As the most powerful kingdom of the Three Kingdoms Period, Kingdom of Wei
was successively reined by six emperors including Cao
Cao who was proclaimed as Wei Dynasty Tai Tsu after his death.
Cao Cao paid close attention to the application of talented people and
economic development during his reign. In the beginning, he tried to recruit
as many talented people as possible and made many reformations to discard
the old political patterns of the Eastern
Han (25-220). As a result, the monopolization of eunuchs was swept
away and personages from different social status participated in
the Court of Wei.
In order to have a continuous supply of soldiers, a special system called
Shijia (family of warriors) System was founded by Cao Cao. Men in those
families had to join the army or to do the corvee labor from generation
to generation. In this way, the military force of Wei was guaranteed.
Economically, Cao Cao benefited a lot from the Tun Tian (farming done by
soldiers) System. Since the productivity of soldiers was greater,
the demand for combat food was well met in a short period of time. Besides,
Hu Tiao (Tax Modification) System was also carried out, which to some extent
added a burden to landlords while lightening the burden on farmers. Under
all these policies, the social order of Wei became extremely harmonious.
In addition, remarkable accomplishments were achieved in literature, philosophy
and technique. Numerous predominant poets emerged from the Kingdom
of Wei, including Cao Cao and his two sons Cao Pi and Cao Zhi as
well as the seven leading writers during the Jian An Period. The noted Yuefu
Poem-Peacock
Flies to Southeast was also written in the Jian An Period. Metaphysics
represented by He Yan and Wang Bi also came into being. In medicine,
the commonly known 'Miracle Doctor', Zhang Zhongjing wrote the
book Theory
of Exogenous Febrile Disease which established the foundation of traditional
Chinese medicine.
In the late Wei Dynasty, power struggles between the imperial clan of Cao
Cao and the military official Sima Yi appeared within the Court.
Finally, Sima Yi made contributions to the war and defeated Kingdom of Shu
in 263. Two years later, a new dynasty - Jin Dynasty (265-420) was founded
by the son of Sima Yi.