Three Kingdoms

by Luo Guanzhong (Moss Roberts trans. )

  That day all the officials gathered at the royal palace for a banquet. As the wine was circulating, Zuo Ci appeared standing before the diners, wooden clogs on his feet. The assembly was shocked. Zuo Ci said, "Your Highness's table is fully furnished with fish and meat, and for the courtiers gathered at this great feast there is an abundance of rare delights. If anything is lacking here, I would like to volunteer to fetch it." "I want dragon liver to make a stew," Cao replied. "Can you get it for me?" "Nothing difficult about that!" was Zuo Ci's answer. With brush and ink he drew a dragon on the chalky wall. He waved his sleeve over it, and the stomach opened. Zuo Ci plucked out the liver, streaming with fresh blood. Cao Cao said contemptuously, "You had that in your sleeve!"

  Zuo Ci said, "This is the coldest time of year, when all vegetation is dead. Is there any fine flower Your Highness might like to have?" "A peony, nothing else," was Cao's reply. "Easy enough," said Zuo Ci. He ordered a large flower basin brought before the company and sprayed water on it. In moments a peony stalk sprang up, bearing two blossoms. The assembly was astonished. Zuo Ci was invited to join the feast.

  Soon after, the cook served minced fish. Zuo Ci said, "For mincing only a fine perch from the River Song will do." Cao Cao said, "Flow can we get one from so far away?" "It's not difficult," was the reply. The priest had a fishing pole brought to him and dropped a line into the pond below the hall. In a short while he had pulled up several dozen large perch and placed them in the palace hall. "Those fish were in my pond all along," said Cao. "Is Your Majesty trying to fool me?" retorted Zuo Ci. "Every perch in the world has two cheek pouches, except those from the Song, which have four. This can prove it." The officials verified the priest's claim.14

  "You'll need purple sprout ginger to poach these fish," Zuo Ci went on. "Can you get that for us too?" Cao asked. "Easy enough," Ci answered. He had a gold basin brought out and covered it with his robe. In a few moments the basin was filled with ginger. Ci presented the basin, and Cao took it in his hands. To his surprise, there was a book inside bearing the title New Writings of Mengde. Finding every word in its pages to be correct, Cao was puzzled. Zuo Ci took a jade cup from the table, filled it with choice wine, and offered it to Cao Cao. "Drink this, Your Highness," he said, "and you will live a thousand years." "You drink first," said Cao. Zuo Ci removed a jade hairpin from his cap and with a single stroke divided the contents. He drank one half and proffered the second to Cao Cao, who scoffed at him. So Zuo Ci flung the cup into the air, where it turned into a white turtledove that flew around the hall. As the guests watched entranced, Zuo Ci vanished from sight.

  "He left by the palace gate," said Cao's attendants. "This kind of black magician has to be eliminated or he will prove a scourge," Cao Cao said; he ordered Xu Chu to pursue him with three hundred armored soldiers and take him prisoner. Xu Chu raced to the city gate and there saw Zuo Ci in his wooden sandals sauntering along ahead of him. Xu Chu pursued him but could not seem to overtake him.

  Chu dashed into a group of hills, where he saw a little shepherd driving a flock of sheep into the center of which Zuo Ci walked. Xu Chu shot an arrow at him, but he disappeared. Xu Chu slew the entire flock before returning to the palace, leaving the little boy in tears. Suddenly the lad saw a sheep's head on the ground speaking in human tongue. It called to him, "Place the severed heads against the necks of the dead sheep." The terrified lad covered his face and fled. But a voice behind him said, "Don't panic. I'm returning your sheep alive." Turning round, the lad saw that Zuo Ci had already put the sheep back together and was driving them toward him. Before the lad could question Zuo Ci, he was on his way with a flick of his sleeves, faster than the wind; in a flash he was gone from sight.

