Introduction
Sima Fang (149–219), courtesy name Jiangong, was a politician who lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was a son of Sima Jun. Sima Fang served in various appointments, including "Prefect of Luoyang" (洛陽令) and "Intendant of Jingzhao" (京兆尹; "Intendant of the Capital").
Relationship with Cao Cao
The Cao Man Zhuan (曹瞞傳; Biography of Cao Man), an unofficial biography of Cao Cao (a prominent warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han Dynasty) claimed that when Sima Fang was serving as a Right Assistant (右丞) in the Imperial Secretariat (尚書), he once recommended Cao to assume the appointment of "Commandant of the North District" (北部尉) in Luoyang (the Eastern Han capital).
However, the Sitishu Shixu (四體書勢序; Preface to Forms of the Four Modes of Writing) mentioned that Cao Cao was recommended by another official Liang Hu (梁鵠). Pei Songzhi, who annotated Cao Cao's biography in the Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi), commented that the Cao Man Zhuan account was correct because, according to Wang Yin (王隱)'s Jin Shu (晉書), during the Jin Dynasty, an Academician (博士) once raised an example about Sima Fang recommending Cao Cao to be the "Commandant of the North District".
In 216, after Cao Cao was conferred the title of a vassal king – "King of Wei" (魏王) – by Emperor Xian, he summoned Sima Fang to meet him in Ye (鄴; the capital of his vassal kingdom, in present-day Handan, Hebei). He joked with Sima Fang, "Do you think the Cao Cao of today can still be a Commandant of the North District?" Sima Fang replied, "When I recommended Your Highness to assume that appointment, I knew you were capable of performing your duty well." Cao Cao laughed.
Family
Sima Fang had eight sons: Sima Lang, Sima Yi, Sima Fu, Sima Kui, Sima Xun, Sima Jin, Sima Tong and Sima Min. Among them, the most notable one was Sima Yi, who served as a military commander and politician in the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. Sima Fang's great-grandson, Sima Yan, later became the founding emperor of the Jin Dynasty.