The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 19
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 7:21PM The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 19:
Cao Cao Makes a Flood In Xiapi;
Lu Bu Perishes At The White Gate Tower.
Listen:
WARNING: READING PAST THIS POINT MIGHT SPOIL SURPRISES IN THIS CHAPTER NOT ALREADY SPOILED BY THE CHAPTER'S TITLE!
If you've been paying attention to the story (and I certainly hope you have...), you might have noticed that things between Cao Cao and Lu Bu are coming to a head.
I mentioned before the power struggle taking place in the East of China, between Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Liu Bei, and Yuan Shu. For chapters, the four of them have been maneuvering around each other, and some rather strange alliances have grown out of that struggle.
The thing about being allied with someone is that you have to be able to trust them. Here it is that Liu Bei lets the mask of modesty and humility slip a bit, and begins to show his true nature. Okay, I'll admit it, I've said before that my sympathies lean in the direction of Liu Bei and Shu-Han. Given the choice of Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Liu Bei, it seems to me that Liu Bei's goals (i.e. restoring the Han dynasty) are the noblest and worthiest. However, Liu Bei doesn't exactly cover himself in glory in this chapter.
Allied, at least on the surface, with Lu Bu, he's really working for Cao Cao here. Liu Bei might very well have justified his actions in Xu Province by citing Lu Bu's opportunistic seizure of Xuzhou, or by his murder of not one but two adopted fathers (Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo).
However, the fact is, when Lu Bu seized Xuzhou from the drunken Zhang Fei, he attempted to return it into the hands of Liu Bei, and Liu Bei refused to accept it. Furthermore, Lu Bu saved Liu Bei without costing anyone a single soldier, during Ji Ling's abortive invasion of Liu Bei's Xiao Pei. And every time that Lu Bu got his hands on Liu Bei's family, he treated them honorably as due respect to Liu Bei. So why, one might ask, does Liu Bei turn against him? The answer? Liu Bei is a very, very, very ambitious man, and as much as I love the character of Liu Bei, even I have to admit that all that modesty which brought him so much popular support is a pose. Liu Bei demonstrates clearly in this part of the novel just how willing he is to betray a friend to get what he wants. And what he wants in this case...is Lu Bu, dead.
In this, Liu Bei proves himself every bit the Machiavellian that Cao Cao is. Unfortunately for Lu Bu, mighty as he is, he cannot compete against Liu Bei and Cao Cao on the same team...
That brings us to Lu Bu, one of my favorite characters in the novel. Sure, he was impulsive. Sure, he committed some pretty fucked up crimes in his life. But in view of the actions of later heroes such as Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Yuan Shao, Sun Jian/Ce/Quan, Yuan Shu, etc etc., Lu Bu was no more vicious a man than they were.
Really, the most grievous sin that Lu Bu committed in his lifetime, as the ruler of an Imperial Province, was not murdering his "pops". (I doubt anyone, even Li Jue and Guo Si, wept very much when Dong Zhuo bit the dust...) His mistake was in not listening to and implementing the advice of Chen Gong, and instead, lending ear to Chen Gui and his son Chen Deng, flatterers and traitors (though they would have referred to themselves as loyal servants of the Han).
Alas for Lu Bu, this final mistake was one from which there could be no recovery. Not even with a desperate attempt to unite his family with Yuan Shu in marriage. As Chen Gong says at one point, "We shall die, and no one shall know our burial place." Quite simply put, Lu Bu was doomed the day he decided to trust Chen Deng.
As I said before, I'm quite a fan of Lu Bu, and an even greater fan of Chen Gong, one of the few men in all the Empire who has, up to this point, possessed the ability to keep Cao Cao off guard. Thus it's a very sad chapter for me. I would have loved it if Lu Bu had listened to Chen Gong, and together they might have overcome Cao Cao. Maybe even subjugated Cao Cao and made him a vassal. (Imagine that. Cao Cao taking orders from Chen Gong. Heh...)
Unfortunately, as history has shown, that's not really how it worked out. Lu Bu, as I said, was doomed. That, perhaps, might have been justice. At his end, Lu Bu pissed off a lot of people in his own army, including his subordinates, Song Xian, Hou Cheng, and Wei Xu, and he should not have been surprised in the least when they turned on him, capturing him and delivering him up to Cao Cao...
Chen Gong, however...there is the central tragedy of this chapter. Despite the fact that Cao Cao was inclined towards mercy and ready at any moment to give Chen Gong an officer's commission in his army, Chen Gong showed too much integrity to serve another after the mighty Lu Bu had fallen.
I'm not normally an emotional man, but even I get a bit misty eyed when I read the part about the execution of Chen Gong, and, honestly, I think I could probably ask for little else in this world than to face my own dying day with as much dignity and integrity as Chen Gong. (Getting beheaded would help, I suppose. :p)
I'm not going to spoil too many of the details of Chen Gong's truly heroic death, since it's one of the most touching parts of the novel thus far. Instead, I'll just leave it to you, the listener, to hear it for yourself. Enjoy.
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