  The shepherd boy reported the event to his master, who, fearing to keep it secret, reported it to Cao Cao. Cao had a sketch of the man made and sent it to various points with orders to arrest him. Inside of three days hundreds of men were arrested—in town and outside the walls—who resembled Zuo Ci exactly: one drooping lid, one lame leg, white vine-stem cap, grey casual gown, wooden sandals. A tremendous hubbub erupted in the city streets. Cao Cao ordered his commanders to sprinkle the prisoners with pig's and sheep's blood and then march them to the training field south of the city. Led by Cao Cao himself, five hundred soldiers surrounded and executed them. From each severed trunk a trail of blue vapor arose. The vapors coalesced in the sky and became Zuo Ci. Hailing a passing crane, he sat on its back, clapped his hands, and laughed, saying, "Earth rat follows golden tiger; the villain is shortly doomed."15 Cao Cao ordered his commanders to shoot. But a great wind blew up, carrying stones and scattering sand. The bodies of those executed sprang up and, heads in hands, raced to the reviewing arena as if to strike Cao Cao. Officials and officers covered their faces and collapsed in disbelief, too frightened to help each other. Indeed:

  If the villain had power enough to overthrow the dynasty,

  The unearthly powers of the Taoist priest were even more amazing.

  Was Cao Cao himself about to die?

  Read on.

  69

  Conning the Changes, Guan Lu Sees Things to Come;

  Chastening Han Traitors, Five Vassals Die Loyal

  Stunned, Cao Cao watched the mass of corpses coming to life in the darkening day; then he fell to the ground. Moments later the wind ceased, the corpses vanished. Cao Cao was helped to his palace, suffering from shock. A poet of later times wrote in awe of Zuo Ci's black magic:

  He sprang to cloud and swept around our realm,

  Freely, harmless, avoiding days malign.

  Casually he worked his conjuries;

  But Cao Cao never understood his signs.

  No medicine could cure Cao Cao. By chance, the assistant grand astrologer, Xu Zhi, was in the capital to see Cao. Cao ordered him to divine the matter from the Book of Changes. "Has Your Majesty ever heard of Guan Lu, the marvelous diviner?" asked Xu Zhi. "The name is familiar," Cao replied. "But I am unfamiliar with his craft. Can you tell me more?" "Guan Lu (styled Gongming) is from Pingyuan," Xu Zhi told him. "He is crude and ugly, fond of wine and unpredictable. His father was the elder of Jiqiu in the district of Langye. As a lad, Guan Lu was so fascinated by the constellations that his parents could not get him to bed at night. He would often say, 'Even chickens and swans know the time of day; how about men living in the world?' Once, playing with the neighbor's children, he drew the heavens on the ground, showing sun, moon, and star clusters. When Guan Lu got a little older, through a deep understanding of the Changes, he was able to observe the angles of the wind1 and make miraculous numerical calculations; in addition, he was skilled at reading a man's fortune in his appearance.2

  "The governor of Langye, Shan Zichun, invited Guan Lu to audience on the strength of his reputation. Attending the session were over one hundred scholars skilled in argument. Guan Lu said to Zichun, 'As I am young and diffident, I beg three jars of fine wine to drink before speaking.' Though surprised, the governor satisfied his request. Done drinking, Guan Lu asked Zichun, 'Are those seated here in Your Lordship's hall the ones to match wits with me?' 'I consider myself a worthy opponent,' was the governor's reply; and he began to discuss the logic of the Changes. Guan Lu waxed eloquent, speaking to the essence of the governor's questions. Zichun tried every way he could to confound the young man, but Guan Lu answered fluently from dawn to dusk; no win or food was served. Zichun and the company were conquered by the child prodigy, as he came to be known.

  "Some time after this event, Cuo En and his two brothers, residents of Langye, asked Guan Lu to cast a divination concerning the lameness afflicting each of them. Guan Lu replied, 'There is a female ghost haunting your family graves, according to my reading of the hexagrams; it is the wife of either your father's older brother or of his younger brother. Some time ago, in a period of famine, she was pushed into a well and her head crushed with a rock for the sake of a few pecks of grain. Her desolate spirit now appeals to Heaven for justice, and the three of you suffer a retribution wh
ich cannot be warded off." The brothers wept and acknowledged the crime.3

  "Wang Ji, governor of Anping, on learning of Guan Lu's divining powers, invited him to his home. It so happened that the wife of the prefect of Xindu was suffering from fainting spells,4 and her son from pain around the heart. The prefect therefore invited Guan Lu to divine for him. Guan Lu said, 'There are two male corpses in the western corner of this hall: one holding a spear; the other, a bow and arrow. Their heads are inside the wall, their feet outside. The former augurs stabbing in the head—hence your wife's spells; the latter, piercing of the chest and abdomen—hence your son's pain. ' They began digging and eight spans down unearthed two coffins. One contained a spear, the other a bow and arrow. The wood had rotted away. Guan Lu had the bones reburied ten li outside of the city, and the symptoms disappeared.

