“By what magic are you here?” said Cao Cao.
“I am but a poor Taoist. I went into Shu, and on Mount Omi, I studied the way for thirty long years. One day I heard my name called from out the rocky wall of my cell. I looked, but could see nothing. The same thing happened next day, and so on for many days. Then suddenly, with a roar like thunder, the rock split asunder, and I saw a sacred book in three volumes called 'The Book of Concealing Method'. From the first volume I learned to ascend to the clouds astride the wind, to sail up into the great void itself; from the second to pass through mountains and penetrate rocks; from the third, to float light as vapor, over the seas, to become invisible at will or change my shape, to fling swords and project daggers so as to decapitate a man from a distance. You, O Prince, have reached the acme of glory; why not now withdraw and, like me, become a disciple of the Taoists? Why not travel to Mount Omi and there mend your ways so that I may bequeath my three volumes to you?”
“Oft have I reflected upon this course and struggled against my fate, but what can I do? There is no one to maintain the government,” replied Cao Cao.
“There is Liu Bei of Yiazhou, a scion of the dynastic family; could you not make way for him? If you do not, I may have to send one of my flying swords after your head one day.”
“You are one of his secret agents,” said Cao Cao, suddenly enraged. “Seize him!” cried he to his lictors.
They did so, while the Taoist laughed. And Zuo Ci continued to laugh as they dragged him down to the dungeons, where they beat him cruelly. And when they had finished, the Taoist lay there gently respiring in a sound sleep, just as if he felt nothing whatever.
This enraged Cao Cao still more, and he bade them put the priest into the large wooden collar and nail it securely and then chain him in a cell. And Cao Cao set guards over him, and the guards saw the collar and chains just fall off while the victim lay fast asleep not injured in the least.
The Taoist lay in prison seven days without food or water; and when they went to look at him, he was sitting upright on the ground, quite well and rosy looking.
The gaolers reported these things to Cao Cao, who had the prisoner brought in.
“I do not mind going without food for years,” said the victim, when Cao Cao questioned him, “yet I could eat a thousand sheep in a day.”
Cao Cao was at the end of his resources; he could prevail nothing against such a man.
That day there was to be a great banquet at the new palace, and guests came in crowds. When the banquet was in progress and the wine cup passing freely, suddenly the same Taoist appeared. He had wooden clogs on his feet. All faces turned in his direction and not a few were afraid; others wondered.
Standing there in front of the great assembly, the Taoist said, “O powerful Prince, here today you have every delicacy on the table and a glorious company of guests. You have rare and beautiful objects from all parts of the world. Is there anything lacking? If there be anything you would like, name it and I will get it for you.”
Cao Cao replied, “Then I want a dragon's liver to make soup: can you get that?”
“Where's the difficulty?” replied Zuo Ci.
With a pencil the Taoist immediately sketched a dragon on the whitewashed wall of the banquet hall. Then he flicked his sleeve over it, the dragon's belly opened of itself, and therefrom Zuo Ci took the liver all fresh and bloody.
“You had the liver hidden in your sleeve,” said Cao Cao, incredulous. “Then there shall be another test,” said the Taoist. “It is winter and every plant outside is dead. What flower would you like, O Prince. Name any one you will.”
“I want a peony,” said Cao Cao.
“Easy,” said the Taoist.
At this request they brought out a flower-pot, which was placed in full view of the guests. Then he spurted some water over it, and in a very short time up came a peony with two fully expanded flowers.
The guests were astonished, and they asked the Taoist to be seated and gave him wine and food. The cook sent in some minced fish.
“The best mince is made from the perch of River Song,” said the Taoist.
“How can you get fish five hundred miles away?” said Cao Cao.
“Not at all difficult. Tell someone to get a rod and hook, and fish in the pond just below this banquet hall.”
They did so, and very soon several beautiful perches lay on the steps.
“I have always kept some of these in my ponds, of course,” said Cao Cao.
