in the lower (xià 下) tier but acknowledged his power. Zhāng Pǔ 張溥 (1602–1641) compiled a Cáo Wǔ Dì jí as part of his Hàn Wèi Liùcháo bǎisān jiā jí 漢魏六朝百三家集.
The present reconstruction in the Kanripo corpus is a later jíyìběn drawing on the same sources as Zhāng Pǔ’s edition; it presents the surviving fragments in four juǎn organized by genre, with each citation marked by a ○ symbol and a source reference.
Translations and research
- Knechtges, David R., and Taiping Chang, eds. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide. 4 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2010–2014. Includes an entry on Cáo Cāo.
- Egan, Ronald C. “The Prose Style of Fan Chung-yen.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 39 (1979). (For background on the Jiàn’ān era prose tradition.)
- Mather, Richard B., tr. Shih-shuo Hsin-yü: A New Account of Tales of the World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1976. (Preserves anecdotes about Cáo Cāo.)
Links
- Wikipedia: Cao Cao