Deng Ai's behavior reads like a classic case of megalomania, an old man losing himself in celebrating his life's greatest accomplishment, rather than a prelude to rebellion. If he'd truly been planning a revolt, certainly he would have behaved in a more restrained manner. His story reminds me of Xu You's - drunk on his own success, he treads on the wrong toes.
Even if he'd been planning a revolt, I would find it hard to blame him or call him immoral for doing so. There's nothing treasonous in rebelling against the man who murdered his rightful emperor and then killed his own assassins in a psychopathic coup d'etat only a few years earlier.
Deng Ai's behavior reads like a classic case of megalomania, an old man losing himself in celebrating his life's greatest accomplishment, rather than a prelude to rebellion. If he'd truly been planning a revolt, certainly he would have behaved in a more restrained manner. His story reminds me of Xu You's - drunk on his own success, he treads on the wrong toes.
Even if he'd been planning a revolt, I would find it hard to blame him or call him immoral for doing so. There's nothing treasonous in rebelling against the man who murdered his rightful emperor and then killed his own assassins in a psychopathic coup d'etat only a few years earlier.