“O Prince, do you think to deceive me? All perches have two gills except the River Song perch, which has two pairs. That is the distinguishing feature.”
The guests crowded round to look, and, surely enough, the fish had four gills.
“To cook this perch one needs purple sprout ginger though,” said the Taoist.
“Can you also produce that?” asked Cao Cao.
“Easily.”
Zuo Ci told them to bring in a silver bowl, which the magician filled with water. Very soon the ginger filled the bowl, and he presented it to the host. Cao Cao put out his hand to pick some, when suddenly a book appeared in the bowl and the title was “Cao Cao's New Treatise on the Art of War”. He took it out and read it over. Not a word of his treatise was missing.
Cao Cao became more mystified. Zuo Ci took up a jade cup that stood on the table, filled it with fine wine, and presented it to Cao Cao.
“Drink this, O Prince, and you will live a thousand years.”
“Drink of it first yourself,” said Cao Cao.
The Taoist took the jade pin from his head-dress and drew it across the cup as if dividing the wine into two portions.
Then he drank one half and handed the cup with the other half to Cao Cao. But Cao Cao angrily refused it. The Taoist then threw the cup into the air, where it was transformed into a white dove which circled round the banquet hall and then flew away.
All faces were turned upward following the flight of the dove, and so no one had noticed the going of the Taoist. But he was gone; and soon the gate warden reported that he had left the palace.
Said Cao Cao, “A magician like this ought to be put to death, or he will do some mischief.”
The redoubtable Xu Chu and a company of three hundred armed men were sent to arrest the Taoist. They saw the Taoist, still wearing his wooden clogs, not far ahead but striding along quickly. Xu Chu rode after Zuo Ci, but in spite of all his horse could do, he could not come up with Zuo Ci. He kept up the chase right to the hills, when he met a shepherd lad with a flock of sheep. And there walked the Taoist among the sheep. The Taoist disappeared. The angry warrior slew the whole flock of sheep, while the shepherd lad looked on weeping.
Suddenly the boy heard a voice from one of the severed heads, telling him to replace the heads on the bodies of his sheep. Instead of doing so, he fled in terror, covering his face.
Then he heard a voice calling to him, “Do not run away; you shall have your sheep again.”
He turned, and lo! the sheep were all alive again, and Zuo Ci was driving them along. The boy began to question him, but the Taoist made no reply. With a flick of his sleeves, he was gone.
The shepherd lad went home and told all these marvels to his master. He could not conceal such a story, and it reached Cao Cao. Then sketches of the Taoist were sent everywhere with orders to arrest him. Within three days were arrested in the city and outside three or four hundred persons all blind of one eye, lame of one leg, and wearing a rattan head-dress, a black loose robe and wooden clogs. They were all alike and all answered to the description of the missing Taoist.
There was a great hubbub in the street. Cao Cao ordered his officer to sprinkle the crowd of Taoists with the blood of pigs and goats in order to exorcise the witchcraft and take them away to the drill ground on the south of the city. Thither he followed them with his guards, who surrounded the crowd of arrested persons and slew every one. But from the neck of each one, after the head was severed, there floated up into the air a wreath of black
vapor, and all these wreaths drifted toward a center where they joined up into the image of another Zuo Ci, who presently beckoned to him a white crane out of the sky, mounted it and sat as on a horse.
Clapping his hands, the Taoist cried merrily, “The rats of the earth follow the golden tiger, and one morning the doer of evil shall be no more.”
The soldiers shot arrows at both bird and man. At this a tremendous storm burst over the city. Stones were driven along, sand was whirled about, and all the corpses arose from the ground, each holding his own head in his hands. They rushed toward Cao Cao as if to strike him. The officials covered their eyes, and none dared to look another in the face.
The power of a bold man will overturn a state,
The art of a necromancer also produces wonders.
Read the next chapter and you will know the fate of Cao Cao.
CHAPTER 69. Guan Lu Sees Things In The Book Of Changes; Five Loyal Subjects Die For Their State.
