In 637 BC, a prince named Chong'er passed through the State of Cao during his years of wandering exile. Duke Gong of Cao treated him rudely -- a diplomatic insult that would prove catastrophic. Chong'er would become Duke Wen of Jin, one of the most powerful rulers of the Spring and Autumn period, and his memory was long. Within a few years, Jin's armies crushed Cao and took Duke Gong prisoner. The episode captures the essential tragedy of the State of Cao: too small to make its own destiny, too poorly governed to survive the mistakes it made in the orbit of larger powers.
The State of Cao was founded in the eleventh century BC by a son of King Wen of Zhou, the legendary sage-king whose descendants established the Zhou dynasty. With its capital at Taoqiu -- roughly the area of modern-day Dingtao County in Shandong Province -- Cao occupied flat country on the North China Plain, about fifty miles east of where the Yellow River changes course from east to northeast. It was hemmed in by more powerful neighbors: Wey to the northwest, Lu to the northeast, Song to the southeast. From the beginning, Cao was a minor state in a landscape dominated by giants.
The state's internal history was violent even by the standards of ancient China. In 826 BC, Count You of Cao was killed by his younger brother, Count Dai, who seized power. The cycle repeated in 760 BC when Duke Mu murdered his elder brother Count Fei and installed himself as the eleventh ruler -- the first Cao leader to claim the title of Duke. Later, Duke Dao was captured by the Duke of Song in 515 BC and held prisoner until his death. His successors, Duke Sheng and Duke Yin, were both killed in rapid succession during the resulting chaos. The few records that survive of Cao's history read like a catalog of fratricide and miscalculation.
During the Spring and Autumn period, Cao found itself crushed between the competing hegemonies of Jin and Chu. Around 630 BC, Cao was a vassal or ally of Chu. When Chu attacked the neighboring State of Song, Jin made a diversionary attack on Cao. After Jin's decisive victory over Chu at the Battle of Chengpu in 632 BC, Cao had no choice but to follow Jin's orders. For a century and a half, the small state survived by bending to whichever great power dominated the Central Plain at any given moment.
The end came through a final act of miscalculation. Duke Fei of Cao betrayed his patron state Jin by attacking Song. When the Duke of Song retaliated, no Jin troops came to Cao's rescue. The State of Song overwhelmed Cao's defenses, captured Duke Fei, and extinguished the state in 487 BC after more than five centuries of existence. But the people of Cao did not vanish entirely. Descendants adopted the name of their former state as a surname -- one origin of the Chinese family name Cao, which would later be carried by the famous Three Kingdoms warlord Cao Cao, though his family bore no relation to the royal house of this ancient state.
Located at 35.143N, 115.591E near Dingtao County, Shandong Province, on the flat North China Plain. The Yellow River runs to the west. Nearest major airport: Heze Mudanjichangr Airport (ZSHZ). Flat agricultural landscape with no significant terrain features. Recommended viewing altitude: 3,000-5,000 feet AGL.