4. Mao (introductory note): "More than fifty chapters earlier [chap. 1] Zhang Jue was deluding the masses with his subversive [Taoist] doctrine. Seemingly from nowhere, Zhang Lu emerges in this chapter as his counterpart. Zhang Jue had two brothers; Zhang Lu had a father and grandfather. Zhang Jue had such names and titles as 'Taoists of the millennium, ' 'great and worthy leader. ' Zhang Lu used titles like 'lord-preceptor, ' 'libationer, ' and 'ghost squad. ' It is almost as if they were two of a kind, albeit unintentionally. It seems that the Yellow Scarves were the prelude to Liu Bei's gathering in the peach garden; and Zhang Lu, the starting point for Liu Bei's entrance into the Riverlands. This is an important conjunction in the structure of the work as a whole."
5. Liu Yan, as governor of Youzhou, issued the call for volunteers with which Liu Xuande's career began (chap. 1). Liu Yan's biography is often cited for illustrating the shift from the system of imperial inspectors, who represented the court, to provincial protectors, who, though formally appointed, exercised independent power. According to the "Shu shu," after an impressive bureaucratic career Liu Yan spoke out against the corruption of court-appointed local officials and recommended a reliable system of regional protectors. He requested assignment to Jiaozhou (northern Vietnam and southern Guangdong-Guangxi) to get away from the turmoil of the age; but before completing the journey, he was persuaded to head for Yizhou (the Riverlands). There he replaced the imperial inspector and befriended the man who had suppressed the local Yellow Scarves (led by Ma Xiang, self-styled Son of Heaven). Yan tolerated the Ghost's Way sect founded by Zhang Lu's mother, and sent Lu to rule Hanzhong after appointing him Captain Who Monitors Loyalty.
Liu Yan participated in an abortive plot against the Emperor when the Emperor was taken to Chang'an. Two of his sons, Fan and Dan, lost their lives in the incident. Haunted by grief and misfortune, Liu Yan died. His son Zhang, however, remained loyal to Emperor Xian and was made imperial inspector of Yizhou. See SGZ, pp. 865-67.
CHAPTER 60
1. The TS (p. 569) adds here: "In the south he has advanced to the Yangzi and Han rivers; in the north, to the provinces of You and Yan."
2. This is a key sentence.
3. Sima Xiangru was a noted poet and man of letters of the Western Han. Ma Yuan was the military hero (Tamer of the Deep) who subdued the Viet (Yue) region during the Eastern Han. Zhang Ji was a famed physician of the Eastern Han.
4. Shu, the name of the western region that is modern Sichuan, is a true homophone for shu, "rodent."
5. TS (p. 572): "... you might antagonize the man yi [southern 'barbarians']. Only well-informed people will know of the envoy's rudeness. Others will say Your Excellency killed him because his gifts were considered inadequate."
6. "Before you resume your journey home," as the TS has it. Kongming's purpose was to give friendly service to the traveler on his way, not to welcome him too obviously.
7. I. e., Kongming and Pang Tong. This is the first time the two Taoist sages are found together.
8. TS (p. 573): "At the banquet [Xuande, Kongming, and Pang Tong] made no reference to the Riverlands, to the condition of Inspector Liu Zhang, or to the type and character of the men found there. Zhang Song addressed himself to whatever came up as he waited for Xuande to broach the subject [uppermost in his mind]. But his hosts never alluded to it."
9. TS (p. 574): "'The empire belongs to no one man but to all in the empire. He who has virtue shall possess it. '" This motif is dropped here for the fifth time by Mao Zonggang.
10. Zhang Song, lieutenant inspector to Imperial Inspector Liu Zhang, had little confidence in Liu Zhang's ability to govern the province. Sima Guang (ZZTJ, p. 2109) says that the two men conspired to bring in Liu Xuande to replace Liu Zhang. Fa Zheng's biography (SGZ, p. 957) confirms this view. However, the historical basis for Fa Zheng's overture toward Liu Bei goes back three years to the time of Red Cliffs. Zhang Song was rebuffed by Cao Cao shortly before the great battle. After Cao Cao's defeat, Zhang Song recommended to Liu Zhang an alliance with Liu Bei instead of Cao Cao. Luo Guanzhong has advanced the incident more than three years.
11. The TS (p. 577) includes a poem that ends: "Had Liu Zhang heeded this advice, / He could have saved his province from that [other] Liu."
12. TS (p. 578) dates this to Jian An 16, 12th month (late January or February of a. d. 212).
13. Founders of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, respectively; according to tradition, each overthrew a tyrant before establishing the new regime.
14. The TS adds here: "Throughout history the realm for the most part has been won by expedience [quan and bian] but kept by benevolence and righteousness [ren and yi]."
