Editing Cao Pi (section)

===Succession issues and death===
An immediate issue after Cao Pi became emperor in 220 was who the empress would be. [[Lady Zhen]] was his wife. Cao Pi summoned Lady Zhen to Luoyang, but Lady Zhen refused because of her poor health. In August 221, Lady Zhen died and the position of empress went to Guo Nüwang.<ref>This account was found in ''Wei Shu'' (Book of Wei) and was not included in the original ''Sanguozhi''. Pei Songzhi added this annotation to Lady Zhen's biography in ''Sanguozhi'' and went on to speculate that there were hidden reasons as to why Cao Pi did not make Lady Zhen his empress and killed her later on. Pei also wrote of his skepticism of the truthfulness of the anecdotes between Ladies Bian and Zhen, and approved of Chen Shou not including them when he compiled the original ''Sanguozhi''. ({{lang|zh|臣松之以为春秋之义，内大恶讳，小恶不书。文帝之不立甄氏，及加杀害，事有明审。魏史若以为大恶邪，则宜隐而不言，若谓为小恶邪，则不应假为之辞，而崇饰虚文乃至于是，异乎所闻于旧史。推此而言，其称卞、甄诸后言行之善，皆难以实论。陈氏删落，良有以也。}}) Pei Songzhi's annotation in ''Sanguozhi'', vol.5</ref>

Guo Nüwang did not bear Cao Pi any children. Cao Rui was the eldest of Cao Pi's sons, but because of his mother's death, he was not instated as the crown prince. Instead, Cao Rui was appointed "Prince of Pingyuan" after his father's ascension to the throne. Cao Pi did not appear to have seriously considered any other son as heir. (It might have been because the other sons were all significantly younger, although their ages were not recorded in history.) In the summer of 226, when Cao Pi was seriously ill, he finally named Cao Rui as his crown prince. On his deathbed, he entrusted Cao Rui to the care of [[Cao Zhen]], [[Chen Qun]] and [[Sima Yi]]. Following his father's death, Cao Rui ascended the throne at the age of 21.