但是荀彧没有想到人是会变的，随着曹操的功劳越来越大，他的权力也越来越大；随着他的权力越来越大，他的野心也越来越大。到了他决心要封魏公、建魏国的时候，政治上极为敏感的荀彧马上意识到问题的严重性，他认为这个时候曹操和皇帝的关系将发生根本的变化，因为他一旦封了魏公，他就要建立一个独立公国，这个独立公国和大汉王朝的关系将是国与国的关系，它不是中央和地方的关系了，它是国与国的关系了，曹操跟皇帝是公爵与皇帝的关系。当然这里头还有一点微妙的地方，就是这个时候大汉王朝是宗主国，这个魏公国是这个宗主国册封的邦国，但是和郡县与中央的关系大不一样了。这个搞来搞去搞得不好它就会发生变化，因为这个时候大汉王朝是个空架子，什么都没有，曹操举手之劳就能把大汉王朝灭了，所以荀彧是不能接受的。
However, Xunyu did not expect that people would change. As Cao Cao’s contributions increased, his power also increased; As his power grew, so did his ambition. When he was determined to establish the Duke of Wei and the State of Wei, the politically sensitive Xun Yu immediately realized the seriousness of the problem. He believed that the relationship between Cao Cao and the emperor would undergo fundamental changes at this time, because once he established the Duke of Wei, he would establish an independent principality. The relationship between this independent principality and the Han Dynasty would be a state to state relationship, not a central and local relationship, but a state to state relationship, Cao Cao and the emperor are dukes and emperors. Of course, there is also a subtle point here. It is at this time that the Han Dynasty was the suzerain state, and the Duke of Wei was the state conferred by the suzerain state, but the relationship between the counties and the central government is greatly different. “If this is not done well, it will change. At this time, the Han Dynasty was empty and had nothing, and Cao Cao could wipe out the Han Dynasty with a single move, so Xun Yu could not accept it.”.
在这样一种不能接受的情况下，他就面临着自己命运和道路的选择，怎么办？但是无可选择。他怎么呢？他现在发现曹操不是他能寄予厚望的人了，谁是？刘备是？就算刘备是，他能投奔刘备吗？他这个时候还能投奔刘备吗？不能。那么跟着曹操继续干，越帮助曹操，就是越走向自己愿望的对立面，他越帮助曹操就是越跟自己做对。他现在是不能帮曹操也不能不帮曹操，既不能背叛曹操又不能不背叛曹操，所以我称之为进退失据，而且只有死路一条。何况我们可以想象到荀彧这个时候的内心是非常的痛苦，因为对于像他这样一个有理想的人来说，世界上没有比理想的破灭更让他痛苦的事情了，所以不管他是忧郁而死，还是服毒自杀，他死前一定是非常的痛苦。甚至我怀疑，就是他自己要自杀的。很可能曹操是送来了这个空的食盒，因为曹操是喜欢做这种事情的，那完全有可能送一个盒子给荀彧，打开一看空的；但空的不等于说你死，也可以理解为别说话，闭上你的嘴巴，只要你不说话，饭还是有吃的。你可以做多种解释，但是如果荀彧拿到这个食盒他马上是选择死，他就要用自己的死来告诉曹操：我绝不能赞成你这做下去！就是表明这样一个态度。
In such an unacceptable situation, he is faced with the choice of his own fate and path. What should he do? But there is no alternative. What happened to him? He now finds that Cao Cao is not the person he can place high hopes on. Who is he? Is Liu Bei? Even if Liu Bei is, can he defecte to Liu Bei? Can he still join Liu Bei at this time? No. “Then follow Cao Cao and continue to work. The more he helps Cao Cao, the more he moves towards the opposite of his wishes. The more he helps Cao Cao, the more he becomes right to himself.”. “He can’t help or not help Cao Cao now, he can’t betray or not betray Cao Cao, so I call it a lost cause, and there is only a dead end.”. Moreover, we can imagine that Xun Yu’s heart was very painful at this time, because for a person with an ideal like him, there is nothing in the world that makes him more painful than the collapse of his ideal. Therefore, whether he died of depression or took poison to commit suicide, he must have been very painful before he died. Even I suspect that he was the one who committed suicide himself. It is likely that Cao Cao sent this empty food box, because Cao Cao likes to do such things. It is entirely possible to send a box to Xun Yu and open it to see if it is empty; “But being empty doesn’t mean saying you’re dead, it can also be understood as saying don’t talk, close your mouth, as long as you don’t talk, there’s still food to eat.”. You can explain it in various ways, but if Xun Yu gets this food box and immediately chooses to die, he will use his own death to tell Cao Cao: “I can’t agree with you doing this!”! Is to show such an attitude.