CHAPTER 61
1. The TS (p. 583) dates the meeting to the first month of spring, Jian An 17 (a. d. 212). According to Liu Xuande's biography in the SGZ, this is the essence of the situation: Riverlands Inspector Liu Zhang invited Xuande's help in countering the threat from Zhang Lu. The Zhan Song-Fa Zheng faction had no faith in their inspector, however, and wanted Xuande to rule the province. When Xuande entered the Riverlands, the inspector met him at Fu and provided him with thirty thousand men and ample military supplies. Xuande stationed himself at Jiameng but instead of attacking Zhang Lu, he cultivated the loyalties of the local people. Thus, he became a threat to Liu Zhang even while defending him from Zhang Lu.
2. On the significance of Xuande's allusion to Hongmen, see chap. 21, n. 10.
3. According to the account in the PH (p. 110), Liu Zhang accuses Zhang Song and Fa Zheng of plotting to help deliver his province into the hands of Xuande. Zhang Song replies, "My lord, have you not heard that Sun Quan is plotting to gain the Riverlands, and Cao Cao, too, and Zhang Lu and Ma Chao? Have you not heard that the imperial uncle's humane virtue has won the respect of all Riverlanders and that he is a member of the royal family? If he came to possess your province, would he deny you a governorship to which you might comfortably retire?" Outraged by this speech, Liu Zhang summons various commanders to drive Xuande from place to place. He tries to go to Jiameng Pass but is blocked.
4. The city was called Moling in the Qin-Han period; Sun Quan changed the name to Jianye in a. d. 212; the name was changed to Jiankang during the Jin dynasty. The site is close to modern Nanking. Sun Quan was trying to maintain positions north of the Yangzi; Cao Cao was trying to maintain positions south of the Huai. Hefei, in Jiujiang district, was about midway between the two rivers. South of Hefei was the great lake (hu) called Chao Hu. The Ruxu linked the south end of the lake to the Yangzi.
5. This translation is based on Ban Gu, Po Hu T'ung, trans. Tjan Tjoe Som (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1949-52), pp. 25-27; and on Pan Ku [Ban Gu], History of the Former Han Dynasty, trans. Homer H. Dubs (Baltimore: The Waverly Press, 1938-55), 3: 208-11. The ceremony took place in mid-June a. d. 213. See chapter 91 n. 16.
6. Zhang Liang, lord of Liu, (the place-name, not the surname), was Han Gao Zu's principal adviser. Kongming is usually compared to him. Zhang Liang helped ensure the succession of Emperor Hui to Gao Zu's throne and thus preserved the dynasty from the threat of usurpation by the Lü clan. Xun Wenruo by contrast had encouraged Cao Cao's imperial ambition at earlier times. Thus, as Mao Zonggang observes, Xun Wenruo was in no position to protest Cao Cao's assumption of the Nine Dignities. On the other hand, Sima Guang, author of the ZZTJ (p. 2115), esteems Xun Wenruo and likens him to Guan Zhong, the sage counselor of Duke Huan of Qi during the Spring and Autumn period.
CHAPTER 62
1. Qingni was the base for Lord Guan's defense of Jingzhou. The letter, given in the First Ruler's biography (SGZ, p. 881), says in part: "Lord Cao is attacking Wu [the Southland), a grave threat. Also, Yue Jin is at Qingni opposing Guan Yu [Lord Guan]. If I do not go to rescue [Guan] Yu, [Yue] Jin will overwhelm him, and then turn and invade this province—a much greater threat than [Zhang] Lu." The time was January a. d. 213.
2. Zhang Su represents not only loyalty to Liu Zhang but also the policy of preserving ties with Cao Cao. Liu Zhang held a no
minal appointment (General Who Inspires Awe) from the Han throne thanks to Cao Cao's petition. According to the SGZ (p. 882, under Jian An 17): "The breach between Liu Zhang and Liu Bei opened with Zhang Su's disclosure of the plot."
3. Dongchuan (East Rivers) is a Tang, not a Han name; it refers to Hanzhong. Xichuan (West Rivers), a Han name, is one of the terms translated Riverlands. Xichuan enlarged by Dongchuan constitutes a "greater Riverlands," that is, the Yizhou of the Han period. The classic statement of Hanzhong's strategic importance was made to Kongming by Yang Hong: "Hanzhong is the throat of Yizhou, the critical junction on which the province's survival depends. Without Hanzhong there is no Shu [i. e., Xichuan]" ; see SGZ, p. 1013. Zhang Lu severed Hanzhong from Yizhou, killed the Han officers, and made it an independent realm. Zhang Lu's threat to Xichuan originally prompted Liu Zhang to solicit Xuande's help. On the strategic virtues and agricultural productivity of Hanzhong, see Guo Qinghua, "Zhuge Liang tunbing Hanzhong dui beifa de yiyi," in Chengdushi Zhuge Liang yanjiuhui, ed., Zhuge Liang yanjiu (Chengdu: Ba Shu shushe, 1985), pp. 250-58.
