17. This ode does not appear in the TS.
18. Mao: "There is no longer any interest in an imperial mandate."
19. Mao: "From the man who broke down a wall and dragged out the imperial consort, another instance of 'loyalty. '" The text of the decree appears in the TS (p. 756) dated Jian An 25, second month (a. d. 220). Hua Xin acted to prevent any interference in Cao Pi's accession through Emperor Xian.
CHAPTER 79
1. The TS chapter title differs: "In Anger the King of Hanzhong [Liu Xuande] Has Liu Feng Killed."
2. Jianyidaifu was the lowest grade of daifu, or imperial officer attending the emperor. All four grades of daifu were under the guangluxun (director of the palace), who managed the palace bureaucracy.
3. Mao (introductory note): "To see how the Cao clan was spared internecine struggle is to understand that Heaven no longer wished to preserve the sacrifices of the Han royal house. The weakling Cao Xiong is not worth mentioning; but Cao Zhang had some pretentions to valor and strategy, appearing at the city of Ye with a puissant force. And Cao Zhi, through his talent and reputation, had assembled many literary men in Linzi. They came perilously close to a civil war over Cao Pi's succession. If fraternal strife had broken out—such as that between Yuan Shao's sons, Tan and Shang, or Liu Biao's sons, Zong and Qi—the king of Hanzhong could have exploited the divisions and attacked."
The Cao clan applied the rule Li jian wei hou, "Establish empresses from families without wealth and status," in an attempt to control strife within the clan.
4. It is as Emperor Wu (Wudi) that Cao Cao passes into history: the SGZ opens with the annals of Emperor Wu ( "Wudi ji" ). Mao (introductory note) discusses Cao Cao's posthumous title: "A name cannot be falsely appropriated; and a fact cannot be lied out of existence. Cao Cao had bequeathed to his son the task of the Zhou dynasty's King Wu [the Martial; i. e., the task of actually overthrowing the reigning dynasty], while comparing himself to King Wen [the Civil; i. e., the king who refrains from military action and remains loyal to the dynasty in power despite his own overwhelming popularity]. Nonetheless, Cao Pi saw things in the opposite way. He did not regard his father Cao Cao as a King Wen but gave him the posthumous title of King Wu. Certainly, Cao Cao tried to avoid the reputation of overthrower for himself and leave it for his successor. But the successor Pi, to avoid the name of overthrower, returned it to his ancestor. In that way the Wei dynasty's usurpation of the Han became Cao Cao's doing, not Cao Pi's. Cao Cao tried to fool others, but he couldn't fool his son. He tried to cover up his deed, but his son wouldn't cooperate."
5. Fa Zheng died in a. d. 220 at the age of forty-five after Cao Cao's armies were driven from Hanzhong; it was he who had arranged Liu Bei's takeover of the Riverlands. See SGZ, p. 961.
Fa Zheng's historical importance is somewhat overshadowed in the novel by the large role Zhuge Liang plays. See He You, "Zhuge Liang yu Fa Zheng," in Chengdushi Zhuge Liang yanjiuhui, ed., Zhuge Liang yanjiu (Chengdu: Ba Shu shushe, 1985), pp. 289-95.
6. At this point in the novel two titles are used for Xuande, king of Hanzhong and First Ruler (Xianzhu). The latter name (which appears in the title of his biography in the SGZ) is a posthumous recognition of his place as the first ruler of the Shu-Han dynasty. For simplicity's sake the word "king" is used in most cases. The ZZTJ uses the universal Hanzhu (ruler of Han) over the regional Xianzhu (first ruler), reflecting Liu Bei's conception of himself.
7. Fan Li served the king of Yue, but after the king achieved his goal, Li left his service and went into obscurity, saying, "The king is not one to enjoy victory with." Zifan, uncle to Patriarch Wen of Jin, accompanied his nephew through nineteen years of exile. When the patriarch was about to cross the river to return to his state, Uncle Fan took his leave, fearing that his faults alone would be remembered.
8. Wu Zixu, originally of the state of Chu, helped the king of Wu defeat the king of Yue during the Spring and Autumn period; later, calumny drove him to suicide. Meng Tian, despite fine service on the northern frontier, was driven to suicide by the slanders of Zhao Gao. Yue Yi served the state of Yan during a time of dramatic victories over Qi during the Spring and Autumn period.
9. A Wei title, created by combining two Qin offices, sanqi (detached cavalry) and changshi (regular attendant).
10. I. e., northern Jingzhou. The Wei formed a new imperial district called Xiangyangjun.
11. In this document (cited in the TS, p. 763) Meng Da makes these points to Liu Feng: (1) he, Feng, has had many conflicts with his foster father, Xuande; (2) he and Xuande are unrelated; (3) selection of Ah Dou (Xuande's natural son, Liu Shan) as heir apparent "has embittered men of true understanding" ; (4) submitting to Cao Pi is wise and honorable, while resisting is foolishly dangerous; and (5) he can expect an excellent reception from the king of Wei.
