Three Kingdoms

by Luo Guanzhong (Moss Roberts trans. )

  Unexpectedly, Zhang Zhao arrived from the southern capital, jianye; he was summoned by Sun Quan. "My lord," Zhang Zhao said, "when you put Lord Guan and his son to death, you brought the Southland to the verge of disaster, for the man had bound himself to Liu Bei. By the peach garden oath they swore to live and die as one. Today Liu Bei controls the forces of all the Riverlands. Add to that the cunning of Zhuge Liang and the valor of the remaining 'Tiger Generals, ' Zhang Fei, Huang Zhong, Ma Chao, and Zhao Zilong—when Liu Bei learns how Lord Guan and Guan Ping died, he will mobilize the whole kingdom and do his utmost for revenge, a threat the Southland is going to find difficult to meet." Badly shaken by Zhang Zhao's words, Sun Quan stamped his feet as he said, "I have miscalculated. What can we do about it?"

  "All is not lost, my lord," Zhang Zhao replied. "I have a plan to keep the westerners from attacking and thus keep Jingzhou as secure as a rock." "Tell us," said Sun Quan. Zhang Zhao went on, "Cao Cao has command of a million men. His glance scours the empire like a tiger's. But Liu Bei's urgent wish for revenge will require him to come to terms with Cao Cao. The Southland will hardly survive if those two combine forces and invade, so you would be well advised to make the first move. Have Lord Guan's head sent to Cao Cao in such a way as to make it appear to Liu Bei that it was all at Cao's direction. His animosity will be redirected toward Cao Cao and his armies will turn on the kingdom of Wei while we observe the fortunes of both and from a neutral vantage seize our opportunity."

  Sun Quan agreed, and the head was taken in a wooden box to Cao Cao. At the time Cao Cao had just returned to Luoyang from Mopo. Hearing that Sun Quan had sent Lord Guan's head, Cao Cao exclaimed delightedly, "With him dead, I shall spend my nights secure indeed." But a member of the court stepped forward and said, "This is actually a device for transferring disaster away from the Southland." Cao Cao studied the speaker, First Secretary Sima Yi. Cao Cao demanded an explanation, and Sima Yi replied, "At the time when Liu, Guan, and Zhang pledged their honor in the peach garden, they swore to die for one another. Now, having put Lord Guan to death, the Southland fears the brothers' reprisal. That is why Sun Quan presented the head to Your Majesty—to make Liu Bei shift his hatred and attack us instead of them, while they look for ways to exploit the situation."

  "What you say is correct," Cao Cao responded to Sima Yi, "but how do we get out of it?" "It is not difficult at all," Sima Yi replied. "Let Your Highness have Lord Guan's head fitted with torso and limbs carved of fragrant wood so that he may be buried whole with the ceremony due a high minister. When Liu Bei learns of it, his hatred for Sun Quan will deepen, and he will concentrate on the southern expedition. Then we can sit back and await developments. If the Riverlands is winning, we attack the Southland; if the Southland is winning, we attack the Riverlands. Once one falls, the other cannot last."

  Delighted with the scheme, Cao Cao called in the messenger from the Southland. The messenger presented the wooden box. Cao Cao opened it and saw Lord Guan's face, just as it had been in life. With a smile, Cao Cao said, "You have been well, I trust, General, since we parted?"8 Before Cao Cao could finish, the mouth opened, the eyes moved, and the hair and beard stood up like quills. Cao fell in a faint, reviving only after a long spell. He said to the officers who had rushed to his aid, "General Guan is no mortal!" The messenger told Cao Cao how Lord Guan had taken possession of Lü Meng, reviled Sun Quan, and then hounded Meng himself. Cao Cao shivered at the report. Adopting Sima Yi's advice, he held a grand ceremony with sacrificial animals and libations honoring the great man as a prince before burying his head and the wooden corpse outside the southern gate of Luoyang. Cao Cao ordered officials of all ranks to attend the funeral, and he personally made offerings and advanced Lord Guan's rank to prince of Jingzhou. Guards were then dispatched to the tomb, and the Southland messenger was sent home to report.

