Words about Marry and Love (14-4)

Now let’s have a look who is the woman that曹植 (2) talking about. It was his sister-in-law甄 (3) (183Jan26－221Aug 4).

When she was fourteen years old, it was the end of Han Dynasty. China was controlled by many warlords. Year after year’s chaos, people lived in famine. The甄 (3)’s family had plenty of cereals, her parents took the opportunity to make money with it. But甄 (3) said to them, “It is a chaos world now, if we have too much money, it may cause trouble and if it attracted robber, we may lose life for the money. So the best way to treat this cereal is give them to the poor for free.”  Her parents agreed with her.

Later, she married with the son of 曹操 (4)’s enemy named 袁绍 in 204 AD. When袁绍 was beaten by曹操 (4), 曹丕 (1) went in the mansion of 袁绍. He found a woman unkempt there, he came up and found she had in fact a good looking girl and that was甄 (3). 曹丕 (1) fell in love with her immediately. Soon曹丕 (1) and甄 (3) get married. And甄 (3) born a son and a daughter for曹丕 (1).

In the formal history book, it said, 216AD, when 曹操 (4) went to front line, he brought his wife Miss 卞 (6), his son曹丕 (1) and his grandson 曹睿 (7) and even his granddaughter with him, only no甄 (3) (she pretend ill and stay home). 曹植 (2) was assigned for the security of the family’s base area. Catching at this opportunity, the甄 (3) and 曹植 (2) fell in love with each other. The proof was when the family came back from the front line, people found甄 (3) looked great. When Miss 卞 (6) asked her daughter-in-law, ‘Why you are so happy and seemed never worry about your two children?’ The甄 (3) answered, ‘I am sure, you can take care of them very well, why I shall worry?’ This words made her mother-in-law very happy.

For two thousand years, all the historian told this as a romantic affair between曹植 (2) and甄 (3). And they thought曹丕 (1) was a jealous and narrow mind brother. But no one asked a question; why such a brother allowed his wife had an affair with his brother? And why曹丕 (1) gave his brother the pillow of甄 (3) as present and it caused曹植 (2) wrote this poem?