The sight of the corpses of his victims rising to their feet in the storm and running toward him was too much for Cao Cao, and he swooned. However, the wind quickly fell and the corpses disappeared. His followers assisted Cao Cao to his palace, but he was very ill.
A poet celebrated the episode of the murdered Taoist:
He studied his magical books,
He was learned in mystical lore,
And with magical fleetness of foot
He could travel the wide world over.
The magical arts that he knew,
He employed in an earnest essay
To reform the bad heart of Cao Cao.
But in vain; Cao Cao held on his way.
Cao Cao's illness seemed beyond the art of the physicians, and drugs seemed of no avail. It happened that Minister Xu Zhi came from the capital to visit the prince, who bade the latter take a cast from the “Book of Changes.”
“Have you ever heard of Guan Lu? He is more than human in his skill at divination,” said Xu Zhi.
“I have heard a lot about him, but I do not know how clever he is; you tell me about him,” replied Cao Cao.
“He is from Pingyuan. His face is ugly and coarse; he drinks to excess and is rather dissipated. His father was an elder of Langye. From a lad Guan Lu loved to study the stars, staying up all night to watch them, in spite of the prohibition of his father and mother. He used to say that if domestic fowls and wild geese knew the seasons naturally, how much more should humans. He often used to play with other boys at drawing pictures of the sky on the ground, putting in the sun, moon, and stars. When he grew older he studied the 'Book of Changes' very deeply and observed the winds. He was a marvelous calculator and excellent physiognomist.
“His fame reached the ears of Shan Zichun, the Governor of Langye, who called him to his residence for an interview. There were present some hundred or so other guests, every one of whom could be called able of speech.
“'I am young and not over-bold,' said Guan Lu to the Governor. 'I pray you give me three flasks of wine to loosen my tongue.' The request was astonishing, but the wine was brought in, and when he had drunk it, Guan Lu, looking contemptuously at the other guests, said, 'Now I am ready; are these the sort of opponents you have got together for me to contend with? Are these gentlemen sitting around me disputants?'
“'I myself am anxious for a match with you,' said Shan Zichun. Then they began upon the meaning of the Book of Changes. Guan Lu's words poured forth like a torrent, and his ideas were most recondite. The Governor replied, stating difficulties; Guan Lu swept them away in a stream of eloquence. So it went on the whole day without a pause even for refreshment. Neither Shan Zichun nor his other guests could help praising Guan Lu and agreeing with him.
“His fame spread wide after this encounter, and people spoke of him as the 'Supernatural Boy.' After this he became famous in another way. There was a certain Guo En, a man of the people, who had two brothers. All three became lame, and they called in Guan Lu to cast lots and discover the reason. Guan Lu said, 'By the lots there is a female demon in your family tomb, an aunt, the wife of one of your father's brothers. Some years ago, in a time of famine, for the sake of a few carts of grain, she was pushed into a well and a great stone was thrown in on her, crushing her head so that she suffered intensely. She complained to the Most High, and your lameness is the retribution for that crime. No prayers will avert the evil. The three brothers wept and acknowledged their guilt.
“Governor Wang Ji of Anping, heard of the diviner's fame and invited him to come on a visit, and he went. It happened that another guest of the Governor was the magistrate of Xindu, whose wife suffered from headaches and his son from pains in the heart. Guan Lu was asked to discover the reason. He cast lots and said that at the west corner of the main hall there were buried two corpses, one of a man who held a spear, the other of a man who had a bow and arrows. The wall was built across them. The spearman's master had gashed his head, and so his head pained. The archer's master had stabbed him in the heart, and so his heart suffered anguish. They dug where Guan Lu indicated and, about eight spans down, found two coffins, one with a spear inside and the other with a strung bow and wooden arrows. All were much decayed. Guan Lu bade them remove the bones and bury them three miles outside the walls. Thereafter the woman and her son suffered no more.
