Text | Jiang Yinlong
"Xun's Eight Dragons", "Sima Bada", "Ma's Five Constants", and "Li's Three Dragons", although these four names have different reputations, they are also a combination of celebrities. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Confucianism was basically monopolized by the clan giants, so there were many celebrities and courtiers from the same door and few generals. However, less does not mean nothing, "Xiahou Sijie" is one of the best.
The famous Cao Wei general Xiahou Yuan had seven sons, of whom Xiahou Ba, Xiahou Wei, Xiahou Hui, Xiahou Hui, and xiahou were collectively known as the "Xiahou Sijie". Behind the "Xiahou Sijie" stands the Peiguo Xiahou clan, and the Xiahou clan represents the Cao Wei court's Pei clique. Both the Xiahou and Cao clans were Peiguo people. The "Biography of Cao Cao" directly proposes that Cao Cao's father Cao Song was the son of Xiahou, but the "Biography of Cao Cao" was originally written by Sun Wuren and had many slanders against Cao Cao, so it is doubtful whether Cao Cao really originated from the Xiahou clan. It is certain that the relationship between the Cao clan and the Xiahou clan is extraordinary, and the first batch of backbones that Cao Cao joined after the incident was the "Marquis Cao of Zhuxia", of which the Xiahou Huan and Xiahou Yuan brothers were particularly outstanding.
With "Marquis Cao of Zhuxia" as the core, Cao Cao formed the Yu Pei Group outside the Ruying Group. In addition to the Xiahou brothers, there were Cao Ren, Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen, Xiahou Shang, and Xu Chu and Shi Zhuo, many of whom were famous generals in the world--and the reason why "Xiahou Sijie" could become "Four Jies", in addition to the four of them themselves about the use of troops, naturally also based on the political power of the Chen Pei clique itself.
As a result, the two major forces of wen and wu under Cao Cao's account gradually formed, and Cao Cao obviously trusted the Yu Pei clique, which had in-laws and fellow villagers. Cao Cao implemented the Tun Tian system, and most of the military generals were in power; Cao Cao also issued the "Order on Raising the Virtuous and Not Restricting The Conduct of Conduct", recruiting talents not to take virtue and discipline as the key, which naturally triggered resistance and backlash from the Qingliu of the Shi clan. Cao Cao wanted to enter Jiuxi and call himself the Duke of Wei, and the Attitude of the Ruyin Clique, represented by Xun Yu, was diametrically opposed to that of the Yu Pei Clique represented by Xiahou. Xiahou was ashamed to be a Han courtier, and at one point "neglected Chen's improper courtesy of not being a subject"; while Xun Yu thought that Cao Cao was not suitable for entering Jiuxi on the grounds that "Cao Gong was a righteous soldier and Kuang Zhen Han Dynasty".
Xiahou Yu's shame and Xun Yu's persuasion naturally expressed more than just personal attitudes. Judging from the internal power strife within Cao Wei, the "Eight Dragons of the Xun Clan" and the "Four Jies of Xiahou" represent exactly the two forces that oppose or support Cao Cao's Han Dynasty, while "Sima Bada" is on the one hand a continuation of the "Eight Dragons of the Xun Clan" proposition, and on the other hand, it takes cao's place and replaces it, accidentally becoming a synthesis of the two.
Xiahou Ba, one of the "Four Masters of Xiahou", defected to Shu Han after Sima Yi launched the Gaopingling Rebellion and accompanied Jiang Wei on the Northern Expedition. At this time, Cao Wei Tianzi was nominally surnamed Cao, but the real power had gradually returned to sima shi. Whether it is the "Eight Dragons of the Xun Clan" or the "Four Jies of Xiahou", in the end, they are overshadowed by the strategizing of "Sima Bada". "Xiahou Sijie" is an outlier in the name of the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Although there are many noble sons in the famous gates, but most of them are courtiers rather than military generals, xiahou clan in the Three Kingdoms period of the generals so many talents, and indeed under the monopoly of the clan giants, composed a beautiful scenery.