Three Kingdoms

by Luo Guanzhong (Moss Roberts trans. )

  Sun Ce, fearless cunning dynast of the south,

  Was trapped and scathed while hunting in the hills

  By three bold knights who paid what honor owed—

  Loyal in death, Yurang would have been proud.5

  Once home, Sun Ce sought the services of the healer Hua Tuo, but the physician had gone to the north, leaving behind a disciple. He was summoned to treat Sun Ce's wounds. "The arrow," the doctor observed, "was tipped with a poison that has penetrated the bone. You need a hundred days' quiet convalescence before the danger will pass—and don't let moods of anger affect you, or the wounds will not heal." Sun Ce, it so happened, had a most irascible nature and was frustrated that he could not be cured that very day.

  After some twenty days of resting, the patient heard that a messenger had returned from the capital, and he called him for questioning. "Cao Cao," the messenger began, "is quite wary of you, my lord, and his counselors respect your prestige. The only exception is Guo Jia." "And what does he have to say?" Sun Ce asked. The messenger hesitated, angering Sun Ce, who pressed him to convey the facts. "Guo Jia told Cao Cao," the envoy finally admitted, "that you were not a serious concern because you are reckless and always ill prepared, hasty and deficient in strategy, a foolhardy man6 sure to die by a scoundrel's hand." "That fool dares to rate me!7 I'll take his capital!" Sun Ce swore. He wanted to begin planning the campaign without further delay, but Zhang Zhao objected. "The physician has cautioned my lord," he said, "against any activity for one hundred days. How can you risk your invaluable person to satisfy a moment's rage?"

  At this point Yuan Shao's messenger, Chen Zhen, arrived with the news that his master wanted to ally with the south and attack Cao Cao. Delighted, Sun Ce called his commanders to the city tower for a banquet to honor Yuan Shao's envoy. But during the ceremonies the commanders suddenly began whispering to each other and then streamed down from the tower. Sun Ce was amazed at the disruption. His attendants told him, "The immortal Yu has passed below us. The commanders simply wanted to go out to honor him." Sun Ce rose and looked down over the railing at a Taoist priest cloaked in crane feathers, a staff of goosefoot wood in his hand. He was standing in the middle of the road while a group of commoners burned incense and prostrated themselves in veneration. "Who is this sorcerer?" Sun Ce demanded. "Bring him here at once!"8

  "The man's name is Yu Ji," Sun Ce was informed. "He resides in the east and has traveled here distributing potions that have relieved an unusual number of ailments. He is widely known as an immortal. Pray do not abuse him." "I want him seized and brought here instantly," Sun Ce bellowed. "Obey me or die." As commanded, Sun Ce's men hustled the holy man in to see their master. "Lunatic priest!" Sun Ce growled. "You dare to fan the flames of men's ignorance?" Yu Ji replied, "This poor priest is a Taoist divine from Langye who, during the reign of Emperor Shun, found a sacred text near a spring in Yangqu while gathering herbs in the hills. Called The Millennium: Purification and Guidance, it had one hundred volumes, all concerned with techniques for curing pain and disease. Since obtaining it, I have devoted myself to spreading its influence on behalf of Heaven and for the salvation of mankind, never accepting the smallest gift from anyone nor stirring up the people's hearts."9

  Sun Ce replied, "If that is true, how do you get food and clothing? Don't you really belong to the Yellow Scarves, Zhang Jue and his ilk? We will execute you now, or else you'll plague us later!" He delivered the order, but Zhang Zhao protested, saying, "The priest has been living in the Southland for decades guiltless of any offense. You can't put him to death!" "I can kill these sorcerers," Sun Ce responded, "the way a butcher kills pigs or dogs." The assembly of officials, including Yuan Shao's messenger, implored him to relent, but Sun Ce's wrath could not be assuaged. He ordered the priest imprisoned until he could decide what to do with him. The officials dispersed, and Chen Zhen retired to the guesthouse.

