When Kongming’s army, returning from the south, reaches the Lu River, black clouds close in and a fierce wind rises so that they cannot cross. Meng Huo explains. A savage spirit lives in this river, and the wind will only drop if forty-nine human heads are offered with a black ox and a white sheep. Kongming replies. Now that everything is settled, how could I kill even one person without cause?
The local people tell him more. Ever since the chancellor passed through, ghosts have wailed on the riverbank every night and countless vengeful spirits have drifted there. Kongming calls it his own fault. More than a thousand soldiers Ma Dai led died in this water, and the southern dead were thrown here too. Their spirits cannot rest, and so it has come to this.
Told to offer human heads as the old custom demands, Kongming shakes his head. People died and became vengeful spirits, so how can we kill the living as well? He has oxen and horses slaughtered, and has meat wrapped in dough and shaped like human heads.
The rite at the Lu River
That night incense is lit on the riverbank and forty-nine lamps set out in a row. At the third watch Kongming conducts the rite himself and Dong Jue reads the funeral address. It calls on the generals and soldiers of Shu who died fighting for the state, and calls on the spirits of the southern dead as well. Do not become the ghosts of a strange land, but follow my banners home and receive your families’ offerings.
When the address is finished, Kongming weeps aloud. The soldiers weep too, and so do Meng Huo and the southern people. The next day the clouds clear, the wind drops and the waves lie still. The army crosses the Lu River safely.
Kongming sends Meng Huo home, urging him to govern diligently, care for his people and not neglect the farming. When they reach Chengdu, the young emperor Liu Shan comes thirty li outside the city and stands by the road waiting. Kongming hurries down from his carriage and throws himself on the road. That I did not pacify the south quickly and caused Your Majesty worry is my fault.
The boy who would not shoot the fawn
In Wei, it is the seventh year since Cao Pi became emperor.
Cao Pi goes hunting, brings down a doe with an arrow, and tells his fifteen-year-old son Cao Rui to shoot the fawn. Cao Rui weeps on horseback. Your Majesty has already killed its mother, so how could I bear to kill its young as well? Cao Pi throws his bow to the ground. My son will truly be a humane ruler.
That summer Cao Pi falls gravely ill. He calls Cao Zhen, Chen Qun and Sima Yi to his bedside, points to Cao Rui, tells them to support him well, and dies. He was forty. When Cao Rui becomes emperor, Sima Yi asks to guard Yong and Liang provinces in the west, and takes command of the armies of the two provinces.
A single proclamation
Kongming is alarmed by the news. With Cao Pi dead and the young Cao Rui on the throne, there is nothing else to fear. But Sima Yi is a deep schemer, and once he has trained the armies of Yong and Liang, he will be a great danger to Shu. Better to raise troops and strike first.
Ma Su holds him back. You have only just returned from the south, Chancellor, and the soldiers are worn out, so now is the time to look after them. Then he offers another way. Cao Rui has always suspected and disliked Sima Yi. Spread rumours in Luoyang and Ye that Sima Yi means to rebel, and write a proclamation in his name and post it everywhere. Kongming follows the plan.
A proclamation appears on the gate of Ye. In Sima Yi’s name, it says Cao Rui has no virtue and disgraces the throne, so he will raise troops in obedience to heaven. Cao Rui turns pale. Hua Xin reports that the Grand Progenitor once said Sima Yi glares like a hawk and looks back like a wolf, and must never be given command of troops.
The grand general Cao Zhen stands in the way. The late emperor entrusted his son to several of us, Sima Yi among them, so he knew Sima Yi had no other intentions. Sending troops before we know whether this is true would only drive him to rebel, and it may be a plot of Shu or Wu to divide us. Cao Zhen suggests that the emperor go out to Anyi and see how Sima Yi receives him.
Not knowing why, and wanting to show the Son of Heaven his strength, Sima Yi comes out to meet him at the head of tens of thousands of armoured soldiers. That becomes the proof of rebellion.
When Cao Xiu blocks his way and rebukes him, Sima Yi breaks into a sweat all over, sends his troops back, and kneels weeping before Cao Rui’s carriage. This is a wicked scheme of Wu or Shu. Give me only a few troops and I will break Shu to show my heart. Cao Rui hesitates, then takes Hua Xin’s advice, strips Sima Yi of his post and sends him home.
Your servant Liang reports
Hearing the news, Kongming is overjoyed. He has long wanted to strike at Wei but held back because of Sima Yi, and now there is nothing to fear. The next morning Kongming goes before the young emperor and presents his memorial.
It begins by saying that the late emperor died before finishing even half the work of founding the state. The realm is split three ways and Yi Province is worn out, so this is a time when survival itself is at stake. Yet the officials within the palace are not idle and the generals outside fight without thought for themselves. It is because they wish to repay to Your Majesty the favour they received from the late emperor.
