司马懿 / Sima Yi

Overview

司马懿 / Sima Yi enters the bounded wiki as a talented late-Han figure whose attempted refusal of 曹操’s summons ends when illness performance meets a threat of arrest, and whose later Hanzhong advice is presented as strategically direct but politically restrained after rejection. The evidence set still does not supply a complete career.

Current Profile

Hanji 1087 says 崔琰 praises Sima Yi’s intelligence and decisiveness in comparison with his elder brother. After the praise reaches Cao Cao, Sima Yi claims a disabling wind-paralysis illness and refuses office; when Cao Cao responds with an arrest threat, he accepts the appointment.

Hanji 319-2 independently repeats only the refusal-and-threat segment. Its supplied text calls the figure “司马逸,” but the uniquely matching Cao Cao summons, illness claim, arrest threat, and immediate acceptance identify the story as the Sima Yi episode. The page treats that form as a transcript or summary error, not as a second person.

The source makes performance the organizing theme. It reads the first illness claim as a failed attempt to preserve distance from Cao Cao and the later illness performance against Cao Shuang as a successful reversal once Cao-family coercive capacity has weakened. That arc is interpretive rather than a fully evidenced biography: the present profile can establish coerced entry and a later reputation for strategic concealment, but not every motive or detail attached to either episode.

The later advisory case adds timing judgment and ruler-facing restraint to the profile. In Hanji 1153, Sima Yi reportedly urges an immediate attack on Liu Bei’s unsettled Yizhou regime after Cao Cao takes Hanzhong. When Cao Cao refuses, Sima Yi withdraws without pressing the point, in contrast with 刘晔. The host reads this as superior skill in interpreting the ruler and hiding one’s edge; the page retains the observable contrast in the episode while leaving motive and strategic feasibility source-scoped.

Key Characteristics

• Presented as intelligent, ambitious, and decisive through Cui Yan’s praise.
• Initially attempts to avoid Cao Cao’s summons by claiming serious illness.
• Accepts office after the refusal is met with threatened arrest.
• Becomes, in the host’s retrospective frame, a model of survival through concealed intention and timed performance.
• Is identified as a future opponent of Zhuge Liang and a foundational figure behind the Jin dynasty, without a full career narrative in this source.
• Recognizes the possible short interval between conquest and consolidation in Yizhou.
• Is portrayed as retreating from a rejected recommendation rather than converting advice into a confrontation with the ruler.

Evidence

• Reputation and recruitment: Hanji 1087 says Cui Yan’s praise brings Sima Yi to Cao Cao’s attention.
• Refusal and coercion: Hanji 1087 says Sima Yi claims illness, then accepts office when Cao Cao threatens arrest.
• Repeated recruitment core: Hanji 319-2 repeats the same refusal, illness claim, threat, and acceptance while misrendering the name as “司马逸.”
• Later reputation: Hanji 1087 previews a second illness performance against Cao Shuang and invokes the 《晋书》 narrative.
• Hanzhong advice: Hanji 1153 attributes to Sima Yi an immediate Yizhou-invasion recommendation followed by non-confrontational withdrawal after rejection.

Qualifications

The first two source notes substantially overlap and therefore do not amount to independent historical traditions; Hanji 1153 adds one later advisory vignette rather than a complete intervening career. The page does not establish Sima Yi’s full offices, campaigns, relations with Cao Wei rulers, conflict with Zhuge Liang, action against Cao Shuang, or the Jin succession. Whether either illness was feigned, why he resisted service, how immediate the arrest threat was, why he stopped arguing in the Hanzhong case, whether invasion was feasible, and how later histories shaped the stories remain source-scoped. “司马逸” in Hanji 319-2 is normalized only because the narrative match is specific; the raw wording remains documented in the source note.

What Changed

• Added the Hanzhong follow-on advice as a later case of strategic timing judgment.
• Qualified the host’s “knowing when to retreat” profile as an interpretation rather than direct evidence of motive.

Relationships

• 曹操 - ruler whose coercive summons turns attempted refusal into service.
• 崔琰 - official whose praise brings Sima Yi to Cao Cao’s attention.
• 安全第一政治生存 - adjacent frame for compliance under an arrest threat and later strategic concealment.
• 《晋书》 - later history invoked by the episode’s retrospective performance narrative.
• 胁迫征士合法性 - distinguishes compelled office-taking from voluntary talent attraction.
• 曹操西征汉中（215年） - campaign whose aftermath prompts Sima Yi’s proposed Yizhou attack.
• 刘晔 - adviser whose similar recommendation and different response to rejection form the episode’s comparison.