When news comes that Zhang Lu of Hanzhong means to seize the forty-one districts of the west, Liu Zhang, Governor of Yi Province, is deeply worried. Then his assistant Zhang Song steps forward. He is under five chi tall, with a jutting forehead, a flat nose and protruding teeth, but his voice rings like a bronze bell. I have a three-inch tongue. I will see to it that Zhang Lu does not dare eye the west.
Zhang Song says, Cao Cao in the capital has destroyed Lü Bu and the two Yuans, and lately he has beaten even Ma Chao, so he has no rival in the realm. I will take gifts to the capital and get Cao Cao to raise troops and attack Hanzhong. Then Zhang Lu will be too busy defending himself to eye the west. Liu Zhang is delighted and sends him with gold, pearls and silk.
Before setting out, Zhang Song secretly draws a map of the geography of the west and tucks it into his robe. He sets off for the capital with only a few attendants. In Jing Province, Kongming hears of this and sends someone to the capital to watch what happens.
An Envoy Kept Waiting Three Days
Since returning from his victory over Ma Chao, Cao Cao in the capital has grown arrogant, holding feasts every day, and all affairs of state are discussed at the chancellery. Zhang Song waits outside the chancellery for three days before his name is even sent in, and only after bribing the attendants.
Cao Cao asks, Your master Liu Zhang has sent no tribute for years. Why? When Zhang Song says the roads are hard and bandits swarm, Cao Cao scolds him. I have swept the central plain clean. What bandits are there?
Zhang Song answers, Sun Quan is in the south, Zhang Lu in the north and Liu Bei in the west. Each commands at least a hundred thousand armoured men. How can it be called peace?
Cao Cao disliked Zhang Song’s unimpressive looks from the start, and now that his words grate as well, he shakes out his sleeves, rises and goes into the back hall. The attendants scold Zhang Song for having no manners as an envoy and talking back, and tell him to go home quickly. Zhang Song laughs. In our west there are no flatterers.
Yang Xiu
Then a man below the steps shouts at him. So in your west there are only men who cannot flatter, and in our central plain only flatterers? He has thin brows, a pale face and a clear spirit. He is Yang Xiu, son of the Grand Commandant Yang Biao and registrar of the chancellery. He is widely learned, a gifted talker, with insight beyond the ordinary.
Yang Xiu takes Zhang Song to a study and asks about the land and people of the west. Zhang Song lays out the perils of the Brocade River, the grandeur of Jiange, and rich land that never knows flood or drought. In letters they have Sima Xiangru and in arms the Wave-Calming General, he says, and men like himself are so many they could be loaded on carts and measured by the bushel.
Zhang Song asks, I hear your family has held high office for generations. Why do you not help the Son of Heaven at court instead of serving as a clerk in the chancellery? Yang Xiu reddens and says the Chancellor has entrusted him with the heavy burden of military affairs, government, money and grain, and teaches him constantly, and that is why he holds this post.
Zhang Song laughs. I hear Chancellor Cao is not versed in the way of Confucius and Mencius in letters, nor in the schemes of Sunzi and Wuzi in war, and holds high office by force alone. What can he teach you?
A Book Learned at One Reading
Saying that a man from the borders cannot know the Chancellor’s great talent, Yang Xiu takes a book from a chest and shows it to him. It is titled the New Book of Mengde. Zhang Song reads it through once from beginning to end. There are thirteen chapters in all, setting out the essentials of using troops.
When Yang Xiu says the Chancellor wrote it, weighing ancient and modern, in imitation of the thirteen chapters of Sunzi, and asks whether it is not worth handing down, Zhang Song laughs aloud. Even three-chi children in our west recite this book. What is new about it? A nameless author of the Warring States wrote it, and Chancellor Cao has stolen it as his own. It can fool only you.
Yang Xiu says the Chancellor keeps the book hidden and it has not yet been made public. Zhang Song says that if Yang Xiu does not believe him he will recite it, and recites it from beginning to end without a single mistake. Yang Xiu is astonished. You never forget what you have read once. You are truly one of the rarest talents in the realm.
Yang Xiu goes in to Cao Cao. You tolerated even Mi Heng, Chancellor. Why not Zhang Song? He memorised your book at one reading and says it is by a nameless author of the Warring States, so that every child in the west knows it. Cao Cao, wondering whether his ideas had simply matched those of the ancients, has the book torn up and burned.
A List of Defeats
Meaning to show Zhang Song his army’s might so that he will spread the word in the west, Cao Cao lines up fifty thousand of his guard on the western parade ground the next day. Helmets and armour glitter and drums and gongs shake the sky. Cao Cao asks Zhang Song, Have you ever seen heroes like these in your west? Zhang Song answers, In our west we have never seen such weapons. We govern people only by humanity and right.
Cao Cao’s face changes. I regard the rats of the realm as so much grass. Where my great army goes, it wins every battle and takes every city. Do you know that those who follow me live and those who defy me die?
Zhang Song says, I know well that wherever you lead your troops you win every battle and take every city. So it was when you attacked Lü Bu at Puyang and fought Zhang Xiu at Wancheng.