“A certain Zhuge Yuan, Magistrate of Guantao, newly promoted to Governor, was leaving for his new post, and Guan Lu went to see him off. One of the guests mentioned that Guan Lu could divine what was hidden from sight. The Governor doubted such powers and said he would put a test. He got a swallow's egg, a wasp's nest, and a spider, and concealed them in three separate boxes. He asked Guan Lu to guess the contents. The divination made, Guan Lu wrote three quatrains:
'The latent life will declare itself;
It will cling to your lordly hall,
Or male or female, flung into space,
Wide wings will prevent its fall.
This seems to indicate a swallow's egg.
'A many-chambered dwelling
Is hanging to your eaves.
Each room has a poisonous tenant;
Who'll be flying when he leaves.
This answers to a wasp's nest.
'Therein is a long-legged, trembling thing,
Who spins a thread from his inside
And spreads a fine spun net for flies;
He profits most at eventide.
And this it a spider.'
“The guests were amazed.
“An old woman in his village having lost a cow, came to consult him. After the divination, he told her that seven men had taken away the cow and were cooking and eating it on the bank of a certain mountain stream. She would better go there quickly and see who they were. If she went with all speed, she would find the skin and the flesh. The woman went and found the seven men hidden behind a small shanty, boiling beef. Most of the cow's flesh was still there. She told Governor Liu Bin, who arrested the seven men and punished them. Then the Governor asked the old lady how she got to know exactly who the offenders were, and she told him.
“Governor Liu Bin was dubious, too. He sent for Guan Lu and put him to the following test. He placed his seal and a pheasant feather in a box and asked what were the contents. The reply was:
'Square within, without so round,
Beauteous colors here abound;
The jewel within is held secure
And what it witnesses is sure.
Is not this a seal in its bag?
'There's a bird on the precipice steep,
Its body with flame seems aglow.
Its wings are barred yellow and black.
At sunrise it never fails to crow.
And I think this hints at a pheasant feather.
“Governor Liu Bin treated the marvelous diviner with great honor.
“One day Guan Lu saw a youth plowing a field. After watching him for a long time, Guan Lu suddenly asked his name and age.
“'My name is Zhao Yan, and I am nineteen,' sai
d the young man. 'Pray, who may you be, Sir?'
“'I am Guan Lu; you may have heard of me. I see an air of early death about you, and you will be done with life in three days. It is a pity that one so handsome should die so young.'
“Zhao Yan forsook his plow, hurried home and told his father. The father at once set out to find Guan Lu, and, having found Guan Lu, threw himself on the ground and besought the diviner to save his son.
“'How can I avert the doom? It is fate,' said Guan Lu.
“'Alas! I have but this one son, I pray you save him.'
“And the son added his tears and prayers to those of his father. Guan Lu was deeply touched. Then he turned to the lad and said, 'You get ready some good wine and some venison. Tomorrow go into the forest on the south there, and underneath a lofty tree you will see two men seated on boulders playing chess. One of them will be dressed in white, and he will be facing the south. He is very evil looking. The other will be seated opposite, dressed in red. He is very handsome. They will be deeply absorbed in their game and will not notice who offers them food and wine, which you will humbly present on your knees. When they have eaten and drunk, you will prostrate yourself and with tears pray them to grant you length of days. You will gain an increased span of life, but, above all things, do not mention that I told you what to do.'
“The father kept Guan Lu as a guest, and the next day the son followed out his instructions. He entered the forest and soon came upon the two men seated beneath a pine, playing chess. They seemed oblivious to all around them. Zhao Yan presented the wine and the food, and the two men ate absent-mindedly, for the game went on.
“But when Zhao Yan threw himself on the ground and implored the gift of long life, they seemed startled. “'This must be some of Guan Lu's doing,' said Red-Robe. 'Still, as we have accepted a gift at his hand, we must have pity on him.'
“He who was dressed in white then lifted up a book that hung at his side and looked therein.
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