Romance of the Three Kingdoms: 1 (Tuttle Classics)

by Lo Kuan-Chung

  “I have brought back with me Chuko Liang, the brother of our Chuko Chin. If you questioned him he would explain clearly.”

  “Is ‘Master Sleeping Dragon’ really here?”

  “Really here; in the guesthouse.”

  “It is too late to see him today. But tomorrow I will assemble my officials and you will introduce him to all my best. After that we will debate the matter.”

  With these instructions Lu Su retired. Next day he went to the guesthouse and conveyed Sun’s commands to the guest, particularly saying,“When you see my master tomorrow, say nothing of the magnitude of Ts’ao’s army.”

  K’ungming smiled, saying,“I shall act as circumstances dictate, you may be sure I shall make no mistakes.”

  K’ungming was then conducted to where the high officers, civil and military to the number of two score and more, were assembled. They formed a dignified conclave as they sat in stately ranks with their tall headdresses and broad girdles.

  Chang Chao sat at the head and K’ungming first saluted him. Then, one by one, he exchanged the formal courtesies with them all. This done he took his seat in the guest’s chair. They, on their part, noted with interest his refined and elegant manner and his commanding figure, thinking within themselves,“Here is a man fitted for discourse.”

  Chang Chao led the way in trying to bait the visitor. He said,“You will pardon the most insignificant of our official circle, myself, if I mention that people say you compare yourself with those two famous men of talent, Kuan Chung and Yo I. Is there any truth in this?”

  “To a trifling extent I have compared myself with them,” replied K’ungming.

  “I have heard that Liu Pei made three journeys to visit you when you lived in retirement in your simple dwelling, and that when you consented to serve him he said he was as lucky as a fish in getting home to the ocean. Then he desired to possess the district about Chingchou and Hsiangyang. Yet today all that country belongs to Ts’ao Ts’ao. I should like to hear your account of all that.”

  K’ungming thought,“This Chang is Sun Ch’uan’s first adviser and unless I can nonplus him I shall never have a chance with his master.” So he replied,“In my opinion the taking of the district around the Han River was as simple as turning over one’s hand. But my master Liu is both righteous and humane and would not stoop to filching the possession of a member of his own house. So he refused the offer of succession. But Liu Ts’ung, a stupid lad, misled by specious words, submitted to Ts’ao and fell victim to his ferocity. My master is in camp at Chianghsia, but what his future plans may be cannot be divulged at present.”

  Be it so; but your words and your deeds are something discordant. You say you are the equal of the two famous ones. Well, Kuan Chung as Minister of Duke Kuan, put his master at the very head of the feudal nobles, making his master’s will supreme in all the land. Under the able statesmanship of Yo I the feeble country of Yen conquered Ch’i reducing nearly four score of its cities. These two were men of most commanding and conspicuous talent. When you lived in retirement you smiled scornfully at ordinary people, passed your days in idleness, nursing your knees and posing in a superior manner, implying that if you had control of affairs Liu Pei would be more than human; he should bring good to everybody and remove all evil; rebellion and robbery would be no more. Poor Liu, before he obtained your help, was an outcast and a vagabond, stealing a city here and there where he could. With you to help him he was to become the cynosure of every eye and every lisping school boy was to say that he was a tiger who had grown wings. The Hans were to be restored and Ts’ao and his faction exterminated. The good old days would be restored and all the men who bad been driven into retirement by the corruption of political life would wake up, rub the sleep out of their eyes and be in readiness to lift the cloud of darkness that covered the sky and gaze up at the glorious brilliancy of the sun and moon, to pull the people out of fire and water and put all the world to rest on a couch of comfort. That was all to happen forthwith. Why then, when you went to Yuchou, did not Ts’ao’s army throw aside their arms and armour and flee like rats? Why could you not have told Liu Piao how to give tranquillity to his people? Why could you not aid his orphan son to protect his frontiers? Instead you abandoned Hsinyeh and fled to Fanch’eng, you were defeated at Tangyang; you fled to Hsiak’ou with no place to rest in. Thus, after you had joined Liu Pei, he was worse off than before. Was it thus with Kuan Chung and Yo I? I trust you do not mind my blunt speech.”