Kongming tells the emperor to open his ears, and not to belittle himself and so block the way for honest advice. The palace and the chancellor’s office are one body, so rewards and punishments must not differ between them. And he names names. On every matter of the palace, great or small, consult the palace attendants Guo Youzhi and Fei Yi and the attendant Dong Yun before acting. On every matter of the army, great or small, consult General Xiang Chong.
親賢臣 遠小人 此先漢所以興隆也
qin xian chen, yuan xiao ren, ci xian han suo yi xing long ye
Keeping worthy officials close and petty men at a distance, this is why the Former Han rose. (Chapter 91)
Keeping petty men close and worthy officials at a distance is why the Later Han declined, Kongming goes on. Whenever the late emperor spoke of this with him, he never failed to sigh over Emperors Huan and Ling.
The kindness of three visits
Kongming speaks of himself. I was a commoner in hemp clothes, farming in Nanyang, only trying to keep myself alive in troubled times. I did not seek to be known among the lords. The late emperor did not think me lowly, but humbled himself and came three times to my cottage to ask me about the affairs of the age. Moved by this, I promised to run his errands for him.
Since then I have taken on duties amid a beaten army and received orders in times of danger, for twenty-one years. The late emperor knew that I was careful, so when he died he entrusted me with the great task. Day and night I have feared failing that trust and so shaming the late emperor’s clear judgement.
So in the fifth month I crossed the Lu River and went deep into the barren land.
Now the south is pacified and arms and soldiers are plentiful. I should lead the three armies north to settle the central plains, revive the house of Han and return to the old capital. That is how I repay the late emperor and serve Your Majesty loyally. Offering honest advice is the task of Guo Youzhi, Fei Yi and Dong Yun. If I fail to strike down the enemy, punish my crime, and if they fail to offer honest advice, rebuke their fault.
At the end Kongming writes. Your Majesty too should make your own plans, ask after the good way, take in honest words and follow closely the late emperor’s last decree. Now that I am going far away, my tears fall before this memorial and I do not know what I have said.
The signs in the sky
The young emperor reads the memorial and speaks. Father Chancellor, you suffered a long journey striking at the south. To go north again before you have even sat down after returning, I fear it will harm your health. Kongming replies. Since the late emperor entrusted his son to me, I have not been idle day or night. Now that the south is pacified, there is nothing within to worry about, so if we do not strike the enemy now, what are we waiting for?
The grand astrologer Qiao Zhou steps forward. Watching the sky at night, he says, the energy of the north is at its height and its stars burn brighter, so it cannot yet be attempted. Kongming replies. The way of heaven is always changing, so how can we be bound by it? I will first station the army in Hanzhong and watch how things move before advancing.
Kongming leaves Guo Youzhi, Dong Yun and Fei Yi as palace attendants in charge of the palace, and gives Xiang Chong command of the guards. The affairs of the chancellor’s office go to his chief secretary, and the watching of the sky to Qiao Zhou. More than a hundred officials stay behind in Chengdu to govern together.
The old general’s stubbornness
When the generals have been assigned and the day fixed, an old general comes in raising his voice. I may be old, but I still have the courage of Lian Po and the vigour of Ma Yuan. Neither of those men of old would admit to age, so why will you not use me? It is Zhao Yun.
Kongming brings up Ma Chao’s death from illness. It was a loss like losing an arm. The general is old, and if anything goes wrong, the name of a lifetime will be shaken and the spirit of Shu broken. Zhao Yun will not back down.
Since I followed the late emperor I have never retreated in battle, and I have always been first to meet the enemy. For a man to die on the battlefield is good fortune, so what would I regret?
When Kongming tries again and again to dissuade him, Zhao Yun says this. If I am not given the vanguard, I will dash my head against these steps and die. Kongming says someone must go with him, and Deng Zhi steps forward. In the spring of the fifth year of Jianxing, the young emperor leads the officials ten li out of the north gate to see Kongming off.
At the court of Wei, Xiahou Yuan’s son Xiahou Mao steps forward. He means to avenge his father. The minister over the masses Wang Lang objects that he has never fought a battle, but Cao Rui makes him grand commander and gives him the armies west of the passes.
At the Lu River Kongming offered flour instead of living people, and following Ma Su’s plan he drove off Sima Yi not with a sword but with a single sheet of paper. In the memorial he left with, Kongming gave the late emperor’s kindness as his reason for going north.
And he wrote down for the young emperor he left behind the names of the people to ask.
When you choose the way to repay someone you are grateful to, have you ever asked yourself whether it is the way they would have wanted?