  Even before Sun Ce had returned to his quarters, a palace attendant had notified his mother of the incident. Lady Wu promptly summoned her son to her private apartments. "They tell me you have imprisoned the immortal Yu," she said. "He has worked many cures and is revered by the army and the people alike. You must not cause him injury." "The man is a sorcerer," Sun Ce replied. "He uses his arts to mislead the multitude and must be eliminated." To Lady Wu's repeated pleas Sun Ce finally said, "Mother, you must not give credence to the absurd statements of outsiders. I will handle this my own way." He had Yu Ji summoned for interrogation.10

  When Yu Ji was first arrested, the jailers removed his cangue and fetters out of respect for their prisoner, replacing them only when he was called out for questioning. On discovering how Yu Ji was treated, Sun Ce punished the jailers and sent the immortal back to prison bound hand and foot. Zhang Zhao and a large group of courtiers appealed for clemency, but Sun Ce said, "For men of learning you seem uninformed. Many years ago the imperial inspector of Jiaozhou, Zhang Jin, subscribed to false doctrine, strummed the zither, and burned incense. He bound his head with a red kerchief, claiming it stimulated his troops, yet he perished at the enemy's hands all the same. Such doings avail nothing, though you have yet to awaken to the fact. I am going to kill Yu Ji because I am determined to prevent such perversities and to alert the people to such deceptions."

  Lü Fan said to Sun Ce, "It is well known that Yu Ji can invoke the wind and supplicate the rain. Since there is a drought, why not let him pray for rain to redeem his crimes?" "Very well," Sun Ce said, "let us see what this sorcerer can do." He had Yu Ji brought from prison, freed of his cangue and fetters, and told him to call for rain.

  Yu Ji bathed and changed his clothes. Then he bound himself upon an altar under a blazing sun. The commoners thronged the streets and choked the lanes to witness the spectacle. Yu Ji spoke to them. "I will pray," he said, "for three spans of timely rainfall to succor the myriad people. But in the end I will not escape death." "If your rain-summoning craft proves itself," voices from the crowd called back, "our ruler will have to honor you." "My allotted time is up," Yu Ji answered. "Unfortunately there is no escape."

  Soon Sun Ce himself arrived at the altar. "If no rain falls by noon," he decreed, "burn Yu Ji to death." In anticipation he had kindling heaped up. A little before noon wild winds claimed the skies, and dense clouds converged from all sides. "It is nearly noon," Sun Ce proclaimed. "The sky is black, but there is no rain. This proves he is a sorcerer." He had Yu Ji carried to the top of the kindling pile and ordered fires started all around it. The flames licked up in the wake of the wind; a trail of black smoke appeared and rose into the sky; then a crackling peal announced the storm. Thunder and lightning issued together, and the rain coursed down in currents. Moments later the main street was a river, and the streams were overflowing with—three spans of rain!

  Flat upon the pyre, Yu Ji stared at the heavens and cried out. The clouds withdrew. The rains were stayed. The sun reappeared. Officials and commoners helped Yu Ji down from the pyre, bowing and voicing their thanks as they undid his ropes. But when Sun Ce saw the crowd around Yu Ji in knee-deep water paying tribute, he could not contain himself. "Fair weather and storms are natural phenomena," he cried. "The sorcerer has simply taken advantage of a lucky coincidence. What are all of you doing in such a mindless uproar?" Gripping his sword, Sun Ce ordered a soldier to execute Yu Ji on the spot. To all who protested he said, "Will you follow him in rebellion?" A single stroke left Yu Ji's head upon the ground. From it a trail of bluish vapor rose to the northeast. Sun Ce had the corpse displayed in the marketplace as a censure against sins of the supernatural.

  Wind and rain thrashed through the night. By dawn the corpse was gone. Those assigned to watch the corpse reported this to Sun Ce, who threatened to kill them. Suddenly, from nowhere a man appeared, walking slowly in front of the main hall. It was Yu Ji. Sun Ce moved back and drew his sword to hack at the apparition; then he fainted and was carried to his bedroom. When he recovered, Lady Wu came to him. "My son," she began, "you have provoked disaster by killing an
immortal." "From my earliest days," Sun Ce replied with a smile, "I accompanied my father on military campaigns, and we cut men down like stalks of hemp. There was no such thing as provoking disaster. Today we have killed a demon precisely to put an end to a great disaster. How can you say it will bring disaster upon us?" "It is your lack of belief that has brought you to this," she said. "Now you must perform some worthy deed to appease the spirits." "My destiny rests with Heaven," he answered. "No sorcerer can do me harm. Whom should I appease?" Her exhortation unavailing, Lady Wu privately arranged for good works to be done in order to win forgiveness from the spirits and thus ward off retribution.