12. Mao (introductory note): "Liu Feng's rebuff of Meng Da and Mi Fang's acquiescence to Fu Shiren [who turned Fang against Lord Guan and helped Cao Cao gain Jingzhou] are altogether different. But if Liu Feng rebuffed Meng Da in the end, why didn't he to begin with? If Liu Feng was capable of executing Meng Da's messenger and not surrendering to the north, why did he originally listen to Meng Da's slander and refuse to help Lord Guan?... From Shangyong he could easily have helped Lord Guan in Mai. Not listening to Meng Da would not have cost him his life. It is too bad he didn't size up the situation earlier."
13. Mao (introductory note): "Despite Liu Feng's offense, the First Ruler [of Shu-Han, Xuande] was unjustified in killing him. Liu Feng's refusal to aid Lord Guan justified punishment, but his refusal to surrender to the Cao clan would have justified forgiveness. And his final rebuff of Meng Da was praiseworthy. Thus, his regrettable earlier acquiescence in Meng Da's treachery is pardonable. After losing an adopted brother, Xuande went on and killed an adopted son—a dubious idea. Further, Xuande did not [merely] summon Liu Feng and put him to death; instead, he caused the loss of fifty thousand soldiers and the territory of Shangyong, thereby compounding his error... something he would regret to the end of his days."
14. Mao (introductory note): "Comparing the configuration of circumstances in the Liu and Cao houses, what a gap there is between the serious and the frivolous. Xuande, a 'brother' of another surname, grieved for his younger brother's death. By contrast, Cao Pi, a brother of the same womb, was eager for his brothers' deaths. Xuande felt pain for the loss of an adopted brother and was heedless of compassion for his adopted son. Cao Pi sought his true brothers' deaths and was heedless of his natural mother's feelings of love."
15. This was Cao Cao's native district.
CHAPTER 80
1. The two elements of the graph wei, read individually, mean "[Han] consigned to the dead."
2. The name "Xuchang" for the city of Xu begins with Cao Pi's reign.
3. The TS has more lines spoken by Hua Xin, including the motif phrase, "The empire belongs to no one man but to all in the empire" (pp. 767-68). The abdication process went on from September to December of a. d. 220.
4. Cao Cao had married his daughter Jie to Emperor Xian.
5. Mao has transformed the TS here. On p. 768 the Empress says, "You call my brother a usurping traitor! What was your Supreme Ancestor [Liu Bang] if not a drunken lout, without standing, a nobody! Yet he stole the empire from the Qin! My father [Cao Cao] cleared the realm of rebels. My brother has many achievements to his credit. Why shouldn't he become emperor? You could never have held the throne in safety for more than thirty years without my father and brother." Here Luo Guanzhong is true to the PH tradition of hostility toward Liu Bang. Compare the opening of the Qian Hanshu pinghua as well as the Sanguozhi pinghua. Mao's depiction of Empress Cao is based on her annals in the HHS, p. 455; however, this portrait of virtue and loyalty is rejected as spurious by the commentator of the ZZTJ, Hu Sanxing (p. 2182).
6. This poem is added by Mao. The "Canon of Yao" describing Yao's legendary transfer of power to Shun, bypassing his own son, opens the canonical Shu Jing. This abdication (shan) myth was
often cited by usurpationists in the Cao court to justify the removal of Emperor Xian. In the TS (p. 767), Hua Xin draws the analogy between Cao and Shun.
7. Mao: "He did not say that the throne could not be yielded. He said, 'Seek elsewhere. ' Thus, he intended that the Emperor vacate the throne."
8. The TS (pp. 769-70) records Wang Lang's memorial. It reads in part: "Reverently I have received your edict... abdicating to this vassal without merit. Respectfully I call your attention to the example of Xu You, who went into hiding rather than accept Yao's offer of the throne. For this Xu You was acclaimed ever after. This vassal, of little talent and slight virtue, could never receive the mandate of rule. In this plenteous age I beseech you to seek some man of great gifts to receive the abdication and thus spare me the censure of history."
Following this, Hua Xin suggests another part of the Yao-Shun myth for Emperor Xian to follow: "'In ancient times Yao of Tang had two daughters.... When he offered to abdicate to Shun, Shun declined, and so Yao married both daughters to him. For this later ages hailed Yao for the virtue of great sagehood. Now Your Majesty, too, has two daughters. Why not emulate Yao and give them in marriage to the king of Wei [Cao Pi]? '... The two princesses were conveyed by carriage into the palace of the king of Wei." See the closing lines of the "Canon of Yao" (Shu Jing, "Yao dian" ), which describe Yao's sending his daughters to marry into Shun's clan. Emperor Xian's second edict to Cao Pi is dated November 25, a. d. 220.
