Cao Cao's youngest son, Cao Zhi, was exceptionally gifted. By age ten, he had already mastered the *Book of Songs*, the *Analects*, and various literary works, and he excelled at writing. When Cao Cao read his essays, he asked, "Did you have someone ghostwrite these?" Cao Zhi immediately knelt and replied, "I can form arguments as I speak and compose essays as I write. You can test me on the spot—how could I possibly have someone ghostwrite for me?" Just then, the Bronze Sparrow Tower in Ye County was completed. Cao Cao took his sons to the top and ordered each to compose a rhapsody. Cao Zhi picked up his brush and finished in one go, producing an excellent piece. From then on, Cao Cao regarded him with newfound respect, while Cao Pi harbored a seed of jealousy in his heart.
Cao Zhi was naturally frank and easygoing, careless with his chariots and attire, never seeking extravagance. Whenever he met his father, King Cao Cao, he answered every question with such fluency that he won his father's deep favor. With court officials Ding Yi, Ding Yi, and Yang Xiu all backing him, Cao Cao several times considered making Cao Zhi his heir. But Cao Zhi was willful, never hiding his feelings, and drank without restraint. In contrast, Cao Cao's eldest son, Cao Pi, was meticulously cautious, deliberately concealing his true nature, winning over everyone in the palace to speak for him. In the end, Cao Cao chose Cao Pi as the crown prince.
Years later, when Cao Ren was besieged by Guan Yu, Cao Cao appointed his son Cao Zhi as General of the Southern Center and Acting General of Conquest, planning to send him to rescue Cao Ren. He specially summoned Cao Zhi to give him instructions. However, Cao Pi, aware of this, secretly arranged a banquet beforehand, repeatedly urging Cao Zhi to drink. Cao Zhi, unsuspecting, was plied until dead drunk. When the imperial summons arrived, he was unable to respond. Cao Cao, concluding that his son lacked self-control, regretted the appointment and promptly dismissed him.
After Emperor Wen of Wei, Cao Pi, took the throne, he harbored a grudge against Ding Yi and Ding Yi for opposing his appointment as crown prince, so he ordered the execution of every male in both their families. Suspicious by nature and fearing his brothers might rebel, Cao Pi forced them all to leave the capital for their respective fiefs, and he specially appointed officials to monitor the princes, scrutinizing their every word and action, issuing warnings or restrictions as needed, and reporting everything back to the emperor.
A year later, Cao Pi instructed the imperial inspector Guan Jun to find fault with Cao Zhi, so Guan Jun reported, "Cao Zhi, drunk and insolent, threatened the emperor's envoy. I request he be punished according to law." Cao Pi wanted to use this to sentence Cao Zhi to death, but due to their mother's influence, he only demoted him to the Marquis of Anxiang, feigning leniency by saying, "Cao Zhi is my full brother—I can tolerate anyone in the world, let alone him. As flesh and blood, how could I disregard family bonds? Thus, I spared his life and merely changed his title."
For over a decade, Cao Zhi repeatedly petitioned to serve his country, but his requests were always denied, leaving him no outlet for his talents. He grew increasingly despondent, his spirits sinking into illness, and he died at just 41, leaving behind a vast legacy of poems, rhapsodies, and essays that continue to inspire.
Later, the idiom "All-Embracing" came to describe the capacity to accommodate everything.
Source: *Records of the Three Kingdoms*, Biography of Cao Zhi
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "无所不容" came to describe the capacity to accommodate everything.