  When the king of Hanzhong returned to Chengdu from the eastern Riverlands, Fa Zheng petitioned him: "Your Majesty's former wife has left the world, and Lady Sun has gone home to the south, unlikely to return. But this great principle of human relations cannot be ignored forever. You shall have to take another royal wife to aid in domestic matters." When the king consented, Fa Zheng continued, "Wu Yi has a younger sister who is attractive and virtuous. Once a reader of faces predicted that she would rise high. She had been promised to Liu Mao, son of the late Protector Liu Yan. But due to Mao's premature death, she has lived in widowed retirement. She would make a suitable consort for Your Highness." The king replied, "It is unthinkable. Liu Mao was my kinsman." "In terms of propinquity," Fa Zheng argued, "how is it different from the case of Duke Wen of Jin, Chong Er, and Huai Ying?"9 And so the king of Hanzhong relented and accepted Lady Wu as his royal consort. Later, she bore him two sons, Liu Yung (Gongshou) and Liu Li (Fengxiao).

  In both the eastern and the western sections of the Riverlands the population was contented, the kingdom was prosperous, and the harvests were large. Suddenly a report came from Jingzhou that the Southland had sought a state marriage with Lord Guan and that he had rejected it. "Jingzhou will fall," Kongming said. "Lord Guan must be recalled and someone sent to replace him." As they were speaking, more reports streamed in, followed by Guan Xing, who told them how Lord Guan had flooded seven armies at Fan. Soon another rider brought word that Lord Guan had set up an impenetrable net of signal stations along the river. This last report eased Xuande's worries.

  One day, however, Xuande was seized with trembling. Walking or sitting, he could find no peace. That night, unable to sleep, he sat in his inner chamber reading by candlelight. Feeling his senses darken, he sank, unconscious, onto the table. A chilly gust sprang up inside the room; the candle blew out, then rekindled. Xuande raised his head and saw a man's form standing by the lamp. "Who comes to my room in dead of night?" he demanded, but there was no reply. Puzzled, Xuande arose to examine him: it was Lord Guan, moving back and forth evasively beside the lamp. "Worthy brother, have you been well since we parted?" Xuande asked. "You must have some serious reason for coming here in the dead of night. You and I are as kindred. Why do you avoid me?"

  Lord Guan appealed through his sobs: "I beg my brother, raise an army; avenge me." So saying, he was no more as another chilly gust swept by. Waking from the dream to the beating of the third drum, Xuande rushed bewildered from his room calling for Kongming. Kongming came, and Xuande reported his alarming dream. "This is all because Lord Guan is much on Your Highness's mind. Do not vex yourself so." Xuande voiced his anxieties, and Kongming tried his best to soothe him.

  After taking leave of his lord, Kongming came upon Xu Jing at the gate. Jing said, "I was just at your residence, Director General, to deliver a secret report. They said I'd find you here in the palace." "What is it?" asked Kongming. "The rumor is that Lü Meng of the Southland has surprised Jingzhou and that Lord Guan has been killed." "Last night I was observing the heavens," Kongming said. "A martial star fell over the Jingzhou area. It told me that Lord Guan must have met his doom. But I chose to keep silent because of His Highness's anxieties." As the two men were speaking, someone came out of the building and seized Kongming's sleeve. "How can you try to keep such evil news from me!" It was Xuande! Kongming and Xu Jing made obeisance and said, "These rumors cannot be taken seriously. Let Your Highness be calm and free of anxiety." "Yunchang and I swore to die as one," Xuande cried. "I would not be able to live on without him."

  Kongming and Xu Jing tried to calm him. But at that moment an attendant announced the arrival of Ma Liang and Yi Ji. The two men were rushed before Xuande. They reported the fall of Jingzhou, Lord Guan's defeat, and his request for aid; they also submitted his letter of appeal. Before Xuande had time to read it, the arrival of Liao Hua from Jingzhou was announced. He too was brought swiftly before Xuande. Liao Hua threw himself to the ground, weeping as he told how Liu Feng and Meng Da had refused to send forces to rescue Lord Guan. Xuande was astounded. "In that case, my brother is done for," he exclaimed. Kongming added, "For spiting us so, death is too ge
ntle for those two. Stay calm, Your Highness, and I will take an army to Jingzhou myself and save the province." But Xuande cried out, "I cannot endure life without my brother. I will go to his rescue tomorrow myself." Xuande sent someone to Langzhong to notify Zhang Fei while he himself set about mustering the army.

  Before day had dawned, reports of the catastrophe in Jingzhou were streaming in, telling of Lord Guan's night flight to Linju, his capture by the southerners, his refusal to dishonor his pledge of loyalty to Xuande, and his final dispatch together with his son, Ping. After hearing the whole tale, Xuande uttered a dreadful cry and fell unconscious to the ground. Indeed:

  Thinking of their vow to die as one,

  Could he bear to let him die alone?

  Would Xuande revive?10

  Read on.

