曹窋 / Cao Ku (Western Han)

Overview

曹窋 / Cao Ku is presented as a Western Han official who overhears the warning delivered to 吕产 and carries it to 陈平 and 周勃, then helps close palace access against Lü Chan.

Current Profile

Hanji 206 part 2 calls Cao Ku the Pingyang marquis and imperial counselor. While meeting Lü Chan, he hears 贾寿 report that Guan Ying, Qi, and Chu have aligned against the Lü family. Cao Ku immediately informs Chen Ping and Zhou Bo, giving their side the urgency to seize the Northern Army. He later carries Zhou Bo’s direction to the palace security official so Lü Chan cannot enter the inner gate.

Key Characteristics

• Court official positioned close enough to Lü Chan to hear an urgent strategic warning.
• Intelligence relay who transfers that warning to Chen Ping and Zhou Bo.
• Access-control intermediary who helps turn coalition planning into a closed palace gate.

Evidence

Intelligence and gate-control roles:

• Hanji 206 part 2 supplies Cao Ku’s meeting with Lü Chan, overhearing of Jia Shou, report to the anti-Lü ministers, and later palace instruction.

Qualifications

This one-source profile does not establish Cao Ku’s wider biography, title history, exact access, private alignment, words, authority over palace security, or later role. Each operational detail remains episode-attributed.

What Changed

• Created a bounded profile for the court intermediary connecting intelligence collection to palace access control.

Relationships

• 贾寿 - envoy whose warning Cao Ku overhears.
• 陈平 and 周勃 - ministers who receive Cao Ku’s report and use him in the palace-access sequence.
• 吕产 - Lü commander whose warning and blocked palace entry define Cao Ku’s role.