Stories Between the Lines

A small piece of book review about The Three Kingdoms, one of the most brilliant works in Chinese literary history, attracted my attention recently. The Three Kingdoms is a long novel written in Ming Dynasty about stories during the Three Kingdoms Period (A.D.198 - 280), when three kingdoms co-existed and tried to annex each other. Relentless wars between them lasted for a century, with thousands of heroes rise and fell. I was obsessed with novel since very young, and I couldn't even recall how many times I've read the stories in them. But this small piece still surprised me by re-interpretating the relation between the ruler and ministers in Wu, the kingdom both Luo Guanzhong and I paid least attention to.

Wu was founded by the Suns. The father Sun Jian was a foresighted general who occupied the rich area south of Yangtze River at the fall of Han Dynasty. However he died in a brutal battle when he tried to expand his kingdom, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Sun Ce. Ce was famous for his bravery and he avenged his father soon after his succession. But not for long, Ce was assassinated when he was 26, leaving a big kingdom to his younger brother Sun Quan, who was neither a courageous pioneer like his father nor a valiant warrior like his brother, but proved to be an outstanding king in defending his kingdom against the attack from the other two kingdoms, Wei and Shu. One of the legacies that Ce left to Quan was Zhou Yu, one of the most famous generals in the Three Kingdoms Period. He was Ce's sworn brother, and also brother-in-laws. After Ce's death, he served as the Command in Chief during Quan's reign for ten years until he died from a wound caused by a poisoned arrow. The heyday in Zhou's career was the Battle of Red Cliffs, when he defeated Wei's main force of 700,000 people with less than 100,000 and made his name in Chinese military history. In The Three Kingdoms, Zhou Yu was described as a tasteful general who won full trust from both Sun Ce and Sun Quan, as well as his colleagues and soldiers.

His life sounds perfect, isn't it? The review mentioned a sentence in Zhou Yu's last note to Quan when he was dying of the wound that makes the entire legend look less reliable. In his letter, he talked about his military plan and concerns, and raised several recommendations regarding to future personnel appointments and military deployment. In his last sentence, Yu said "People speak kindly in the presence of death; if you can adopt any of the above suggestions, I die with no regrets." This sentence sounds weird because none of the sentences in his note seems peculiarly kind. And if Yu considered his note as "kind", it was hard to imagine how he talked to Quan ordinarily. Therefore the review assumed that the relation between Yu and Quan might not be as good as it looked like. Yu, as an experienced and distinguished general, monopolized military power in Wu for decades, which could be even longer if he hadn't died at 36. Quan had little military experience and was much younger than Yu, therefore his prestige in Wu was not as well built as Yu. In the novel, it is mentioned several times that when officials couldn't reach an agreement, people "always" tended to Yu for final decision, not Quan. Thus it shouldn't be surprising if Quan was suspicious of Yu's loyalty and imposed some limitations on his power.

I went through a few chapters in The Three Kingdoms after reading the review, and I found the review did make a good point here. Another evidence I found in the book was a quotation from Yu right before the Battle of Red Cliffs, when Wei sent Jiang Gan, Yu's classmate, to induce him to capitulate. Yu replied :"Here I met a king who is also my bosom friend. We are a king and a master, but we are also in-laws. I follow his order, and he follows my suggestions. We share our fortunes and we meet challenges together. Even Su Qin and Zhang Yi (both of which are famous for their eloquence) revived, I would still turn them down. Do you think you can change my mind?" (丈夫处世，遇知己之主，外托君臣之义，内结骨肉之恩，言行计从，祸福共之，假使苏张更生，郦叟复出，犹抚其背而折其辞，岂足下幼生所能移乎？) Then Jiang Gan knew he couldn't change Yu's mind, and left afterwards. What's interesting is, the Wu King at that time was Quan, but the Wu King who met Yu and took Yu as a bosom friend was Quan's brother, Ce. Also, since Quan only took government for one year when the Battle of Red Cliffs started, it was more likely that the connection between Yu and the "King" mentioned here was the cooperation between Yu and Ce. In other words, Yu pledged his loyalty to Quan after Ce's death, but the reason he used to refuse Jiang Gan's persuasion was not his connection with Quan, but his gratitude to Ce. I take this as an evidence that Yu's loyal to Wu because of Ce, but not Quan. In this sense, the relationship between Yu and Quan could be more complicated than what the novel says.

I remember when I read the novel as a child, I was amazed by the solid relationship between Quan and all his four outstanding Command-in-chiefs, Yu and his three successors. Maybe the true story between the lines is a balance of game between a young king and his powerful generals.