  "When the prefect of Guantao, Zhuge Yuan, was promoted to governor of Xinxing, Guan Lu went to see him off. One of the governor's men mentioned that Guan Lu could locate anything hidden. The incredulous governor secretly took a swallow's egg, a bees' nest, and a spider, placed them separately in three boxes, and ordered Guan Lu to perform his divination. After forming his hexagram, Guan Lu wrote four lines on each box. On the first:

  After brooding, it transforms;

  Till then, it needs its warm redoubt

  To let the male and female form

  And the fledging wings stretch out—

  A swallow's egg here!

  On the second box he wrote:

  In homes hanging upside down,

  They throng at gates and doors;

  Hiding essence, brewing bane,

  Come the fall, the change occurs—

  A bees' nest here!

  On the third Guan Lu wrote:

  On long and trembly legs he moves,

  Spitting gauzy silken thread;

  Seeing food upon the web,

  His advantage comes when we're abed—

  A spider here!

  The entire company was astonished at Guan Lu's skill.

  "Once an old village woman had lost an ox and wanted a diviner to locate it. Guan Lu's opinion was:

  North where a streamlet runs,

  A tasty meal for seven men!

  Swiftly go and look for him—

  Skin and flesh may still remain.

  Indeed, the old woman found her ox. Seven men behind a thatched hut were dining on it, and some of its skin and meat was still left. The woman reported this to the district governor, Liu Bin, who arrested and convicted the seven. When the governor asked the woman how she had found the culprits, the woman told him of Guan Lu's divination. The incredulous governor invited Guan Lu to his quarters and bade him divine the contents of two boxes in which he had hidden a seal and a pheasant's feather. After divining, Guan Lu wrote on the first:

  Square within, outside round,

  A pattern in five colors,

  Holding the jewel of trust:

  Removed, the emblem of office!—

  A seal sack!

  On the second Guan Lu wrote:

  Birds are perched upon those cliffs,

  Bodies brocade, vermillion coat,

  And wings a dusky yellow:

  Morning's never-failing note—

  A feather of the pheasant!

  Liu Bin was astonished at Guan Lu's performance and treated him as an honored guest.

  "One day while strolling outside the town limits, Guan Lu came across a young man tilling a field. Lu stood by the roadside watching. After a long time he asked, 'What is your honored name and age?' 'Zhao Yan,' the youth replied. 'I am nineteen. May I ask who you are, sir?' 'I am Guan Lu,' was the reply. 'I see the sign of death between your eyebrows. You are fated to die in three days. Alas, though handsome, you cannot live long.' When Zhao Yan returned home, he anxiously reported the prediction to his father, who ran out and overtook Guan Lu. Throwing himself to the ground, the father said tearfully, 'Please come home with me and save our son.' 'How can the decree of Heaven be forestalled?' The father reiterated his appeal: 'This old man has but one son. I crave your assistance.' The boy added his own pleas.

  "Guan Lu saw how anxious father and son were for his help, so he said to Zhao Yan, 'Prepare a jar of pure wine and a piece of dried venison as a gift to two men whom you will find tomorrow playing chess on a flat stone under a great tree in the hills to the south. One of the men—unsightly and dressed in white—will be seated facing south; the other—fair of face and dressed in red—facing north. While they are rapt in their game, kneel down and present the wine and meat. After they finish, plead tearfully for longer life. They will augment your years. But make sure not to mention me.' The father had Guan Lu remain with him.

  "The next day Zhao Yan took wine, meat, and serving utensils into the southern hills. After walking five or six li, he found the chess players at the foot of a giant pine. The took no notice of him. Zhao Yan knelt and offered the wine and food to them. Intent on their game, the two men consumed the wine and venison without being aware of it. Then a weeping Zhao Yan prostrated himself and pleaded for his life. The two men were astonished. The man in red said, 'This sounds like one of Guan Lu's ideas. After accepting the favor, we have to show him sympathy.' The man in white looked into a register he was carrying and said to Zhao Yan, 'You are to die this year, your nineteenth. I am going to add a 9 before the character 10, giving you ninety-nine years. And when you see Guan Lu again, tell him to keep the secrets of Heaven to himself or suffer the consequences.'

