At the end of his life, why did Sima Yi “secretly” instruct his descendants not to dig his grave?

Sima Yi was one of the most famous military advisors of the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. The views about Sima Yi of later people have many contradictions.

But it cannot be denied that Italy is a person who knows how to hide himself and wait for his time, patiently waiting until the Cao Wei dynasty has gone through 3 emperors to plot a betrayal. Sima Yi single-handedly cleared the way for his son Sima Zhao to overthrow the Cao Wei and establish the Western Jin Dynasty.

The biggest enemy in life

In his turbulent life, Sima Yi met many enemies, but there were 5 people he always feared the most, according to Kan China. Zhuge Liang only ranked third, so who are the other 4?

Truong Cap: Sima Yi is considered a talented person on the same level as Zhuge Liang, must be aware of the risks. But Italy still ordered, forcing Truong Cap to leave the army. During the pursuit in 231, Zhang He fell into Zhuge Liang’s ambush trap and died.

Cao Chan: In 226, when he was about to die, Cao Phi handed over his son Cao Due to the public officials including Sima Y, Cao Chan and Tran Quan. At that time, Cao Chan was majestic and powerful, but he held military power, Sima Yi could not be compared.

Zhuge Liang: Zhuge Liang is considered the rival of Sima Yi. During the period when Zhuge Liang launched the Northern Expedition campaign, Sima Yi was only in a defensive position.

Cao Phi: The second ranked person mentioned by the Chinese website is Cao Phi, who inherits the legacy of his father Cao Cao and is the most similar to his father in the ability to “see people”. On the one hand, Cao Phi promoted and used Sima Yi, on the other hand, completely suppressed the Sima family.

Cao Cao: Under Cao Cao, Sima Yi was not even a military advisor, only holding an ordinary official position, in charge of internal affairs. It can be said that the period when Cao Cao was still alive were the most difficult days in Sima Yi’s career, because excessive dedication would be questioned about loyalty, which if not doing anything would lead to lost life.

Sima Yi doesn’t let his children go to the grave?

According to experts, it turns out that Sima Yi deliberately told his descendants not to come to clean his grave because of the bloody lesson in the past.

The strange arrangement of Sima Yi before his death is said to be related to the “transformation of Cao Binh”. This coup was also a major turning point in Sima Yi’s life.

Specifically, in 249, Wei Emperor Cao Phuong along with Cao Sang, the power god of the Wei Dynasty, went to Cao Binh’s mausoleum to pay respects to Emperor Minh’s grave. At that time, Sima Yi seized this opportunity to launch a coup, seize power in the capital Luoyang, and at the same time force Cao Shuang to surrender.

Cao Sang thought that if he surrendered, he could still enjoy a rich and prosperous life. Unfortunately, Cao Sang was wrong. Because Sima Yi broke his word and ordered the execution of Cao Sang’s faction and relatives for the crime of treason.

Cao Binh’s transformation was the turning point for the Sima clan to officially hold all of Cao Wei’s power, making the Cao emperor only in name.

Unexpected cause

The reason the coup against Cao Binh’s mausoleum could be successful was because of the grave digging and being beaten up from behind. Because she is an insider and experienced, Sima Yi is worried that others will be able to follow.

At that time, when Sima Yi’s descendants were repairing and cleaning his tomb, the traitors had also staged a coup. Therefore, before his death, Sima Yi did not allow his descendants to worship and repair his tomb, which is also implicitly preventing possible tragedy.

In psychology there is a phenomenon called “projective effect”, which means that when you treat others, you also worry about how others will treat you. Before his death, this was the mentality of Sima Yi.

Nearly 2,000 years after the transformation, Cao Binh and Sima Yi were also gone for the same amount of time. Many experts have tried to find out why Sima Yi does not allow her descendants to go to the grave and clean the tomb. Even, the whereabouts of Sima Yi’s tomb is still a great mystery for posterity. But with the above speculations, it is likely that Sima Yi passed away like this to protect future descendants.

All his life carefully calculated, concealed his ambition to dominate the world, unexpectedly right before his death, Sima Yi still had a deep scheme. Moreover, this hidden scheme has become a problem to challenge posterity for thousands of years. Sima Yi is indeed one of the most outstanding figures in the history of the Three Kingdoms.