所以我觉得曹操终其一生最后没有称皇帝可能还有一个原因，就是他忘不掉荀彧那一双忧郁的眼睛。荀彧的在天之灵在看着他呢，这就是道德的力量、正义的力量。所以我觉得荀彧如果是我们当代人的话，他临死之前也许会对曹操唱一首歌：“千万里我追寻着你，可是你却并不在意。”他确确实实是千万里在追寻着曹操，他二十多岁就来到曹操身边，一直干到五十岁，二十多年跟着曹操出生入死，走过了坎坷曲折的道路，但是到了最后两个人翻脸的时候，那个心也是够狠的。但是荀彧没有办法，他没有别的选择，他也找不到自己的同志，因为在朝廷内部和朝廷外面，主张维护汉室的人都是反曹操的；拥戴曹操的人又差不多都是赞成曹操去封魏公、建魏国，甚至后来主张他当皇帝的；属于曹操阵营和曹操关系非常好，又反对曹操这样做的就他一个，所以他下面的那个歌应该也是很正常的：“我今生看来注定要独行，热情早已被你耗尽”，虽然在梦里，曹操曾经是他的唯一。而此刻荀彧却只能一遍一遍地问自己：“你到底好在哪里？好在哪里？”他只能一遍遍地问，你到底好在哪里？我为什么要追随你？
So I think there may be another reason why Cao Cao didn’t call himself emperor at the end of his life, which is that he couldn’t forget the melancholy eyes of Xun Yu. Xun Yu’s spirit in heaven is watching him. This is the power of morality and justice. So I think if Xun Yu were a contemporary of ours, he might sing a song to Cao Cao before he died: “I’ve been chasing you for thousands of miles, but you don’t care.” He was indeed chasing Cao Cao for thousands of miles. He came to Cao Cao in his twenties and worked until he was fifty years old. He followed Cao Cao through life and death for more than twenty years, going through a bumpy and tortuous path, but by the time the last two turned their faces, That heart is cruel enough. However, Xun Yu had no choice, he had no other choice, and he could not find his comrades, because within and outside the imperial court, those who advocated the maintenance of the Han family were anti Cao Cao; The supporters of Cao Cao were almost all in favor of Cao Cao’s efforts to seal the Duke of Wei, establish the State of Wei, and even later advocated that he should become an emperor; “I belong to the Cao Cao camp and have a very good relationship with him, but he is the only one who opposes him doing so. Therefore, his following song should also be very normal:” I am destined to walk alone in this life, and your enthusiasm has already been exhausted by you. “Although in my dream, Cao Cao was once his only one. At this moment, Xunyu could only ask himself over and over again, “Where are you really good? Where are you?” He could only ask over and over again, ‘Where are you really good?’? Why should I follow you?
荀彧当然没有问，荀彧问了曹操也不会回答，因为曹操和荀彧一样，也是进退两难，而且曹操比荀彧更难。为什么？因为荀彧是一个人，当他的理想破灭以后他可以选择比方说自杀，他甚至也可以选择归隐，他可以退出这个政治斗争。而曹操这个时候已经代表着一个庞大的利益集团，就算他曹操本人想退，其他人也不会答应他退，所以曹操同样是没有退路的。更何况曹操此刻已经走火入魔，鬼迷心窍，把自己的灵魂卖给了魔鬼，这个魔鬼是什么呢？就是不受限制、不受监督、不受制约的最高权力，为了获得和保有这个最高权力，曹操只能硬着头皮在血染的道路上一条道走到黑。所以荀彧选择了死，曹操选择了杀，他还要继续杀人，包括杀他的亲朋好友，一直杀到血流成河。那么曹操他还要杀谁呢？他又是怎么杀的呢？请看下集——借刀杀人。
Of course, Xunyu didn’t ask, and if Xunyu asked Cao Cao, he wouldn’t answer because Cao Cao, like Xunyu, was in a dilemma, and Cao Cao was even more difficult than Xunyu. Why? Because Xun Yu is a person, when his ideals are shattered, he can choose to commit suicide, for example, or even choose to go into seclusion. He can withdraw from this political struggle. “At this time, Cao Cao already represents a huge interest group. Even if he wants to quit, others won’t allow him to, so Cao Cao also has no way out.”. What’s more, Cao Cao is now possessed by the devil and has sold his soul to the devil. What is this devil? It is the supreme power that is unrestricted, unsupervised, and unconstrained. In order to obtain and maintain this supreme power, Cao Cao can only go black through the bloody road. So Xunyu chose to die, and Cao Cao chose to kill. He would continue to kill, including his relatives and friends, until the blood flowed into a river. So who else does Cao Cao want to kill? How did he kill it? Please watch the next episode – Murder with a knife.