9. The PH (p. 126) places responsibility for the abdication directly on Cao Cao. Advising Emperor Xian concerning the succession problem, Cao Cao says, "Has not Your Majesty heard of Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang, who came to power because they had virtue?... All in the empire declare that your subject Cao Pi is worthy to be Son of Heaven." The SGZ, however, describes the abdication as devised by Cao Pi and carried out by Hua Xin and Zhang Yin.
10. Achilles Fang makes this December 10 in Ssu-ma Kuang [Sima Guang], The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, trans. and annot. Achilles Fang, Harvard-Yenching Institute Studies, no. 6 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952-65), 1: 37. Sima Guang follows other sources and dates the abdication of Emperor Xian to Cao Pi to the yimao day, the fifty-second of the cycle, or November 25.
11. From the standpoint of Wei chronology, Yan Kang is the name of the reign period that spans the death of Cao Cao (March 15, a. d. 220) and the usurpation of Cao Pi (December 10). As far as Wei is concerned, Yan Kang is the last Han reign period, and the last Jian An year is 24 (a. d. 219). The first Wei reign period, Huang Chu, is declared in the tenth month but retroactively covers the whole year, thus displacing Yan Kang in general chronologies. The words Huang Chu signify earth (associated with the color yellow) supplanting fire; that is, the inauguration of a new era according to Five Agents theory. The use of Jian An 25 for much of a. d. 220 by the Riverlands court signifies the continuation of Han chronology in defiance of Wei chronology.
12. Qiao Zhou was the teacher of Chen Shou, author of the SGZ. The Jin shu contains a biography of Chen Shou.
13. "The vapour of the Emperor appears red inside and yellow outside, and shows uniformity all round. It indicates the rise of an Emperor whenever it makes its appearance." Ho Peng Yoke, The Astronomical Chapters of the Chin Shu, Le monde d'outre-mer passé et présent, sér. 2: Documents, n° 9 (Paris: Mouton & Co., 1966), p. 144.
14. I. e., the middle of the western quarter of the sky.
15. Zhong and yi. The TS (p. 774) has xiao (filial piety) for yi.
16. The ZZTJ (p. 2185) gives prominence to the protest made by Fei Shi: "Your Majesty has traveled far and wide gathering a loyal army to smite the traitors who have usurped the Han. Now to make yourself emperor before your great enemy is conquered is likely to confuse people. In the years before Han was founded, the Supreme Ancestor and Xiang Yu swore that the first to defeat Qin would be king of that region. But after the Supreme Ancestor had taken Xiangyang and captured Ziying [the last Qin emperor], Xiang Yu still refused the honor due him. How much less should Your Majesty covet the emperorship when he has not been beyond the palace [of late]. Your course is unwise." This criticism was not welcomed by Liu Bei, and he demoted Fei Shi. See his biography in SGZ, p. 1016. The PH, TS, and Three Kingdoms do not contain this passage.
17. Northwest of Chengdu, according to the TS note.
18. May 15, a. d. 221.
19. Still preserving Emperor Xian's reign period, Jian An.
20. Not Lady Sun of Wu (the Southland), but the wife of the late Liu Mao, brother of Liu Zhang, from whom Xuande took the Riverlands. See ZZTJ, p. 2188.
21. From here on, Xianzhu, or First Ruler, is Three Kingdoms' designation for Liu Xuande, following the usage of the SGZ. ZZTJ uses the term Hanzhu, or Ruler of Han. Xianzhu will be sometimes translated Emperor.
CHAPTER 81
1. In the PH (p. 126), Kongming directly expresses opposition to an invasion of Wu.
2. Mao: "He protests Liu Bei's leading the expedition, not the expedition itself."
3. TS (p. 778): "The Emperor said, 'I will hold the army while a different plan is considered. '"
4. Here the TS adds: "Moreover, Lord Guan slighted the worthy and treated scholars with arrogance. He was rigid and self-important. That is what cost him his life; no Heaven ordained it."
5. TS "The first year of Zhang Wu, the fifth month [a. d. 221]."
6. 221. Achilles Fang gives August 6 to September 4 for the seventh month; see Ssu-ma Kuang [Sima Guang], The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, trans. and annot. Achilles Fang, Harvard-Yenching Institute Studies, no. 6 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952-65), 1: 50. The thirteenth day of the cycle, bingzi (not bingyin), would match August 14.
