Cao Fang

Also known as Weiqi Wang

Cao Fang, courtesy name Lanqing, was the adopted son of Emperor Ming, Cao Rui; a source quoted in Pei Songzhi's commentary makes him a son of Cao Kai, Prince of Rencheng. Early in 239 the dying emperor named him heir, and the boy of eight succeeded that day with Cao Shuang and Sima Yi as joint regents, adopting the reign title Zhengshi the next year. In 249, while he and Cao Shuang were at the Gaoping tomb, Sima Yi shut the gates of Luoyang and destroyed Cao Shuang's faction, and the reign title became Jiaping. In 254 a plot by Li Feng and Xiahou Xuan to replace Sima Shi was exposed, Empress Zhang was deposed, and that autumn Sima Shi, citing the empress dowager, reduced him to Prince of Qi. The Jin made him Duke of Shaoling, and he died in 274 aged forty-three with the posthumous name Li. The metaphysical talk of He Yan and Wang Bi in those years is remembered as the tone of Zhengshi.