  "As the man in red finished writing, an aromatic breeze passed; both men turned into white cranes and shot into the skies. Zhao Yan went home and questioned Guan Lu. 'The one in red was the Southern Dipper,' Lu replied. 'The other, the Northern.' 'I always thought the Northern Dipper had nine stars,' Zhao Yan said. 'Why was there only one man?' 'Dispersed, there are nine; concentrated, they make one. The Northern Dipper marks death: the Southern, life. Since they have already extended your span, what else are you worried about?' Father and son prostrated themselves in gratitude. From that day forth, Guan Lu was reluctant to divine lest he betray the secrets of Heaven. At present, he lives in Pingyuan. If Your Highness wishes to know what fortune holds in store, I suggest you summon him."5

  Delighted with Xu Zhi's recommendation, Cao Cao sent for the diviner. Guan Lu arrived and, after paying his respects, was asked to divine the meaning of the wonders Zuo Ci had performed. "Simple black magic to delude you," he told Cao. "What are you worried about?" Cao Cao took comfort from the seer's words and his illness gradually passed.

  Cao Cao ordered Guan Lu to divine the state of the empire. The answer was: "Three and eight run crisscross; a yellow pig meets a tiger. South of the outpost, you will lose a limb." Cao ordered him to foretell the length of his line of succession. The answer was: "In the palace of the lion, the ancestral tablet takes its place. Kingship is renewed, his posterity will know the ultimate honor." Cao Cao asked for further explanation. Guan Lu said, "Vague and vast are Heaven's determinations. No man can foretell them. But in retrospect they are confirmed."

  Cao Cao wanted to appoint Guan Lu grand astrologer, but the diviner replied, "My lot is meagre; my features bespeak adversity. Unfit for the office, I must decline." Cao Cao asked the reason, and Guan Lu replied, "My forehead is misshapen; my eyes lack luster; my nose has no bridge; my feet, no Achilles tendons; the marks of long life are absent from my back and stomach. I'm good for dealing with the ghosts on Mount Tai, but not with living men." "Then," responded Cao, "will you read my destiny from my looks?" "You are already the highest vassal in the land. What need is there?" said Guan Lu smiling, and he refused to answer despite Cao's repeated requests. Cao Cao then ordered Guan Lu to read the character of each of his officers and officials. To this, Guan Lu replied, "Officers to rule the age, one and all." Cao Cao asked his fortunes, but Guan Lu would not divulge them fully. These verses written in later times express admiration for the diviner:

  Guan Lu (Gongming), of Pingyuan, was a seer

&n
bsp; Who kenned the stars of north and southern poles.

  By the trigrams' arcana he reached the occult realm;

  By hexagrams' mystery he probed the house of Heaven.

  His predictions and readings sensed those doomed;

  His innermost depths could activate the spirits.

  Alas, the secrets of his ingenuity

  Were never written down for posterity.

  Once again Cao Cao ordered Guan Lu to divine, this time the prospects for the Riverlands and the Southland. Lu cast the hexagrams and said, "The south has lost a chief general. The west sends hostile troops." Cao Cao was incredulous. But at that moment a messenger from Hefei reported the death of Lu Su, the Southland general guarding Lukou. Cao Cao was astonished. Next, he sent someone to Hanzhong, who reported that Liu Xuande had sent Zhang Fei and Ma Chao to take the pass at Xiabian. Cao Cao was enraged and asked Guan Lu to predict what his fortunes would be if he took his army back into Hanzhong. Guan Lu answered, "Your Highness, do not be reckless. Next spring the capital will have a disastrous fire." Cao Cao, impressed by Guan Lu's successful predictions, declined to act and kept to his regional capital at Ye. Instead, he sent Cao Hong with fifty thousand troops to help Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He defend the eastern Riverlands; he detailed Xiahou Dun to patrol the capital with thirty thousand and guard against the unexpected; and lastly, he had one of his senior advisers, Wang Bi, take command of the Royal Guard.

  Cao's first secretary, Sima Yi, said, "Wang Bi is too fond of his drink, too lax to hold that office." "Wang Bi has followed me through thick and thin," replied Cao. "He is loyal and diligent, a man of iron convictions, and more than adequate to the task." Thus, Wang Bi took command of the Royal Guard, which was stationed outside the Eastern Blossom Gate of the capital at Xuchang.