7. See chapter 2. Liu Xuande's first appointment was to Anxi.
8. Mao: "Liu Bei ignored Kongming's advice on taking over the Riverlands, but he took Fa Zheng's; so Fa Zheng should have been able to get Liu Bei to stop the march."
9. "Azure" (qing, the color of ever-renewing nature) implies eternal youth in Taoist mythology.
10. Mao (introductory note): "The First Ruler [Liu Bei] was determined to attack Wu. Kongming, having failed to dissuade him, hoped to use the old sage of Azure City Mountain to prevent him."
11. Mao (introductory note): " After the revered Lord Guan's ghost manifested itself, the story could have moved to the death of Liu Feng at the First Ruler's hands. Instead, between these two incidents the author unexpectedly inserted Cao Cao's illness, the killing of Hua Tuo, Cao Pi's establishment as heir to Cao Cao, king of Wei, and Cao Zhi's poem of protest.
"After the execution of Liu Feng, the story could have moved to the murder of Zhang Fei followed by Liu Bei's invasion of the Southland. However, the author inserted the abdication of Emperor Xian, the usurpation of Cao Pi, the reaction in Chengdu, and Kongming's arguments for attacking Wei. Among these crossing branches and overlapping leaves of the narrative the seams are never apparent; not a line is out of place in these interwoven stories. Such technique recalls the great historian Sima Qian."
CHAPTER 82
1. The northern part of Jingzhou, called Xiangyang, had been held by Cao Cao all along.
2. I. e., Liu Bei.
3. Mao (introductory note): "The present Sun Quan is utterly unlike the former. How bold the first Sun Quan, when he drew his sword and sheared off a piece of a table [to demonstrate his determination to resist Cao Cao]! How feeble the present Sun Quan, bowing his head and submitting to Wei! Why the change? His blunder in Jingzhou and his split with Liu Bei."
Sun Quan's reference to the founder of the Han suggests that he had large ambitions. Xiang Yu gave the Han founder, Gao Zu, the kingship of Han (i. e., the land west of the River Han) as a consolation after denying him the prize rightfully his: the land within the passes. Gao Zu had to accept the inferior kingdom of Han, but he soon moved east again, conquered the land within the passes, overcame Xiang Yu's armies, and within four years established the new dynasty of Han. See the "Xiang Yu benji" and "Gao Zu benji" in the SJ.
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4. The year after Liu Bei became king of Hanzhong, he named Huang Zhong one of the "Five Tiger Generals," thus putting him on a par with Lord Guan, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, and Zhao Zilong. The following year the historical Huang Zhong died (SGZ, p. 948). The author of Three Kingdoms has fictionally extended Huang Zhong's life. Similarly, the exploits of Guan Xing and Zhang Bao, the sons of Lord Guan and Zhang Fei, are fictional additions. At the end of this chapter it is a. d. 222.
CHAPTER 83
1. See chapter 68 for the pre-raid feast and for Gan Ning's reconciliation with Ling Tong, whose father he had killed.
2. Mao (introductory note): "The Emperor's campaign against Sun Quan makes it certain that he will not spare Mi Fang [younger brother of the wife who threw herself into the well so that Zhao Zilong could save Ah Dou]. For if he showed no leniency toward Sun Quan, whose sister [Lady Sun, a later wife of Liu Bei] still lived, he would hardly show leniency to Mi Fang, whose sister was already dead. Looking at the situation another way, the Emperor's execution of Mi Fang meant that he would never relax his determination to destroy the Southland. If the Emperor would not spare Mi Fang, whose sister had sacrificed her life for Ah Dou, he would hardly forgive the brother of Lady Sun [Sun Quan], who had left his house without telling him."
3. The TS (p. 800) "... destroy Wu first, then take over Wei, emulating the restoration of Guang Wu [the first Later Han emperor]—this is my desire."
CHAPTER 84
1. The name means "White Emperor," as noted in chapter 82; later the town was renamed Yong'an, "Enduring Peace." See chap. 34, n. 11.
2. Mao (introductory note): " Compare Zhou Yu's use of fire to attack Cao Cao and Lu Xun's use of fire to attack Liu Bei: Lu Xun had more problems than Zhou Yu. In the first place, Zhou Yu received his command when the southern army was fittest, while Lu Xun received his command when the southern army had already suffered several reverses. In the second place, Zhou Yu had the support of Liu Bei against the northern enemy, while Lu Xun had a watchful predator to his north, Cao Pi. And in the third place, Zhou Yu had the help of Kongming, Pang Tong, Huang Gai, Kan Ze, and Gan Ning; Lu Xun had to contend with the doubts of Zhang Zhao, Gu Yong, Bu Zhi, Han Dang, and Zhou Tai....
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