The Three Kingdoms, Volume 1: The Sacred Oath: The Epic Chinese Tale of Loyalty and War in a Dynamic New Translation

by Luo Guanzhong

  At that time a messenger from Yuan Shao also arrived with proposals for an alliance and it was necessary to decide which side to support. All the advisors were called together to consider the question.

  Han Song said, “Now that the two powerful men Yuan Shao and Cao Cao are at war with each other, it is your chance, General, to destroy them and accomplish your own great plans. But if you have no schemes for the present, then I think you should choose to support the one that is more likely to win the war. Now Cao Cao is an able general and has many capable men in his service. It seems to me that he may destroy Yuan Shao and then move his armies across the river. I fear, General, that you would be unable to withstand him. So I think it would be wise to support Cao Cao. He will treat you with respect.”

  Liu Biao said, “You go to the capital first and see how things stand. That will help me to decide.”

  Han Song replied, “The positions of master and servant are clearly defined. Now I am your man and I am prepared to go all lengths for you and obey you to the last. If you are ready to serve the Emperor and follow Cao Cao, then you can send me as your envoy. But if you are still undecided, then I must warn you: Suppose the Emperor gives me an office when I get there then I will become his servant and will not be ready to face death for you.”

  “You go and find out what you can. I have some plans.”

  So Han Song took his leave and went to the capital to see Cao Cao, who gave him rank and made him Prefect of Lingling. The advisor Xun Yu was unhappy about this and said to his master, “This man has come to spy out how things are. He has done nothing to deserve reward and yet you give him an office like this. And there is no news from Mi Heng. You have sent him away but you do not ask his whereabouts. Why?”

  “Mi Heng shamed me too deeply before all the world so I have borrowed Liu Biao’s hand to remove him. It is not necessary to ask about him,” said Cao Cao.

  Then Han Song was sent back to Jingzhou to persuade his former master to surrender. When he saw Liu Biao he was full of praise for the virtues of the court and was keen on persuading him to send his son to serve under the Emperor. Liu Biao became very angry, charged him with treachery, and threatened him with death.

  “You failed me, General, but I did not betray you!” cried Han Song.

  Kuai Liang reminded Liu Biao that Han Song had foretold this possibility before he left and Liu Biao, who was just and reasonable, pardoned him.

  The news arrived that Mi Heng had been put to death by Huang Zu. It so happened that the two of them were drinking together for some time. Both being the worse for liquor, they had begun to discuss the worth of people.

  “You were in the capital,” said Huang Zu. “Who was there of worth?”

  “The big boy was Kong Rong and the little one Yang Xiu. There was no one else of note.”

  “What about me?” asked Huang Zu.

  “You are like a god in a temple; you sit still and receive sacrifices but do not answer the prayers of your worshippers.”

  “Do you regard me as an image of clay?” cried Huang Zu in a rage.

  So he put the impudent speaker to death. Even at the very point of death Mi Heng never ceased his railing and abuse.

  Liu Biao sighed deeply when he heard of his fate. He had the victim honorably interred by the side of Parrot Isle. And a later poet wrote the following to mourn over Mi Heng:

  Huang Zu could brook no rival; at his word

  Mi Heng met death beneath the cruel sword.

  His grave on Parrot Isle may yet be seen,

  The river flowing past it, coldly green.

  Cao Cao heard of the young man’s death with pleasure. “The putrid bookworm has just cut himself up with his own sharp tongue,” he said.

  As there was no sign of Liu Biao coming to join him, Cao Cao began to think of coercion by force. The advisor, Xun Yu, dissuaded him from this course of action.

  He said, “Yuan Shao is not subjugated and Liu Bei is not destroyed. To attack Liu Biao would be to neglect the vital in favor of the immaterial. Destroy the two chief enemies first and the east is yours at one blow.”

  Cao Cao took the advice.

  After the departure of Liu Bei, Dong Cheng discussed day and night with his comrades, trying to evolve plans for the destruction of Cao Cao, but they could see no chance to attack. On the New Year’s Day court gathering, he found Cao Cao even more odiously arrogant and over-weening. He was so disgusted with the tyrant that he fell ill. Hearing of his illness, the Emperor sent the court physician to see him.