  K’ungming waited till he had closed his oration, then laughed and said,“How can the common birds understand the long flight of the roc? Let me use an illustration. A man has fallen into a terrible malady. First the physician must administer hashish, then soothing drugs until his viscera shall be calmed into harmonious action. When the sick man’s body shall have been reduced to quietude, then may he be given strong meats to strengthen him and powerful drugs to correct the disorder. Thus the disease will be quite expelled and the man restored to health. If the physician does not wait till the humours and pulse are in harmony, but throws in his strong drugs too early, it will be difficult to restore the patient. My master suffered defeat at Junan and went to Liu Piao. He had then less than one company of soldiers and only three captains. That was indeed a time of extreme weakness. Hsinyeh was a secluded, rustic town with few inhabitants and scanty supplies, and my master only retired there as a temporary refuge. How could he even think of occupying and holding it? Yet, with insufficient force, in a weak city, with untrained men and inadequate supplies, a camp was burned, two leaders and their army were nearly drowned and were frightened into running away. I doubt whether your two ancient heroes would have done any better. As to the surrender of Liu Ts’ung, Liu Pei knew nothing of it. And he was too noble and to righteous to take advantage of a kinsman’s straits to seize his inheritance. As for the defeat at Tangyang it must be remembered that Liu Pei was hampered with a huge voluntary following of common people, with their aged relatives and their children, whom he was too humane to abandon. He never thought of taking Chiangling, but willingly suffered with his people. This is a striking instance of his magnanimity. Small forces are no match for large armies. Victory and defeat are common episodes in every campaign. The great Founder of the Hans suffered many defeats at the hands of Hsiang Yu, but he finally conquered at Haihsia and that battle was decisive. Was not this due to the strategy of Han Hsin who, though he had long served his master, had never won a victory. Indeed real statesmanship, the restoration of stable government is a master plan far removed from the vapid discourses and debates of a lot of bragging babblers and specious and deceitful talkers, who, as they themselves say, are immeasureably superior to the rest of mankind but who, when it comes to deeds and decisions to meet the infinite and constant vicissitudes of affairs, fail to throw up a single capable man. Truly such people are the laughing stock of all the world.”

  Chang Chao found no reply to this diatribe but another in the assembly lifted up his voice, saying,“But what of Ts’ao Ts’ao’s present position? There he is, encamped with many legions and numberless leaders. Whither he goes he is invincible and whither he looks he is fearsome. He has taken Chianghsia already, as we see.”

  The speaker was Yu Fan and K’ungming replied,“Ts’ao has acquired the swarms of Yuan Shao and stolen the crowds of Liu Piao. Yet I care not for all his legions.”

  Yu Fan smiled icily,“When you got thrashed at Tangyang and in desperation sent this way and that to ask help, even then did you not care? But do you think big talk really takes people in?”

  “Liu had a few companies of scrupulous soldiers to oppose to a hundred legions of fierce brutes. He retired to Hsiak’ou for breathing space. The soldiers of Chiangtung are good and there are ample supplies and the Long River is a defence. Is now a time for him to bend the knee before a renegade, to be careless of his honour and reputation? As a fact Liu is not the sort of man to fear such a rebel as Ts’ao.”

  Yu Fan had nothing to reply. Next, one Pu C
hih, who was among those seated, said,“Will you talk of our land of Wu with a tongue like the tongues of Chang I and Su Ch’in of old?”

  K’ungming replied,“You regard those two as mere speculative talkers: you do not recognise them also as heroes. Su Ch’in bore the prime minister’s seals of six federated states; Chang I was twice prime Minister of Ch’in. Both were men of conspicuous ability who brought about the reformation of their governments. They are not to be compared with those who quail before the strong and overbear the weak, who fear the dagger and run away from the sword. You, Sir, have listened to Ts’ao Ts’ao’s crafty and empty rhodomontade and it has frightened you into advising surrender. Dare you ridicule Su Ch’in and Chang I?”

  Pu Chih was silenced. Then suddenly another interjected the question,“What do you think of Ts’ao Ts’ao?”

  It was Hsueh Tsung who had spoken and K’ungming replied,“Ts’ao is one of the rebels against the dynasty; why ask about him?”