4. Mao (introductory note): " Xuande's first home base was Xuzhou [which he received from its governor, Tao Qian]; but he lost it to Lü Bu, after which Cao Cao seized it. Xuande's second base was Jingzhou; Cao Cao lost it to him, but Sun Quan demanded it from him. The Riverlands was Xuande's true home.
"The reason he accepted Xuzhou from Tao Qian's hands but declined Jingzhou from Liu Biao's hands is because he had learned his lesson from losing Xuzhou after having gained it....
"The reason Xuande refused to seize a kinsman's realm in Jingzhou but finally did so in the Riverlands is because he had learned his lesson from criticism of his slowness to act in Jingzhou."
CHAPTER 63
1. The turtledove, it was thought, drove his mate away in rain and called her home when the weather cleared. The lines seem to mean that Pang Tong was as well known in his hometown as the turtledove's homing call, and suggest the townsmen's wish for the hero's return when the storms of war had cleared. Pang Tong died in the summer of a. d. 214.
2. The Sky Dog (tiangou) is described in Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977), p. 93: ' "... it shatters armies and kills commanders. '... [They] were explosive meteors which struck the earth or rushed through the lower atmosphere as fire-balls."
3. Pang Tong's death, the result of an apparently accidental change of horses and routes, may not have been unwelcome to Xuande and Kongming. See Ling Ying, Sanguo yanyi zongheng tan (Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 1976), pp. 148-59.
4. Schafer, Pacing the Void, p. 93: "There was also a constellation called 'Dog of Heaven, ' in Cancer."
5. Mao (introductory note): "When Kongming first unveiled his strategy to Xuande, he urged alliance with Sun Quan as a precondition for conquering the north. This is all he was saying to Lord Guan. But now that Lady Sun has returned to the Southland, ending the Sun-Liu alliance, there is a likelihood of a Sun-Cao alliance. At the battle of Ruxu, Sun Quan did not call on Xuande for help but only asked Cao Cao to withdraw. Here lay the potential for an alliance of the Southland with the north. Division between Liu and Sun was not nearly so great a concern as a Cao-Sun alliance. Hence, it was not enough for Lord Guan to repel Cao Cao. If he did not preserve harmony with the south, how would he repel Cao Cao?"
6. The last line literally reads: "Where offerings of wine, chicken, and pig make every day a spring day." Mao (introductory note): "Zhang Fei performed many deeds in his life to gladden men's hearts. He whipped the inspector; he denounced Lü Bu; he drove Cao Cao back with his powerful voice at Steepslope; he rescued Ah Dou from Lady Sun. But none of these acts of courage compares with the shrewdness he displayed in capturing Yan Yan and then releasing him under obligation.... It is because his association with Kongming has transformed his crude and arrogant features."
CHAPTER 64
1. Here the TS (p. 613) reads: "Xuande had the boundless blessing that only a Son of Heaven enjoys." Mao's edition does not use this phrase, but it follows the TS in beginning to refer to Xuande's forces as Han forces. In a note Mao points out that this miraculous rescue of Xuande was the result of Zhang Fei's winning the assistance of Yan Yan and moving quickly through the Riverlands strongpoints. According to Pang Tong's biography, Tong died in the siege at Luoxian; see SGZ, p. 956.
2. Mao (introductory note): "Zhang Ren killed Pang Tong in an ambush; Kongming captures Zhang Ren in an ambush."
3. The text has Waishui (outer water), the name for the Great River inside the Riverlands. Deyang is on the River Fu.
4. Mianzhu is north of Chengdu; Luoxian stands halfway between. Xuande must eliminate the threat from the rear before taking the capital.
5. Ma Chao's defeat and flight to the Qiang in Liangzhou is described in chapter 59. The province of Liangzhou stretches from Dunhuang on its northwest end to the three districts of Longxi, Tianshui, and Anding on its southeast.
6. " Remote'' peoples are non-Han peoples.
CHAPTER 65
1. Dongchuan is equivalent to Hanzhong.
2. This was an early title granted Liu Bei by Emperor Xian on Cao Cao's recommendation.
3. Ma Teng, Chao's father, was a co-conspirator with Xuande in the attempted coup against Cao Cao. See chapter 20.
4. Emperor Ling had appointed Liu Yan protector of Yizhou in Zhong Ping 5 (a. d. 188). Liu Zhang's surrender to Xuande took place in a. d. 214.
5. This is the first use of Xianzhu (first ruler) in reference to Xuande; it becomes his final title in the SGZ. His son, Liu Shan (Ah Dou), is called Second Emperor (houzhu) in this translation.