  The court physician was a famous doctor from Luoyang, named Ji Ping. At the Emperor’s order he came to Dong Cheng’s house and devoted himself wholly to the treatment of his patient. Living in his place and seeing him at all times he soon found that some secret grief was sorely troubling him. However, he dared not ask questions.

  On the evening of the lantern festival, the physician asked for leave but Dong Cheng kept him back and the two men had some wine together. They sat drinking for some time and by and by Dong Cheng dropped off to sleep dressed as he was.

  Presently his good friend Wang Zi-fu and the three others were announced. As they were coming in Wang Zi-fu cried, “Our business is settled!”

  “Really? Tell me all about it,” said Dong Cheng excitedly.

  “Liu Biao has joined Yuan Shao and an army of 500,000 men is on its way here by ten different routes. Moreover, Ma Teng and Han Sui are coming from the north with a force of 720,000 men. Cao Cao has moved every soldier outside the capital to meet the combined armies and the city is virtually unguarded. As it’s the lantern festival tonight there will be a great banquet in Cao Cao’s house in celebration. If we gather the servants of our five families, we can muster more than a thousand men, and while he’s at the banquet we can surround his place and finish him off. We mustn’t miss this chance!”

  Dong Cheng was more than delighted. They decided to assemble inside the inner gate of his house at the second watch. Dong Cheng called his servants and armed them, put on his own armor, and mounted his horse. Then the small army marched straight into Cao Cao’s house, Dong Cheng leading with his sword drawn. He found his intended victim at a table in his private quarters. Dong Cheng cried, “Stay, you arch rebel!” and dashed at Cao Cao, who fell at the first blow.

  …Just then Dong Cheng woke up and found it was all a dream. But he was still cursing his enemy.

  “Do you really wish to destroy Cao Cao?” said Ji Ping, going forward to his half awakened patient.

  This brought him to his senses. Dong Cheng, terror stricken, could not reply.

  “Do not be frightened, sir,” said the doctor, “Although I am only a physician I never forget my Emperor. For many days I have seen you sighing with grief but I have never ventured to ask the reason. Now you have shown it in your dream and I know your real feelings. If I can be of any use I will help. Nothing daunts me.”

  Dong Cheng covered his face and wept. “I fear you may not be true to me,” he cried.

  Ji Ping at once bit off a finger as a pledge of his faith. Then Dong Cheng showed the doctor the Emperor’s decree. “I am afraid our schemes will come to nothing,” he said. “Liu Bei and Ma Teng are gone and there is nothing we can do. That was the real reason I fell ill.”

  “It is not worth troubling you gentlemen with, for Cao Cao’s life lies in my hands,” said Ji Ping.

  “How can that be?”

  “Because he often has severe headaches. When this happens, he sends for me. Next time he calls me I only have to give him one dose of poison and he will certainly die. There is no need of any weapons.”

  “If only you could do it! You would be the savior of the Han Dynasty!”

  Then Ji Ping went away leaving his late patient a happy man. Dong Cheng strolled into the garden and there he saw one of his slaves whispering with a waiting maid in a dark corner. This annoyed him and he called his attendants to seize them. He would have put them to death but for the intervention of his wife. At her request he spa
red their lives but both were beaten, and the lad was thrown into a dungeon. Feeling bitter at his treatment the slave escaped in the night, climbed over the wall and went straight to Cao Cao, where he betrayed his master’s secret.

  Cao Cao at once had him taken into a private chamber and questioned, at which the servant gave the names of the conspirators and told as much as he knew. He said his master had a piece of white silk, with writing on it, but he did not know what it was. He also told Cao Cao that he had lately seen the doctor biting offone of his fingers as a pledge of fidelity.

  The runaway slave was kept in a secret part of Cao Cao’s house while his late master, only knowing that he had escaped, took no special means to find him.

  Soon after this, Cao Cao feigned a headache and sent for Ji Ping as usual.

  “The rebel is done for,” thought Ji Ping, and he made a secret package of poison, which he took with him to the prime minister. Cao Cao was in bed when he got there and ordered him to prepare the medicine for him.

