Cai Pi was the son of the great general and warlord Cao Cao of the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220). Cao Pi succeeded his father as king of Wei upon the latter’s death in 220. At the same time, Cao Pi formally proclaimed the end of the Han and the inauguration of the Wei dynasty, of which he was the first emperor. He retired the last Han emperor with great honours and married the emperor’s two daughters. He then undertook administrative reforms in his domains. Cao Pi’s Wei dynasty never controlled more than the northern part of China and lasted less than 50 years.
Cao Pi's collection of essays ‘Discussing the Norms for Literature’ (Dianlun), established him as a major figure in the history of Chinese literature. He discussed the function of literature, the relationship between the author’s character and his style and basic features of the genres. The most important chapter being ‘A Discourse on Literature’ (Lunwen), in which he explained why men of letters always disdain each other since old times.
Since ancient times, men of letters disdain each other. For example, Ban Gu (d. 92 AD) is more or less on par with Fu Yi in capability and knowledge, but he scorned the latter concerning his literary works. In a letter to his brother Ban Zhao, Ban Gu wrote: ‘Fu Yi (Wuzhong) is just able to compose some small essays, and that was enough to become director of the imperial Lantai 'Orchid Terrace' library, but he does not know when to lay down his writing brush.’
Often people only look at their own strengths without considering that a writer's ability is not exhausted in one literary style. Very few writers are able to master all different literary styles, and that is the reason why most people measure other writers' weaknesses with their own strengths.
A proverb says, ‘In your own house, even a broken broom is worth a thousand golden coins.’ This is just the fault of not looking at oneself from another standpoint.
Usually, people esteem things from far away, not the things accustomed to them, and they trust what is said without asking if it is really true. Further, most people make worries about something invisible to them and think they to be better than others.
The frame for writing has a common character, while the content of a text is unique. Memoranda and petitions (zou yi) should be elegant, letters and treatises (shu lun) should be logical and ordered, inscriptions and elegies (ming lei) should report the truth, and poems and rhapsodies (shi fu) require beauty. These four types are different to each other, and people that are expert in one of them cannot be expert in another. Only persons with universal abilities are able to master all of them.
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曹丕为汉将军与军阀曹操之子。曹操于220年死后，曹丕承继其父之魏王位。曹丕正式宣布汉朝之终止，成立魏朝，为其开朝皇帝。他体面地让汉皇退位并娶她的两个女儿。他接着在他的领土内实行行政改革。曹丕的魏朝一直只有统治北方，统治少过50年。
曹丕所写文集《典论》使他成为中国文学史里一个重要人物。他讨论文学的功能，作者个性与他的风格的关系，与艺术类型的特征。其中《论文》是最重要的一章，谈到为何自古以来文人相轻。
文人相轻，自古而然。傅毅之于班固，伯仲之间耳，而固小之，与弟超书曰：“武仲以能属文，为兰台令史，下笔不能自休。”
夫人善于自见，而文非一体，鲜能备善，是以各以所长，相轻所短。
理话曰：“家有弊帚，享之千金。”斯不自见之患也。
常人贵远贱近，向声背实，又患闇於自见，谓己为贤。
夫文，本同而末异。盖奏议宜雅，书论宜理，铭诔尚实，诗赋欲丽。此四科不同，故能之者偏也；惟通才能备其体。
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