Sima Yi deliberately did not let his descendants visit his grave because of the painful lessons

Sima Yi is well known as Zhuge Liang's rival. During the Three Kingdoms period, Sima Yi worked for the Cao Wei dynasty, so he often had competitions and wits with Zhuge Liang of the Shu Han dynasty.

As a wise and multi-scheming person, good at planning battles and deep in thought, Sima Yi gradually laid a solid foundation for his descendants to overthrow the Cao Wei Dynasty and later establish the Jin Dynasty.

Not only that, Sima Yi was a far-sighted person and carefully prepared for his future life. According to history books, in 251, he died after a period of illness. When he was close to death, Sima Yi called his children and grandchildren to tell him the story. He carefully advised not to build a grave or plant trees around his resting place.

Next, Sima Yi asked his descendants not to bury valuables nor let others bury them with him. Accordingly, he wanted a simple burial instead of burial in a "huge" grave

Sima Yi did not let his children and grandchildren visit the grave?

According to experts, it turns out that Sima Yi deliberately told his children and grandchildren not to come clean his grave because of the bloody lessons of the past.

Sima Yi's strange arrangement before his death is said to be related to "the transformation of Cao Binh's mausoleum". This coup was also a major turning point in Sima Yi's life.

Specifically, in 249, Wei Emperor Cao Fang along with Cao Shuang, the right official of the Wei Dynasty, went to Cao Binh mausoleum to worship Emperor Ming's tomb. At that time, Sima Yi took this opportunity to launch a coup, seized military power in the capital Luoyang, and forced Cao Shuang to surrender.

Cao Sang thought that if he surrendered, he could still enjoy a life of honor and wealth. Unfortunately, Cao Sang was wrong. Because Sima Yi went back on his word and ordered the execution of Cao Shuang's faction and relatives for treason. The transformation of Cao Binh's mausoleum was a turning point for the Sima family to officially take over all power of Cao Wei, making the Cao emperor only in name.

Unexpected cause

The reason why the coup against Cao Binh's mausoleum was successful was because it was swept away and attacked from behind. Because he is an insider and has experienced it, Sima Yi is worried that others will be able to follow suit.

At that time, when Sima Yi's descendants were repairing and cleaning his tomb, the traitors also staged a coup. That's why, before his death, Sima Yi did not allow his descendants to worship or repair his tomb, also implicitly preventing a possible tragedy.

In psychology, there is a phenomenon called "projection effect", which means that how you treat others, you will also worry that others will treat you the same way. Before his death, this was exactly Sima Yi's mentality.


Nearly 2,000 years after the incident, Cao Binh and Sima Yi's mausoleum also passed away. Many experts have tried to find out why Sima Yi did not let his descendants go to the grave and clean the tomb. Even the whereabouts of Sima Yi's tomb is still a great mystery to posterity. But with the above speculations, it is likely that Sima Yi left such a statement to protect future descendants.

All his life he carefully calculated and hid his ambition to dominate the world. Unexpectedly, right before his death, Sima Yi still had a deep plan. Furthermore, this hidden strategy has become a problem that has challenged posterity for thousands of years. Sima Yi is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding figures in the history of the Three Kingdoms.