ko차라리 내가 남을 저버릴지언정, 남이 나를 저버리게 두지는 않겠다.
jaむしろ我が人に背こうとも、人に我へ背かせはしない。
The scene behind the words
Fleeing Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao lodged with his father’s friend Lü Boshe — and, mistaking the clatter of dishes for an ambush, slaughtered the household before uttering these words. The line comes not from the histories proper but from a miscellany quoted in the annotations; the novel inflated it to "let no one under heaven betray me," sealing his villain image. A textbook case of how much the source changes the meaning.
Source: Sun Sheng’s Miscellany (annotations to Cao Cao’s annals)