6. See ZZTJ, p. 2129. Liu Ba was a longstanding opponent of Xuande.
7. Gong'an was Xuande's seat of government in Jingzhou.
8. Hanshou was the fief with which Cao Cao had honored Lord Guan when he resided with Cao (see chap. 26).
9. Mao (introductory note): "When Xuande was in flight with no home base, he could not bear to abandon the common people. But the moment he conquered the Riverlands, he wanted to parcel out the people's lands to reward his deserving followers. Here Zhao Zilong's protest was indispensable. He was a warrior who loved the people and, accordingly, the government. Thus, he did not revert to love of his family. Previously, when he conquered Guiyang, an offer of marriage did not tempt him. Now, entering the Riverlands, he does not let property affect his thinking. Such was the manner of the great ministers of old. How can the phrase 'famous general' do full justice to him?"
10. The three provisions were: "Those who kill shall die; those who injure and steal must redeem their offense; all other laws are rescinded."
11. Ying Bu and Peng Yue were two of Han Gao Zu's fiercest warriors. The letter is dated in the TS (p. 631) to Jian An 19 (a. d. 214), 7th month.
CHAPTER 66
1. Mao: "Having failed to seize Ah Dou in order to use him to control Xuande, the southerners now try to borrow Zhuge Jin in order to control his younger brother Liang."
2. In the TS (p. 632) Xuande makes a slightly different reply to Zhuge Jin: "It was Lord Sun's intention to take Jingzhou from the beginning. And I had every intention of returning it. But then he went ahead and spirited away my wife. When he proved so hostile and undependable, what could be left of my part of the relationship? You want war? Bring on your armies!"
3. Mao: "Xuande and Kongming knew this full well but said nothing. Lord Guan blurts it right out."
4. The TS adds: "My lord, since your youth you have read the Confucian philosophers, whose doctrine of the five constants—humanity, honor, courtesy, knowledge, and trustworthiness—you have mastered, save the fifth,"
5. TS: "Now that you have taken possession of the Riverlands, you want to cut off and assimilate Jingzhou. An ordinary man could not bear to do this, much less a leader of men. Such greedy and dishonorable deeds will lead to disaster."
6. Lord Guan's performance at the banquet goes back to a well-known Yuan drama, Dan dao hui translated by Yang
Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang as Lord Guan Goes to the Feast in Selected Plays of Kuan Han-ching (Shanghai: New Art and Literature Publishing House, 1958), pp. 178-204. This fictional interlude, which Luo Guanzhong has adapted, transforms the historical fact that Liu Bei visited Guan and that Bei's troops fought Sun Quan's after Lord Guan expelled the administrators. In this particular case the PH is closer to the historical record; see p. 117.
Prior to these events of a. d. 214-15 Sun Quan had wanted to invade the Riverlands himself and "unify the south." Liu Bei had blocked Sun Quan's initiative, saying that an attack on the Riverlands might well shame him into defending his kinsman Liu Zhang, inspector of the Riverlands; see chapter 56. It is thus understandable that Liu Bei's coup in the Riverlands outraged Sun Quan, who called Bei a "cunning devil." See ZZTJ, pp. 2135 et seq.
It is unlikely that either Liu Bei or Sun Quan could have conquered the Riverlands by military means alone. Liu Bei succeeded only through the aid of the disaffected Riverlands official Fa Zheng, to whom he always felt indebted.
7. Lin Xiangru, representing the weaker king of Zhao, thwarted the bullying tactics of the king of Qin at the Mianchi conference in 279 b. c.
8. Chief of the Imperial Secretariat (zhongshuling) was the highest governmental office in Cao Cao's reorganized bureaucracy.
9. Xun Wenruo had opposed Cao Cao's assumption of the title lord patriarch of Wei and his acceptance of the Nine Dignities. See chapter 61.
10. The Pepper Chamber was her living quarters. Aromatic spices covered the walls. The Emperor was arrested in January of a. d. 215.
11. Mao's introductory note raises for the first time the issue of reincarnation of figures from the first Han reign period: "When we consider Cao Cao's beating the Empress to death, it seems an act almost without precedent. There are some who explain it as follows: 'Emperor Xian is the reincarnation of the Supreme Ancestor (Han Gao Zu); Empress Fu, of Empress Lü; Cao Cao, of Han Xin; Cao Cao's daughter, of Qi Ji; Hua Xin, of Ru Yi, prince of Zhao. ' I cry out: can it be true?" The PH opens with a reincarnation fable that interprets the division of the Han into three kingdoms as punishment for the first Han emperor's liquidation of his comrades-in-arms during the wars of conquest preceding the establishment of the dynasty.
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