  “One draught will cure this disease,” said Ji Ping. He asked the attendants to bring him a pipkin and he prepared the potion in front of them. When it had simmered for some time and was half dried up the poison was added, and soon after the physician presented the draught. Cao Cao, knowing it was poisoned, made excuses and would not swallow it.

  “You should take it hot,” said the doctor. “Then there will be a gentle perspiration and you will feel better.”

  “You are a scholar,” said Cao Cao, sitting up, “and know what is the correct thing to do. When the Emperor is ill and has to take medicine, his officials first taste; when the father is ill, his son first tastes the medicine. You are my confidant and should drink first. Then I will swallow the remainder.”

  “Medicine is to treat disease; what is the need of tasting it first by someone else?” replied Ji Ping. But he guessed now the secret had been discovered so he dashed forward, seized Cao Cao by the ear, and tried to pour the potion down his throat. Cao Cao pushed it away and it spilt onto the bricks, which at once were spoiled. Before Cao Cao could speak his servants had already seized the poor doctor.

  Cao Cao said, “I was not ill. I only wanted to test you. So you really thought to poison me.”

  He sent for a score of sturdy jailers who carried off the prisoner to the back courtyard to be interrogated. Cao Cao took his seat in a pavilion and the hapless physician, tightly bound, was thrown to the ground before him. The prisoner betrayed no trace of fear.

  Cao Cao said “You are merely a physician—I know you would not dare to poison me. Someone must have incited you to commit this crime. If you tell me I will pardon you.”

  “You are a rebel—you flout the Emperor and injure your superiors. The whole country wishes to kill you. Do you think I am the only one?”

  Cao Cao again and again pressed the prisoner to confess what he knew, but he only replied that no one had sent him; it was his own desire.

  “As I have failed I will die,” he added.

  Cao Cao angrily ordered the jailers to give him a severe beating and they flogged him for several hours. His skin hung in tatters, the flesh was battered, and the blood from his wounds ran down the steps. Then fearing he might die and his information be lost, Cao Cao told them to cease and remove him. They took him off to a quiet place where he might recover a little.

  The next day Cao Cao gave a banquet to which he invited the court officials, including his five enemies. Dong Cheng made an excuse of being unwell and did not show up. The others dared not stay away as they feared they would be suspected.

  Tables were laid in the inner hall and after several courses the host said, “There is not much to amuse us today but I have a man to show you that will sober you.”

  “Bring him in,” he said, turning to the jailers, and the bold doctor appeared, securely fastened in a wooden collar. He was placed where all could see him.

  “You officials will not know that this man is connected with a gang of evil doers who desire to overturn the government and even injure me. However, Heaven has defeated their plans, but I desire that you should hear his confession.”

  Then Cao Cao ordered the jailers to beat the prisoner. They did so till he lay unconscious. They revived him by spraying water over his face. As soon as came to, he glared at his oppressor and ground his teeth.

  “Cao Cao, you hateful rebel! What are you waiting for? Why not kill me?” cried Ji Ping.

  Cao Cao replied, “The conspirators were only six at first—you made the seventh.”

  Here the prisoner broke in with more abuse, while Wang Zi-fu and his three friends exchanged glances, looking as though they were sitting on a rug full of needles. Cao Cao continued his torture of the prisoner, beating him into unconsciousness and reviving him with cold water, but the victim refused to ask for mercy. Finally Cao Cao realized the futility of this approach and so he told the jailers to remove him.

  At the close of the banquet, when the guests were dispersing, the four of them were invited to remain behind to supper. They were so terrified that their souls seemed no longer to inhabit their bodies, but there was no way out for them. Presently Cao Cao said, “I should not have retained you but there is something I want to ask you about. I do not know what you four have been arranging with Dong Cheng.”

  “Nothing at all,” answered Wang Zi-fu.

  “And what is written on the white silk?” asked Cao Cao.

  They all said they knew nothing about it.

  Then Cao Cao ordered the runaway slave to be brought in. Wang Zi-fu asked, “Well, what have you seen and where?”

  The slave replied, “You six hid yourselves in a room and secretly wrote your names down on a white scroll. You cannot deny that.”

