In Chinese vernacular novels, the praise "talent comparable to Zijian" often appears. This Zijian is Cao Zhi, son of Cao Cao, with Zijian being his courtesy name.
Cao Zhi was extremely talented. By his early teens, he could recite the *Book of Songs*, the *Analects*, and hundreds of thousands of words of prose and poetry, and he excelled at writing. When Cao Cao saw his essays, he suspected someone else had written them. Cao Zhi said, "My words become arguments; my pen produces chapters. Why would I need a ghostwriter? Please test me in person."
After the Bronze Sparrow Platform was completed, Cao Cao led all his sons to ascend it and ordered them to compose poems. Cao Zhi picked up his brush and immediately wrote one, which was quite impressive, astonishing Cao Cao. Whenever someone deliberately questioned him, trying to stump him, Cao Zhi responded without hesitation. Cao Cao was especially fond of this son and repeatedly considered making him the crown prince.
However, Cao Zhi was willful and drank without restraint, which was his fatal weakness. His elder brother Cao Pi, on the other hand, was shrewd and adept at political maneuvering, "feigning virtue to curry favor," so that everyone around Cao Cao spoke well of him. He regarded Cao Zhi as his primary rival for the position of crown prince and schemed relentlessly to frame him.
When the general Cao Ren was besieged by Guan Yu, Cao Cao ordered his son Cao Zhi to serve as General of the Southern Center and rescue Cao Ren. However, Cao Pi deliberately got Cao Zhi so drunk that he could not accept the command. Furious, Cao Cao's favor toward Cao Zhi waned. In the twenty-second year of the Jian'an era, Cao Cao finally appointed Cao Pi as his heir. Later, the phrase "feigning virtue to mask true feelings" came to describe someone who conceals their genuine emotions and deliberately puts on a good front.
Source: *Records of the Three Kingdoms*, "Biography of Prince Chen Si Zhi"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "矫情自饰" came to describe how someone conceals their genuine emotions and deliberately puts on a good front.