  That night during the second watch, as Sun Ce lay in his chamber, a chill wind sprang up. The lamp went dark, then flamed again. In the shadows it cast Sun Ce saw Yu Ji standing in front of his bed. Sun Ce screamed, "I am dedicated to destroying the supernatural and purging it from the world of men. You ghost from the shades, dare you approach?" He threw his sword toward the vision, and the ghost disappeared. A report of this incident caused Lady Wu great anxiety, and so Sun Ce, despite his condition, went to allay her fears.

  Lady Wu said to her son, "Confucius claimed that 'ghostly spirits manifest inexhaustible potency.' He also said, 'Pray ye to the spirits dispersed above and concentrated below.' We may not doubt such things as ghostly spirits. The murder of Master Yu will be punished. I have ordered services for your health in the Temple of Precious Clarity. Go there yourself and pray. Perhaps things will settle themselves."

  Unable to refuse his mother's command, Sun Ce went in a sedan chair to the temple. He burned incense at the priests' behest but offered no apology for what he had done. The fumes hung undispersed in the air, taking the form of a canopy with Yu Ji sitting erect atop it. Sputtering and cursing, Sun Ce quit the sanctuary, but Yu Ji appeared again perched on the temple gate, glaring down at Sun Ce. Sun Ce asked his followers if they had seen the sorcerer's ghost. None had. He aimed his sword at Yu Ji and threw it, felling a man. His followers saw the soldier who had killed Yu Ji the day before now lying dead himself, his skull cracked, blood running from his orifices. Sun Ce ordered the corpse removed and buried.

  As Sun Ce left the temple grounds, Yu Ji appeared again, strolling toward him. "This temple harbors demons!" Sun Ce cried, and seating himself facing the building, he ordered five hundred warriors to tear it down. As they started pulling apart the tilework, Yu Ji appeared on the rooftop, hurling tiles to the ground. Sun Ce ordered the priests evicted, and had his men set fire to the sanctuary; but Yu Ji was visible at the heart of the flames.

  Returning to his residence, Sun Ce found Yu Ji standing at his gates. Instead of entering, Sun Ce mustered the entire army and camped outside the city wall, calling his generals together to discuss joining Yuan Shao in a combined attack on Cao Cao. The generals said, "Your Lordship should not risk action while your health remains impaired. After you recover, there will be sufficient time." That night again Yu Ji appeared in the camp, his hair disheveled. In his tent Sun Ce emitted a stream of curses.

  The next day Lady Wu came to him and, seeing him emaciated, sobbed, "Your natural self is no more!" Sun Ce reached for a mirror, which reflected a face utterly wasted. "What can I do, ravaged like this?" he cried to his attendants in desperation. Even as he spoke, Yu Ji was hovering in the mirror. A shout burst from Sun Ce as he struck at the mirror. His wounds reopened and he fainted. His mother had him carried to a bedchamber, where after a spell he regained consciousness. "I cannot live on," he said and summoned to his bedside the adviser Zhang Zhao, his brother Sun Quan, and others.

  "In this period of upheaval the Southland has great possibilities. We have a substantial population and the natural defense of the rivers. I now ask Zhang Zhao and all of you to aid my younger brother." So saying, Sun Ce conferred his seal and ribbon on Sun Quan, adding, "For mobilizing our people, for the instantaneous decision on the battlefield, for contending with puissant adversaries for dominion, you are not my equal. But for selecting and employing worthy and capable men who will give their all to protect the south, I am not your equal. Always bear in mind the hardships and difficulties that our father and your elder brother suffered in founding this heritage, and be vigilant in guarding it." Sun Quan wept and bowed as he accepted the seal.

  Sun Ce turned to his mother and declared, "Heaven allots me no more time to serve my dear, devoted mother. I hereby transfer the seal to my brother and pray, Mother, that you may guide him and instruct him never to neglect those who have served his father and elder brother." Weeping, Lady Wu said, "Your brother is yet immature. What if he proves unable to undertake affairs of state?" "He is ten times more able than I," Sun Ce replied. "He is fully capable of the highest responsibility. If there is an internal problem you cannot solve, however, take it to Zhang Zhao; for an external one, go to Zhou Yu. I only wish Zhou Yu were here to accept these instructions himself."