  “You are mistaken,” said Hsueh Tsung.“The Hans have outlasted their allotted time and the end is near. Ts’ao already has two-thirds of the empire and people are turning to him. Your master has not recognised the fateful moment and to contend with a man so strong is to try to smash stones with eggs. Failure is certain.”

  K’ungming angrily replied,“Why do you speak so undutifully, as if you knew neither father nor prince? Loyalty and filial duty are the essentials of a man’s being. For a minister of Han correct conduct demands that one is pledged to the destruction of any one who does not follow the canon of a minister’s duty. Ts’ao’s forbears enjoyed the bounty of Han, but instead of showing gratitude, he nourishes in his bosom thoughts of rebellion. The whole world is incensed against him and yet you would claim for him the indication of destiny. Truly you are a man who knows neither father nor prince, a man unworthy of any words, and I decline to argue with you farther.”

  The blush of shame overspread Hsueh’s face and he said no more. But another, one Lu Chi, took up the dispute and said,“Although Ts’ao Ts’ao overawes the Emperor and in his name coerces the nobles, yet he is the descendant of a minister, while your master, though he says he is descended from a prince, has no proof thereof. In the eyes of the world he is just a weaver of mats, a seller of straw shoes. Who is he to strive with Ts’ao?”

  K’ungming laughed and replied,“Are you not that Lu who pocketed the orange when you were sitting among Yuan Shao’s guests? Listen to me; I have a word to say to you. Inasmuch as Ts’ao Ts’ao is a descendant of a minister of state he is by heredity a servant of the Hans. But now he has monopolised all state authority and knows only his own arbitrary will, heaping every indignity upon his lord. Not only does he forget his prince, but he ignores his ancestors; not only is he a rebellious servant of Han, but the renegade of his family. Liu Pei of Yuchou is a noble scion of the imperial family upon whom the Emperor has conferred rank, as is recorded in the annals. How then can you say there is no evidence of his imperial origin? Beside, the very founder of the dynasty was himself of lowly origin, and yet he became emperor. Where is the shame in weaving mats and selling shoes? Your mean, immature views are unfit to be mentioned in the presence of scholars of standing.”

  This put a stop to Lu Chi’s flow of eloquence, but another of those present said,“K’ungming’s words are overbearing and he distorts reason. It is not proper argument and he had better say no more. But I would ask him what classical canon he studied.”

  K’ungming looked at his interlocutor, who was named Yen Chun, and said,“The dryasdusts of every age select passages and choose phrases; what else are they good for? Do they ever initiate a policy or manage an affair? I Yin, who was a farmer in Hsin and Tzu-ya, the fisherman of the Wei River, Chang Liang and Ch’en P’ing, Teng Yu and Keng Yen all were men of transcendent ability, but I have never enquired what classical canon they followed or on whose essays they formed their style. Would you liken them to your rusty students of books, whose journeyings are comprised between their brush and their inkstone, who spend their days in literary futilities, wasting both time and ink?”

  No reply was forthcoming ; the speaker hung his head with shame. But another disputant, Ch’eng Te-shu by name, suddenly shouted,“You are mightily fond of big words, Sir, but they do not give any proof of your scholarship after all. I am inclined to think that a real scholar would just laugh at you.”

  K’ungming replied,“There are scholars and scholars. There is the noble scholar, loyal and patriotic, of perfect rectitude and a hater of any crookedness. The concern of such a scholar is to act in full sympathy with his day and leave to future ages a fine reputation. There is the scholar of the mean type, a pedant and nothing more. He labours constantly with his pen, in his callow youth composing odes and in hoary age still striving to understand the classical books completely. Thousands of words flow from his pen but there is not a solid idea in his breast. He may, as did Yang Hsiung, glorify the age with his writings and yet stoop to serve a tyrant such as Mang. No wonder Yang threw himself out of a window; he had to. That is the way of the scholar of mean type. Though he composes odes by the hundred, what is the use of him?”

  Ch’eng could make no reply. The other officers now began to hold this man of torrential speech in wholesome fear. Only two of them had failed to challenge him, but when they would have tried to pose K’ungming, suddenly some one appeared from without and angrily shouted,“This is not paying fit respect to a guest. You have among you the most wonderful man of the day and you all sit there trying to entangle him in speech while our arch enemy Ts’ao Ts’ao is nearing our borders. Instead of discussing how to oppose him you are all wrangling and disputing.”

