The civil officials under Cao Cao had by now mostly straightened out the causes and consequences, sighing at Chen Xi's audacity on one hand, while on the other hand, beginning to fan the flames, making the situation even harder to manage.
To be frank, the high-ranking civil officials under Cao Cao were not of orthodox Confucian background. Using Confucianism to govern a country involved only its morality and thought; the true governing concept was the so-called rule by rites and benevolent governance, which in reality was just embellishment during times of peace.
Since ruling the world with rites and benevolence was essentially nonsense, in actual governance, one only used the Zhongyong and morals of Confucianism; the real heavy lifting was done by the Legalist and Huang Lao philosophies. The main value of Confucianism was to restrain the personal moral cultivation of officials.
