During the Three Kingdoms period, including the Cao family, the Liu family, the Sun family, and the Sima family, all belonged to the imperial family, among which the Cao family was a new family that rose with the help of eunuch power; The Liu family, as the original royal family, began to decline; Sun Jian started in poverty, and the Sun family had grown big when Sun Ce; The Sima family belonged to one of the famous families in the late Han Dynasty, and became bigger with the rise of Sima Yi.

【Cao Family】

Now some people think that Cao Cao can be regarded as one of the representatives of the Hanmen, and even think that Cao Cao was also born in the Hanmen, which is actually a bit biased.

Cao Cao's father Cao Song is the adopted son of the eunuch Cao Teng, Cao Teng has served four emperors in history, and has also helped his relatives Liang Ji to support Liu Heng, the emperor of Han Huan, and later the eunuch's growth originated from Emperor Heng.

Before Cao Song was adopted by Cao Teng, the Cao family was indeed not a big family, and Cao Song's father basically had no record of serving as an official, which was also in line with the situation at the time, after all, if the Cao family was really a big family, Cao Song might not be adopted by the eunuchs.

The rise of the Cao family also originated from this adoption, Cao Teng's position among the eunuchs at that time was basically the number one, with his help, the Cao family jumped up, became one of the emerging clans, and entered the ranks of the nouveau riche, at that time Cao Ding, a member of the Cao family, successively served as Hejian Xiang, Wujun Taishou, Shang Shuling, Cao Baoguan to Yingchuan Taishou, Cao Chi successively served as Taizhong Doctor, Sima, Changshi, Shizhong, Changshui Captain, Cao Song himself served as Sili Captain, Dasi Nong, Da Honglu, and finally spent 10,000 gold to become an official to Taiwei.

When Cao Cao was young, his playmates were also young Yuan Shao and others, at that time Cao Cao's family had nothing to do with the word poverty, but was rich and expensive, his father Cao Song was very rich because he served as a big Si Nong (financial director), and in the years when Cao Cao grew up, it was also the time when the eunuch power was at its peak, because of the special connection with them, the Cao family was also quite beneficial.

However, the close connection between the Cao family and the eunuch forces is also a double-edged sword, with advantages and disadvantages. The eunuch forces gradually took power after hitting the general Liang Ji during the period of Emperor Heng, and after two party rebellions completely suppressed the scholars, they reached their peak during the period of Emperor Ling. But after the Yellow Turban Uprising, the power of the eunuchs began to decline, the party was lifted, He Jin served as a general, and the power of relatives began to rise again, the eunuchs' lives were not easy, and the life of the Cao family was also affected, Cao Cao's father Cao Song resigned from his official position in this turbulent situation, took refuge in Xuzhou with his family wealth, and left Luoyang.

After the rebellion of the Ten Standing Servants, Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, and the eunuch power was completely destroyed, and Cao Cao later divided one side, and was also looked down upon and even hostile by many scholars at that time because of the connection between the family and the eunuch power. Of course, in general, without the help of the eunuch forces, there would be no future Cao family.

Generally speaking, the Cao family of Peiguo County belongs to the emerging family that relied on the rise of eunuch power in the late Han Dynasty, Cao Cao's father Cao Song has been ranked as the third prince of the world, and Cao Cao took advantage of the chaos in the world, divided one side, and later coerced the Son of Heaven to make the princes almost unify the country, and finally formally established the Wei Dynasty during the period of his son Cao Pi, becoming one of the four imperial families in the Three Kingdoms period.

So Cao Cao's father Cao Song can be said to be from a poor background, and then he became rich because he was adopted by eunuchs.

[Cao Cao's meritocracy policy]

As can be seen from the above, Cao Cao was not born in a poor family, and another main reason why he was considered a representative of the poor family by later generations was that Cao Cao issued many orders to seek talents, advocating meritocracy and eclectic talents.

One of the very important reasons for Cao Cao's policy has been said before, and it has something to do with Cao Cao's background, because the enmity between the eunuch forces and the scholars was too deep, and the two party leaders were not talkative, so Cao Cao was also implicated, and many scholars just did not recognize Cao Cao, so Cao Cao could only promote talents, but this situation was improved after Cao Cao got the emperor and moved the capital to Xuchang.

In history, Cao Cao's meritocracy policy was not very successful, and the official positions in the late Han Dynasty could be roughly divided into civil officials and military officials, and in that era, they still belonged to the rich and poor military, because of the gap in productivity, ordinary people could not afford to read at all, and the families who could read were basically not ordinary people, so the civil officials that Cao Cao could elect were basically still in that small circle.

Compared with civilian officials, the conditions of military attachés are much lower, and in the era of war, the status of military attachés is also more important, so at that time, the Hanmen wanted to come out and join the army was a good choice, but this was actually unrealistic under Cao Cao, because of the influence of Cao Cao's kinship strategy, the big cake of the military attache was first divided between the Cao family and the Xiahou family, and the higher the military attaché, the more so, even the generals like Zhang Liao and Xu Huang were only four generals in the end.

Therefore, Cao Cao's meritocracy policy propaganda is more significant than practical, and it has an effect, but it is not obvious.

【Liu Family】

After the two Han Dynasty, because of the faintness and incompetence of the two emperors of Hengling time, the Eastern Han Dynasty also began to perish, as the old Liu family of the imperial family could only rely on the young and powerless Han Xian Emperor to guard the country, but Liu Xie never got rid of the fate of the puppet, and successively became the pawn of Dong Zhuo, Li Dao and Cao Cao and others, and finally was abolished by Cao Pi.

At the beginning of the late Han Dynasty, the most outstanding figure of the Liu family had no choice but Liu Yu, when Liu Yu as the pastor of Youzhou, easily put down the invasion of the external nomads in Youzhou and the internal turmoil, and served as the great Sima, even Yuan Shao, who was the leader of the alliance of the Dong Alliance, admired it, and wanted to recommend Liu Yu as the emperor and revitalize the Han dynasty, but unfortunately Liu Yu chose blind loyalty and put hope on a boy about ten years old.

In the late Han Dynasty, Liu Yu, Liu Dai, Liu Xuan, Liu Yan, Liu Biao and Liu Zhang and other clan princes have all withdrawn from the stage of history one by one, and finally only Liu Bei, the king of Hanzhong, remains. Although Liu Bei is also a clan, but after hundreds of years of time in the Han Dynasty, the number of clans has been very large, in addition to the identity of the general clan may be a little more valuable, in fact, there is no status, Liu Bei's grandfather Liu Xiong once served as the Fan Ling of Dongjun, but because his father Liu Hong died early, the family is in the middle, so Liu Bei's family is actually quite poor.

During the Yellow Turban Uprising, Liu Bei was awarded the title of county lieutenant of Anxi County for his meritorious efforts in suppression, but he was later dismissed by the superintendent, and Liu Bei's status at that time can be seen. After Liu Bei wandered several times, he chose to take refuge in his classmate Gongsun Zhan, and twisted under the influence of Tao Qian, Lu Bu, Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and Liu Biao, after Liu Biao's death, Cao Cao attacked, Liu Bei and Sun Quan repelled Cao Cao, only to re-divide one side, become one of the princes, and finally pacified Yizhou, conquered Hanzhong, Cao Pi Dynasty Han Dynasty, in Cheng (cheng) are called emperors, continuing the Han unification.

Therefore, although Liu Bei's family is a clan, and later took it as a great righteousness, but because of various factors, he was born relatively poor, and in a sense, Liu Bei is closer to the Han clan.