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WARNING! THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!
Ahhhhh, Chapter 29. Roughly 15 years into the story, and a lot has happened. The 10 Eunuchs seized power, and were in turn overthrown by Cao Cao and Yuan Shao. In the confusion, Dong Zhuo took over the Capitol, and thus gained control of the child-Emperor Liu Xian. Dong Zhuo was overthrown, and Cao Cao and Yuan Shao built the two most powerful warlord states in the land. Meanwhile, Liu Bei's been wandering around, escaping bad situations with his skin, and little else, intact. One by one, the warlords of the Late-Han have fallen to their powerful peers, and as the first quarter of the novel draws near its conclusion, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao are poised to battle it out for supremacy in the north, and Sun Ce has built a powerful and eminently defensible state in the Southeast...
Now things get strange. At least as far as Sun Ce is concerned. This chapter probably should have been called "The Little Conqueror goes f'n NUTS!" Seriously, a good two thirds of this chapter is about how Sun Ce lost his mind and died. Granted, his paranoia is not exactly groundless, as he survives (for a short time) an assassination attempt. I could give Sun Ce the benefit of the doubt here and say that his mental instability late in life might have resulted from the assassination attempt. Perhaps simple blood poisoning. But then I'd probably have trouble filling commentary space. So screw that.
Instead, I'll blame it on a very very bad decision to mess with the supernatural. According to the novel, the men of the Sun Family that ruled Wu and Yue (descendants of Sun Tzu if you can believe it) seemed to have an abiding dislike for the supernatural. Sun Ce in previous chapters proved himself to be quite the Little Conqueror (as his nickname says), but in this chapter, he proves his witch-hunting skills to be inadequate at best, and utterly inept at worst.
I understand that the Daoists of ancient China revered certain "Immortals", usually (but not always) old men who lived apart from society and devoted their lives to the contemplation of the mysteries of the universe. It was considered extremely bad luck to mistreat such revered holy men. So why does Sun Ce decide to pick a fight with the Dao? Well, why did people burn witches in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692? Probably the same reason. He doesn't like witches. Right? Right.
Bad idea.
Unlike the innocent men and women burned at the stake in Salem, "Saint" Yu Ji, who is reviled, beaten, tortured, humiliated,and ultimately beheaded at Sun Ce's behest really does, at least in the context of the novel, possess supernatural powers. Now, call me crazy, but if I had just seen a guy prophesy that he would bring 3 spans (if I'm not mistaken, that's equivalent roughly to over two feet) of rain, and then he actually brought the rain, in exactly the prophesied amount, exactly at the deadline, in the middle of a drought...I don't know...I might start thinking right along then that maybe I should leave the guy alone.
Sun Ce, unfortunately, doesn't really seem to get that, though. Putting Yu Ji to death proves to be the fatal mistake in his life. For the rest of his life, Yu Ji will haunt him everywhere he goes, appearing to him like Hamlet's daddy, and eroding what's left of his sanity.
By the time Sun Ce finally succumbs to the wounds he received during his assassination, he has gone quite mad. That, of course, was the whole point. I think that the author(s) of the novel might have been trying to put forth a moral here. Don't fuck with the wise, or you'll go crazy and die frothing at the mouth.
Of course, with the passing of Sun Ce (only 26 years old at the time of his death. That makes him sort of like the Chinese Alexander, in a way), that means that Sun Quan will be taking the throne next. Now Sun Quan possesses neither the charisma of Liu Bei nor the great head for strategy and tactics that Cao Cao has, but he's competent in his own right, and has many skilled officers working under him. Also, he has the benefit of geography on his side. The Yangtze River, one of the most massive rivers on the face of the planet, provides a natural barrier between his lands and those of his rivals. That will turn out to be very important, by the way. I hope you're paying attention. There will be a quiz. :p
By the way, before I forget, I wanted to point out the music I used to score the scene in which Sun Ce, in a fit of rage, burns a Daoist Temple to the ground and thus gives in to his insanity. I've used the song previously in the audiobook as sort of a Battle Theme for the Wu Army, but I used it here for a specific reason. I wanted to imply that though no one else really saw it, Sun Ce was indeed at war. This time his war was with the Supernatural. And it was the first...and the last...that Sun Ce would ever lose.
Special thanks go out to Tommy the Silent, my roommate, for his contributions to this audiobook. (He did the voice of Yu Ji in this episode.)
Anyways, if I write much more of a commentary here, it's going to end up being longer than the damn chapter, so I suppose I should just stop at..."Thanks for listening. Enjoy!" :p