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Cao Can
Han founding general and chief minister from Pei who governed Qi by Daoist quietism and, succeeding Xiao He in 193 BCE, changed none of his predecessor's rules
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
Cao Can, courtesy name Jingbo, was a prison official in Pei county under the Qin and a colleague of Xiao He. He joined Liu Bang's rising in 209 BCE and fought across the country, taking, the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says, seventy wounds. In the war with Chu he served as acting chancellor of the left under Han Xin in the conquest of Wei, Zhao and Qi, and after the Han founding became chief minister to Liu Fei, king of Qi, and Marquis of Pingyang. For nine years in Qi he followed the advice of Master Gai of Jiaoxi and governed by Huang-Lao quietism. When Xiao He died in 193 he became chancellor of the empire, kept every regulation Xiao had laid down and spent his days drinking; challenged by Emperor Hui, he answered that neither of them could match the founder and Xiao He. He died in 190, and the people sang that Xiao had made the laws and Cao had kept them.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–190 BCE