  Wang Zi-fu replied, “This wretched creature was punished for misbehavior with one of Dong Cheng’s maids and now because of that he slanders his master. You must not listen to him.”

  “Ji Ping tried to poison me. Who told him to do that if it was not Dong Cheng?”

  They all said they knew nothing about who it was.

  “If you confess tonight,” said Cao Cao, “you might be pardoned. But if the plot is exposed, you will not be able to escape punishment.”

  They vigorously denied that any plot existed. However, Cao Cao called up his henchmen and the four men were put into confinement.

  The next day Cao Cao went with a large following to Dong Cheng’s place to ask after his health. Dong Cheng came out to receive his visitor, who at once asked, “Why did you not come last night?”

  “I am not quite well yet and have to be very careful about going out,” replied Dong Cheng.

  “Presumably you were suffering from a sadness for the nation, eh?” said Cao Cao.

  Dong Cheng started.

  Cao Cao continued, “Have you heard of the Ji Ping affair?”

  “No—what is it?”

  Cao Cao smiled coldly. “How can it be that you do not know?”

  Cao Cao turned to his attendants and told them to bring in the prisoner, to cure his host’s illness.

  Dong Cheng was scared out of his wits and did not know what to do. Soon, the jailers led in the physician to the steps of the hall. At once the bound man began to rail at Cao Cao as a rebel and a traitor.

  “This man,” said Cao Cao, pointing to Ji Ping, “has implicated Wang Zi-fu and three others, all of whom are now under arrest. There is one more whom I have not caught yet.”

  “Who sent you to poison me?” interrogated Cao Cao, turning toward the physician. “Quick, tell me.”

  “Heaven sent me to slay a traitor.”

  Cao Cao angrily ordered the jailers to beat him again, but there was no unharmed part of his body that could be beaten. Dong Cheng sat looking at him and felt as if his heart were transfixed with a dagger.

  “You were born with ten fingers—how is it you now have only nine?”

  Ji Ping replied, “I bit off one as a pledge when I swore to slay a traitor.”

  Cao Cao told hi
s men to bring a knife and they lopped off his nine other fingers.

  “Now they are all off—that will teach you to make pledges.”

  “Still I have a mouth that can swallow a traitor and a tongue that can curse him,” said Ji Ping.

  Cao told them to cut out his tongue.

  But before they could do this, Ji Ping said, “No. I cannot endure any more punishment, I will have to speak out. Loosen my bonds.”

  “Loosen them,” said Cao Cao to his guards. “There is nothing to fear.”

  As soon as he was free Ji Ping stood up, and turning his face toward the direction of the Emperor’s Palace he bowed and said, “It is Heaven’s will that your servant has been unable to remove the evil.” And the brave and loyal doctor killed himself by hitting his head on the steps.

  His body was quartered and exposed.

  This happened in the first month of the fifth year of the reign of Jian An. A certain historian wrote a poem to lament the doctor’s death:

  There lived in the sad days of Han

  A brave doctor of the name Ji Ping

  Who risked his very life

  His Emperor to save.

  Alas! he failed, but lasting fame

  Is his. He feared not death

  And cursed the traitorous Minister.

  To the last of his breath.

  Seeing his victim had passed beyond the realms of punishment, Cao Cao had the slave led in.

  “Do you know this man?”

  “Yes,” cried Dong Cheng. “So the runaway slave is here—he ought to be put to death.”

  “He reported your plot to me and is my witness,” said Cao Cao. “Who dares to kill him?”

  “Why do you, sir, heed the unsupported tale of a runaway slave?”

  “I have Wang Zi-fu and the others in prison,” said Cao Cao. “How can you refute the evidence?”

  He then ordered his men to arrest Dong Cheng and to search his bedroom. Soon, they found the decree and the pledge signed by the officials loyal to the Emperor.

  Cao Cao read it and laughed. “Those lowly rats! I will not let them get away with this!”

  He gave orders to arrest the whole household, without exception. Then he returned to his house with the incriminating documents and called all his advisors together to discuss the dethronement of the Emperor and the setting up of a successor.