Cao Pi
Cao Pi takes the imperial title and establishes Wei
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The last Han emperor gave up the throne on 25 November. Cao Pi then made everyone wait through a round of ritual refusals before taking it.
Sixteen days of ceremony
Emperor Xian issued his abdication edict on 25 November 220. What followed was a sequence of petitions, debates and ritual refusals by Cao Pi.
At an accession ceremony on or about 11 December, Cao Pi received the abdication and became sovereign of the new imperial state of Wei.
Omens entered into the record
Memorials, omens and prophecies were presented to frame the transfer as Cao Pi's receipt of the Mandate of Heaven rather than an unceremonious seizure. One omen held that Han would be ended by "Xuchang" — the name of the city where the captive Han court resided.
Scholarship notes that the ritual language of voluntary abdication should not conceal the coercion: the last ruler in such transfers had no real choice.
The day did not create three kingdoms
The accession ended Emperor Xian's reign and the Eastern Han imperial government, and Liu Xie was enfeoffed as Duke of Shanyang.
Sun Quan still maintained formal allegiance to the new emperor for the moment, and Liu Bei did not claim the continuing Han imperial title until 221.
Even the ceremony's date is contested by a day: the Records of the Three States gives 10 December, while its annotations and the Zizhi Tongjian give 11 December.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources not yet audited Date disputed
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Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.
What the sources leave uncertain
- The Records of the Three States dates the accession ceremony to 10 December, while its annotations—quoting the Biography of Emperor Xian—and the Zizhi Tongjian give 11 December. Source: https://www.archontology.org/nations/china/cao_wei/00_220_266_s.php
- The 25 November date belongs to Emperor Xian's abdication edict; the completed transfer and Cao Pi's imperial accession are placed on 11 December by modern scholarly accounts. Source: https://threestatesrecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/an-introduction-to-three-kingdoms.pdf
- Calling this the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period is conventional, but periodization varies, and Liu Bei did not claim the continuing Han imperial title until 221. Source: https://threestatesrecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/an-introduction-to-three-kingdoms.pdf