  78

  Treating an Affliction, a Famous Practitioner Dies;

  Delivering the Last Command, the Tyrant Ends His Days1

  The king of Hanzhong dropped to the ground, grieving for Lord Guan and his son. Military officers and court officials rushed to offer him assistance. Finally the king revived, and they helped him to his rooms. "Try to stay calm," Kongming urged him. "From the beginning of time, death has been ordained. Lord Guan's willful arrogance caused this catastrophe.2 Your Highness must guard your precious health while we plan revenge step by step." "I took an oath of brotherhood with Lord Guan and Zhang Fei," Xuande answered. "We vowed to die as one. With Lord Guan gone, what meaning do wealth and honor have for me?"

  As Xuande was speaking, Guan Xing entered, wailing piteously. At the sight of Lord Guan's son, Xuande cried out and fainted again. Officers rushed to his side. Five times Xuande fell from grief that day. For three days, refusing all food and drink, he howled out his pain until his cries brought flecks of blood to his tear-soaked robes. Kongming and the officers pressed him to desist, but he said, "Neither this sun nor this moon shall I share with the Southland: so I swear." "They say," Kongming responded, "that the Southland has presented Lord Guan's head to Cao Cao, who has interred him with royal ceremony." "What does it mean?" Xuande asked. "It means," Kongming replied, "that the Southland is trying to shift the blame for his death to Cao Cao—who, however, has seen through the scheme and buried Lord Guan with full honors so that your revenge may fall on the Southland." "Then," Xuande answered, "we must bare our weapons now and visit that vengeance on the south."3

  Kongming objected: "That we must not do, for the south would have us embroiled in the north just as the north would have us in the south, each evolving its own schemes and awaiting the opportunity to strike. Your Highness needs to refrain from action for now and simply initiate the funeral services for Lord Guan. When the accord between north and south breaks down, we can start our punitive expedition."4 The assembly of officials joined in earnest appeal, and Xuande finally accepted food; then he ordered the armed forces from the generals down to the rank and file to go into mourning. In front of the southern gate of the capital the king personally led the rites for summoning the souls of the dead and performed the sacrifices. His lamentation continued the entire day.

  Lord Guan had been interred at Luoyang, but he continued to appear in Cao Cao's mind's eye. Cao put the matter to his officials, who said, "Vengeful ghosts haunt the old buildings in the supplementary palace here. You must build a new residence." "I have been planning," Cao Cao responded, "to construct a residence to be called Foundation Hall, but I lack a skilled architect." "Su Yue is one of Luoyang's best," Jia Xu suggested. At Cao Cao's invitation, Su Yue designed a large-scale building of nine sections, surrounded by corridors, elevated galleries, and towers. The drawings were presented to Cao Cao. After examining them, he said, "Exactly what I had in mind. But we do not have the lumber for the main beams." Su Yue replied, "Thirty li from the city in front of the Vaulting Dragon Pool there is a temple of the same name. Beside the temple grows a giant pear tree over a hundred spans tall. That should provide the beams for Foundation Hall."

  Elated, Cao Cao sent workmen to cut the tree down. But they could not penetrate it with saws or open it with axes. In disbelief Cao Cao led several hundred men to the shrine to inspect the tree, which soared straight up and spread out a leafy canopy that seemed to reach to the Milky Way. Cao Cao ordered his men to cut the pear tree down, but some local elders came forward to object. "The tree is already several hundred years old," they said, "and a spirit has always occupied it. It should not be cut." Cao Cao made an angry reply: "In all my time, over forty years, I have gone far and wide across the realm. And I am held in fear and respect by all, from the Son of Heaven himself to the common man. What perverse spirit here dares challenge my wishes?" He struck at the tree with his sword. There was a metallic sound; then blood splashed over Cao, who threw his sword to the ground and rode home in hysteria.

  That night at the second watch, unable to sleep, Cao Cao was seated in his chamber, resting against a low table. Suddenly he saw a man dressed in black, hair disheveled, hand on sword, advancing straight at him and shouting, "I am the spirit of the pear tree. Building Foundation Hall signals your intent to usurp the dynasty. That explains your striking at a sacred tree.5 I know your number is told, and I come to take your life!" Cao Cao called in panic for his guards. The black-robed figure swung his sword. Cao Cao screamed and awoke, his head throbbing unbearably. Physicians were sought, but none could bring relief. The court officials were depressed.

