Cao Ju (Prince of Pengcheng)
3rd century prince of the state of Cao Wei
Cao Ju (fl.211 – early 260s) was an imperial prince of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period of China.
Life
Cao Ju was a son of Cao Cao, a warlord who rose to prominence towards the end of the Han dynasty and laid the foundation for the Cao Wei state. His mother was Lady Huan (環氏), a concubine of Cao Cao. He had two full brothers: Cao Chong (elder) and Cao Yu (younger). Cao Yu's son Cao Huan would become the last emperor of Cao Wei.
In 211, Cao Ju was enfeoffed as the "Marquis of Fanyang" (范陽侯) by Emperor Xian, the figurehead emperor of the Han dynasty under Cao Cao's control. In 217, his title was changed to "Marquis of Wan" (宛侯).
In 220, following Cao Cao's death in March, Cao Ju's half-brother Cao Pi usurped the throne from Emperor Xian during the winter of that year, ended the Han dynasty, and established the Cao Wei imperial state with himself as the new emperor. Cao Pi first enfeoffed Cao Ju as a duke in 221 and promoted him to a prince under the title "Prince of Zhangling" (章陵王) in 222. Later in 222, he changed Cao Ju's title to "Prince of Yiyang" (義陽王).
“Cao Ju (Prince of Pengcheng)” enters the record as 3rd century prince of the state of Cao Wei. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Prince, Pengcheng and century can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cao Ju (Prince of Pengcheng)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.