So it was when you met Zhou Lang at Red Cliffs and Guan Yu at Huarong, when you cut your beard and threw off your robe at Tong Pass, and when you lost your boats and were nearly shot on the Wei River. All this shows you have no rival in the realm.
Cao Cao flies into a rage. How dare this pedant expose my failings! He orders him dragged out and beheaded. Yang Xiu and Xun Yu plead that beheading a man who came from far away with tribute would lose the hearts of distant people. Zhang Song is spared and driven out with clubs.
The Road Home Through Jing Province
That night, leaving the city, Zhang Song thinks to himself. I meant to present the districts of the west to Cao Cao. Who would have thought he would treat people with such contempt? I talked big before Liu Zhang when I left, and if I go home empty-handed the people of the west will laugh at me. I have long heard that Liu Xuande of Jing Province is humane and just. I will go home that way and see what kind of man he is.
When Zhang Song’s party reaches the border of Yingzhou, five hundred or so horsemen appear, and the general at their head dismounts. Zhao Yun has been waiting a long time. My lord Liu Xuande, knowing you have come a long way, has told me to offer you wine and food. The soldiers kneel to offer wine, and Zhang Song thinks, People say Liu Xuande is generous and fond of guests, and so he is.
When they reach the guesthouse at the border of Jing Province, a hundred or more men line the gate and beat drums in welcome. A general salutes before his horse. By my elder brother’s order, Guan has swept the guesthouse and waited for you. Guan Yu and Zhao Yun press wine on him attentively deep into the night.
A Subject Not Raised for Three Days
The next morning, before they have gone a few li, Liu Bei comes out in person with the Hidden Dragon and the Young Phoenix. Seeing Zhang Song in the distance, Liu Bei dismounts first and waits. Your high name has reached me like thunder, but the clouds and mountains were far and I regretted never hearing your teaching. If you will stay a while in our district, it will be my great good fortune.
At the feast Liu Bei talks only of idle things and does not raise the west. Zhang Song probes. How many commanderies do you hold besides Jing, Imperial Uncle? Kongming answers, Jing is only on loan from Eastern Wu, and people keep coming to ask for it back. My lord is the son-in-law of Wu, so he stays here for now.
Pang Tong says, My lord is uncle to the house of Han, yet he cannot hold a single district, while the others, all vermin of the Han, seize land by force. A wise man would resent it.
Liu Bei stops them. Enough, both of you. What virtue have I to wish for more?
Liu Bei keeps Zhang Song for three days of feasting and never once raises the west. On the day of parting he gives a farewell feast at the long pavilion ten li out. Liu Bei raises his cup. You did not spurn me and stayed three days, and now that we part, I do not know when I will hear your teaching again. When he has finished, Liu Bei sheds tears.
Today, a Map from His Sleeve
Zhang Song thinks to himself, Xuande is so generous and fond of scholars. How can I leave him? He says that Jing Province is no place to stay long, with Sun Quan eyeing it from the east and Cao Cao from the north. Yi Province, he says, is a fortress of passes with a thousand li of rich plains, and its able men have long admired the Imperial Uncle’s virtue. Raise the forces of Jing and Xiang and march west, and you can build a kingdom and restore the house of Han.
Liu Bei says, How could I dare? Liu of Yi is a kinsman of the imperial house too, and has long been kind to Shu. Who could shake him?
某非賣主求榮 今遇明公 不敢不披瀝肝膽
mou fei mai zhu qiu rong, jin yu ming gong, bu gan bu pi li gan dan
I am not a man who sells his master for glory. Now that I have met an enlightened lord, I cannot but lay bare my liver and gall. (Chapter 60)
Zhang Song goes on. Liu Jiyu holds Yi Province, but he is dim and weak by nature and cannot use worthy men. With Zhang Lu threatening from the north, the people’s hearts are scattering and they long for an enlightened lord. I went to offer my heart to Cao Cao, but seeing his contempt for worthy men, I came on purpose to see you.
Liu Bei says he is grateful for this kindness, but Liu Jiyu is his kinsman, and the realm would scorn him if he attacked. Zhang Song says, A true man who would win merit in this world must be first to take up the whip. If you do not take it now, someone else will, and then regret will come too late. Liu Bei asks what way there could be, when he hears the road to Shu is so steep that carts cannot go two abreast nor horses side by side.
Zhang Song takes a map from his sleeve and hands it to Liu Bei. Moved by your virtue, I offer you this map. With it you will know the roads of Shu. When Liu Bei unrolls it, he finds the distances and widths of the roads, the strongholds of the mountains and rivers, and even the money and grain in the storehouses all set down in detail. Zhang Song says he has two trusted friends who share his mind, and that when they come to Jing Province, Liu Bei should take counsel with them. Liu Bei folds his hands. As the green hills never age and the clear waters flow forever, when the matter is done I will repay you richly.
Cao Cao judged Zhang Song by his looks and treated him with contempt, and Zhang Song reeled off Cao Cao’s defeats and was driven out with clubs. Liu Bei did not raise the west for three days and said he could not attack a kinsman. The map did not come out before Cao Cao, and before Liu Bei it came out of Zhang Song’s sleeve.
Have you ever judged someone by their appearance at first meeting and later changed your mind?