Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is a supplemental episode.

In this episode, we will take a look at the real-life Sima Yi,

the architect of the Sima clan's rise to power in the Wei

court. Sima Yi was unceremoniously introduced in the novel. In episode 48 of our podcast, he appeared

in a passing mention where he was one of several guys that Cao Cao promoted while beefing up the civil

administration. I made a note at that time that you should pay attention to Sima Yi, but in the

novel, there was no such call-out. He just kind of snuck in there and lay low for about half

the novel before rising to prominence after Cao Cao's death.

While it may appear that Sima Yi came out of nowhere, in reality,

he definitely had a reputation that preceded him.

The Sima clan was a prominent family even before the Han dynasty.

After the fall of the Qin dynasty, the predecessor to the Han,

the empire fractured into 18 small feudal states,

and one of Sima Yi's ancestors was the ruler of one of those states.

Their state later became part of the Han Empire Empire and the Sima clan remained one of the

most powerful families in the empire. Members of the clan served in the government for generations.

The several generations immediately preceding Sima Yi served in various generalships and

governorships while Sima Yi's father was a

superintendent. Coming from this illustrious lineage, Sima Yi did not exactly fly under the radar.

Even in his youth, he was said to have been crafty and often concerned about the empire, which was teetering at the time.

At the age of 22, he was nominated to join the civil service.

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