  Next, Sun Ce summoned his remaining brothers. "After I die," he told them, "you must lend Sun Quan your full support. And you must join together in destroying anyone in our clan who may contemplate treason. No renegade of our flesh and bone is to be buried in the ancestral grave." Receiving this charge, his brothers wept. Sun Ce then summoned his wife, Lady Qiao. "Alas," he said to her, "you and I must part halfway through life. Honor my mother with your filial love; and when your sister visits, have her tell her husband to give Sun Quan his full support—for the sake of our friendship."11 With that Sun Ce passed away peacefully at the age of twenty-six. Later a poet wrote in eulogy:

  His triumphs in the land below the Jiang

  Made men declare "Xiang Yu lives again!"

  He had the cunning of a tiger set to lunge,

  The decision of an eagle poised to plunge.

  His dominion made the south secure

  And carried his fair name across the realm.

  He left behind an unfulfilled ambition

  And charged Zhou Yu to bring it to fruition.

  Sun Quan cast himself to the ground before his brother's bed. But Zhang Zhao reproached him. "This is no time for you to weep, General," he said. "You must arrange the funeral and take charge of the army and the country." Sun Quan regained his self-control. Zhang Zhao instructed Sun Jing to see to Sun Ce's burial rites and urged Sun Quan to receive the acclamation of the officials in the great hall.

  Sun Quan had a square jaw and a broad mouth, jade green eyes and a purplish beard. Many years ago Liu Wan, a Han envoy on a mission to the south, had met all the sons of the house of Sun. "In my view," he had remarked, "though these brothers have splendid talent, none is fated to live long—with the exception of Sun Quan. His striking and heroic looks and massive frame betoken great nobility as well as long life."

  Ordained Sun Ce's heir, Sun Quan undertook the governing of the Southland. He was still organizing the court when Zhou Yu returned to Wujun with a body of troops. "My worries are over," Sun Quan said, "now that Zhou Yu is here." Zhou Yu had been guarding Baqiu when he heard that assassins had wounded Sun Ce. On his way back he learned, even before reaching Wujun, that his close friend had died. He hurried to the funeral and was wailing at the coffin when Lady Wu appeared and delivered Sun Ce's deathbed charge. Zhou Yu bowed to the ground and said, "I will discharge my duty with the loyalty of a dog or a horse until I die." Sun Quan entered. After Zhou Yu had paid his respects, Sun Quan said to him, "It is my heartfelt hope that you will never forget my brother's dying words." Zhou Yu touched his head to the floor and declared, "I would strew the very ground with my liver and brains to requite my dear friend's love."

  "Now that I have taken possession of this patrimony," Sun Quan continued, "what strategy shall I use to preserve it?" "One enduring rule," Zhou Yu began, "is that he who finds good men will prosper, and he who does not will perish. To shape plans for the present and to consolidate the Southland you must seek the support of high-minded, far-seeing intellects." Sun Quan said, "My brother's last words were, 'Trust internal matters to Zhang Zhao, external ones to Z
hou Yu.'" Zhou Yu replied, " Zhang Zhao is a worthy and accomplished scholar, fit for great tasks. But I am not, and I hesitate to shoulder the burden consigned to me. Let me recommend a man to assist you, General—Lu Su (styled Zijing) from Dongchuan in Linhuai. He is a mine of strategies, a storehouse of machinations. Early in life he lost his father and has served his mother since with utter devotion. Lu Su's family is extremely wealthy, and he is known for his generosity to the poor.

  "When I was a precinct leader in Juchao, I was taking several hundred men through Linhuai when we ran short of grain. People told us that the Lu family had two granaries, each holding three thousand bushels. At our urgent request Lu Su put one of the granaries at our disposal. That's an example of his largess. In addition, he has a strong interest in swordsmanship and horseback archery. His home is in Qu'e, but he has returned to Dongcheng for his grandmother's funeral. A friend of his, Liu Ziyang, is trying to get him to go to Chaohu and join Zheng Bao, but Lu Su has not yet reached a decision. My lord, call him to you without delay."

  Sun Quan was pleased with Zhou Yu's recommendation and sent Zhou Yu to engage Lu Su's services. After the formalities Zhou Yu respectfully relayed Sun Quan's intentions, but Lu Su replied, "Liu Ziyang has arranged for me to go to Chaohu and accept a position there." "Remember," Zhou Yu said, "the words of Ma Yuan to Emperor Guang Wu: 'In times like these not only does the lord choose the man, but the man chooses the lord.' General Sun nurtures men of merit and receives scholars well. He has given support to remarkable and even extraordinary men, something all too rare. Do not heed the other commitment; come with me to the Southland. This is the right course for you." Lu Su accepted Zhou Yu's invitation.