Cao Mao — Duke of Gaogui
曹髦
“Rode out to attack his regent with the palace guard, and was killed in the street”
The one Wei emperor who refused to be managed. In 260, telling his officials that the Sima intention was obvious to every passer-by, he led what troops he had out of the palace against Sima Zhao and was cut down at the gate — an emperor publicly murdered by his own minister.
The killing was so hard to explain that the officer who did it was executed for it and the blame pushed downward, but nobody was fooled; the Sima family's seizure of Wei is dated from that afternoon.
No empress of his reign has been painted. The Wei empresses in the collection belong to the three reigns before his.
The empresses of this reign
No empress of this reign has been painted yet. The collection is still growing — see the rest of the Three Kingdoms.
About this page
Written for this site to place Cao Mao's reign around the paintings. For the full biography, the dynastic histories and the scholarship behind them, start at Wikipedia.