  All eyes turned toward him; it was Huang Kai, of Lingling, who was master of the commissariat of Wu. He turned to address K’ungming, saying,“There is a saying that though something may be gained by talk there is more to be got by silence. Why not give my lord the advantage of your valuable advice instead of wasting time in discussion with this crowd?

  “They did not understand,” replied K’ungming,“and it was necessary to enlighten them, I had to speak.”

  As Huang Kai and Lu Su led the guest toward their master’s apartments, they met his brother Chuko Chin. K’ungming saluted him with the deference due to an elder brother and Chin said,“Why have you not been to see me, brother?”

  “I am now in the service of Liu of Yu chou and it is right that public affairs precede private obligations. I cannot attend to any private matters till my work is done. You must pardon me brother.”

  “After you have seen the Marquis you will come and tell me your news,” said he as he left.

  As they went along to the audience chamber Lu Su again cautioned K’ungming against any rash speech. The latter nodded but made no other reply. When they reached the hall Sun Ch’uan came down the steps to welcome his guests and was extraordinarily gracious. After the mutual salutations the guest was given a chair while the Marquis’s officials were drawn up in two lines, on one side the civil, on the other the military. Lu Su stood beside K’ungming and listened to his introductory speech.

  As K’ungming spoke of Yuan-te’s intentions, he glanced up at his host. He noted the grey eyes and brown beard and the dignified commanding air of the man and thought within himself,“Certainly in appearance this is no common man. He is one to be incited perhaps, but not to be persuaded. It will be better to see what he has to say first, then I will try to stir him to action.”

  The serving of tea being now finished, Sun Ch’uan began with the usual gracious ceremonial expressions.

  “Lu Su has often spoken of your genius” said the host; “it is a great pleasure to meet you. I trust you will confer upon me the advantage of your instruction.”

  “I am neither clever nor learned” was the reply, it humiliates me to hear such words.”

  “You have been at Hsinyeh lately and you helped your master to fight that decisive battle with Ts’ao Ts’ao, so you must know exactly the measure of his mil
itary strength.”

  “My master’s army was small and his generals were few; the city was paltry and lacked supplies. Hence no stand could be made against such a force as Ts’ao Ts’ao had.”

  “How many men has he in all?”

  “Horse and foot, land and marine, he has a hundred legions.”

  “Is there not some doubt about that?” said Sun Ch’uan.

  “None whatever; when Ts’ao Ts’ao went to Yenchou he had the twenty legions of Chingchou. He gained fifty or sixty legions when Yuan Shao fell. He has thirty or forty legions newly recruited in the capital. Lately he has acquired twenty or thirty legions in Chingchou. And if these be reckoned up the total is not less than a hundred and fifty. Hence I said a hundred for I was afraid of frightening your officers.”

  Lu Su was much disturbed and turned pale. He looked meaningly at the bold speaker, but K’ungming would not see. Sun Ch’uan went on to ask if his arch enemy had a corresponding number of leaders.

  “He has enough administrators and strategists to control such a host and his capable and veteran leaders are more than a thousand; perhaps more than two thousand.”

  “What will be Ts’ao Ts’ao’s next move now that he has overcome Chingchou and Ch’u?”

  “He is camped along the river and he has collected a fleet. If he does not intend to invade your territory, what can be his intentions?”

  “Since that is his intention, it is a case of fight or not fight. I wish you would decide that for me.”

  “I have something I could say, but I fear, Sir, you would not care to hear it.”

  “I am desirous of hearing your most valuable opinion.”

  “Strife has prevailed for a long time and so you should raise your army and Liu Pei should collect his forces south of the Han River, to act with you in contest for the empire against Ts’ao Ts’ao. Now Ts’ao has overcome most of his difficulties and his recent conquest of Chingchou has won him great and wide renown. Though there might be one bold enough to tackle him, yet there is no foothold for such. That is how Liu Pei has been forced to come here. But, General, I wish you to measure your forces and decide whether you can venture to meet him and that without loss of time. If you cannot, then follow the advice of your councillors; cease your military preparations and yield; turn your face to the north and serve.”