  Hua Xin submitted a proposal: "Your Highness knows of the marvelous physician Hua Tuo?" "The man who cured Zhou Tai of the Southland?" Cao asked. "The same," Hua Xin said. "I have heard the name, but am unacquainted with his technique," Cao said. Hua Xin continued, " Hua Tuo (styled Yuanhua) is from the Qiao district in the fief of Pei. He has worked miraculous cures unknown to any other doctor. For the sufferer he prescribes salves or acupuncture or moxibustion, and patients seem to heal at his touch. In cases of disease of the internal organs, where applied compounds will not work, he feeds the patient a narcotic potion to induce a deep sleep; then he cuts open the stomach and irrigates the affected areas with medicinal fluids. The patient feels not the slightest pain, and after the irrigation Hua Tuo sews up the wound with treated sutures and spreads salve over it. Recovery takes a month, maybe twenty days. That's the kind of skill he has!

  "Traveling one day, he heard someone groaning. 'Inability to ingest, ' he said—which turned out to be the case. Hua Tuo had three pints of garlic and leek juice given to the sufferer, who spit up a worm over two feet long. After that the man could ingest once again. Governor of Guangling Chen Deng suffered from severe indigestion and inflamed complexion. Unable to eat, he summoned Hua Tuo. After taking medicine, the governor vomited up three pints of worms; their tails wriggled and their heads were reddish. Chen Deng asked for the cause. The doctor told him his condition came from eating too much fish, and that the symptoms could well recur in three years and become incurable even though he was normal at the moment. Three years later the governor died.

  "Another time, a man had a tumor by his eyebrow. It itched intolerably, so the sufferer summoned Hua Tuo. After studying the growth, the doctor said that something winged was inside. Everyone laughed, but when he cut it open, a little sparrow flew out, and the man was healed.

  "Another time, a dog bit a man's toes, and two lumps of flesh grew there. One hurt and one itched excruciatingly. Hua Tuo said, 'There are ten needles inside the one that hurts, and two chess pieces, one black, one white, inside the other. ' No one thought this diagnosis credible; but when Hua Tuo cut them open, it was exactly as he said. He is of the same caliber as Bian Que of the Spring and Autumn period or Master Cang of the Former Han. At present Hua Tuo lives in Jincheng, not too far from here. Your Highness should call for him."

  Hua Tuo was speedily summoned and ordered to examine the ailing king. "Your Highness's severe headaches are due to a humor that is active. The root cause is in the skull, where trapped air and fluids are building up. Medicine won't do any good. The method I would advise is this:
after general anesthesia I will open your skull with a cleaver and remove the excess matter. Only then can the root cause be removed." "Are you trying to kill me?" Cao Cao protested angrily. "Your Highness must have heard how I treated Lord Guan's right arm after he was wounded by a poisoned arrow," Tuo replied. "I had to scrape the bone, yet he betrayed no sign of fear. Why is Your Highness so apprehensive over a minor affliction?" "An arm can be scraped. How can the skull be opened? You must be Lord Guan's close friend, hoping to use this occasion for revenge." So saying, Cao Cao ordered Hua Tuo imprisoned and interrogated. Jia Xu objected: "So excellent and rare a physician should not be wasted." But Cao Cao replied sharply, "The man was looking for a chance to murder me, as Ji Ping was,"6 and ordered the interrogation to proceed.

  One of the jailers where Hua Tuo was confined was known as Wu the Bailiff. Every day the man provided wine and food for Hua Tuo. Gratefully, Tuo said to him, "My death is imminent. What I regret most is that my Book of the Black Bag will be lost to posterity. You have been so kind to me, but I have been unable to repay you. Now I will write to my family. Have someone take them the letter, and they will present the book to you so that my methods can be carried on." Delighted, the bailiff said, "With that book I can be done with this kind of work and cure the sick. That way, master, your benevolence will reach the generations to come." Hua Tuo composed the letter, and Wu the Bailiff took it to Jincheng. Tuo's wife gave him the book, and he brought it back to Hua Tuo, who read it through and then gave it as a gift to the jailer. Wu the Bailiff took it home and kept it there.

  Ten days later Hua Tuo died. Wu the Bailiff purchased a coffin and had the body readied for burial. He then resigned his office and returned home, ready to begin his study of Hua Tuo's book. Once home, he could hardly believe his eyes: his wife was putting the book in the fire. Up in arms, Wu the Bailiff tried desperately to retrieve it, but it was already destroyed. Only a couple of pages remained. When the bailiff angrily cursed his wife, she said, "Even if you could become as great a physician as Hua Tuo, you would only end up dead in jail. What's the good of it?" Wu the Bailiff sighed his heart out before he desisted. This is why Hua Tuo's writings have never come down to us, except for the few lines about capons and gelded pigs on the unburned pages. A poet of later times left these lines in praise of the renowned physician: