Romance of the Three Kingdoms II (14 page)

The shepherd lad went home and told all these marvels to his master. He could not conceal such a story, and it reached Ts'ao Ts'ao. Then sketches of the Taoist were sent everywhere with orders to arrest him. Within three days were arrested in the city and outside three or four hundred persons all blind of one eye, lame of one leg, and wearing a rattan head-dress, a black loose robe and wooden clogs. They were all alike and all answered to the description of the missing Taoist.

There was a great hubbub in the street. Ts'ao Ts'ao ordered his officer to sprinkle the crowd of Taoists with the blood of pigs and dogs in order to exorcise the witchcraft and take them away to the drill ground on the south of the city. Thither he followed them with his guards, who surrounded the crowd of arrested persons and slew every one. But from the neck of each one, after the head was severed, there floated up into the air a wreath of black vapour, and all these wreaths drifted toward a centre where they joined up into the image of another Tso Tz'u, who presently beckoned to him a white crane out of the sky, mounted it and sat as on a horse.

Clapping his hands, the Taoist cried merrily, "The rats of the earth follow the golden tiger, and one morning the doer of evil shall be no more."

The soldiers shot arrows at both bird and man. At this a tremendous storm burst over the city. Stones were driven along, sand was whirled about and all the corpses arose from the ground, each holding his own head in his hands. They rushed toward Ts'ao Ts'ao as if to strike him. The officials covered their eyes, and none dared to look another in the face.

The power of a hold, bad man will overturn a State,
The art of a necromancer produces wonders great.

Read the next chapter and you will know the fate of Ts'ao Ts'ao.

CHAPTER LXIX
KUAN LU TAKES THE SORTES BY THE "BOOK
OF CHANGES": LOYAL SUBJECTS DIE FOR
THEIR COUNTRY

T
he
sight of the corpses of his victims rising to their feet in the sterm and running toward him was too much for Ts'ao Ts'ao, and he swooned. However, the wind quickly fell and the corpses disappeared. His followers assisted Ts'ao to his palace, but he was very ill.

A poet celebrated the episode of the murdered Taoist:—

He studied his magical books,
He was learned in mystical lore,
And with magical fleetness of foot
He could travel the wide world o'er.
The magical arts that he knew,
He employed in an earnest essay
To reform the bad heart of Ts'ao Man,
But in vain; Ts'ao held on his way.

Ts'ao Ts'ao's illness seemed beyond the art of the leech and drugs seemed of no avail. It happened that T'aishih Ch'eng and Hsu Chih came from the capital to visit the prince, who bade the latter take the
sortes
from the "Book of Changes."

"Have you ever heard of Kuan Lu? He is more than human in his skill at divination," said Hsu.

"I have heard a lot about him, but I do not know how clever he is, you tell me about him," replied Ts'ao.

"He is from P'ingyuan; his other name is Kung-ming. His face is ugly and coarse; he drinks to excess and is rather dissipated. His father was chief of the aborigines of the Langya districts. From a lad Kuan Lu loved to study the stars, staying up all night to watch them, in spite of the prohibition of his father and mother. He used to say that if domestic fowls and wild geese knew the seasons naturally how much more should a man. He often used to play with other boys at drawing pictures of the sky on the ground, putting in the sun, moon and stars. When he grew older he studied the 'Book of Changes' very deeply and observed the winds. He was a marvellous calculator and excellent physiognomist.

"His fame reached the ears of the Prefect Tan Tzu-ch'un, who called him to his residence for an interview. There were present some hundred or so other guests, every one of whom could be called able of speech.

'"I am young and not over-bold,' said Kuan Lu to the Prefect. 'I pray you give me three stoups of wine to loosen my tongue.'

"The request was astonishing, but the wine was brought in, and when he had drunk it, Kuan Lu, looking contemptuously at the other guests, said, 'Now I am ready; are these the sort of opponents you have got together for me to contend with? Are these gentlemen sitting around me disputants?'

"'I myself am anxious for a match with you,' said Tan.

"Then they began upon the meaning of the 'Book of Changes.' Kuan Lu's words poured forth like a torrent, and his ideas were most recondite. The Prefect replied, stating difficulties; Kuan swept them away in a stream of eloquence. So it went on the whole day without a pause even for refreshment. Neither Tan nor his other guests could help praising him and agreeing with him.

"His fame spread wide after this encounter, and people spoke of him as the 'Supernatural Boy.'

"After this he became famous in another way. There was a certain Kuo En, a man of the people, who had two brothers. All three became lame and they called in Kuan Lu to cast lots and discover the reason. Kuan Lu said, 'By the lots there is a female demon in your family tomb, an aunt, the wife of one of your father's brothers. Some years ago, in a time of dearth, for the sake of a few measures of grain, she was pushed into a well and a great stone was thrown in on her, crushing her head so that she suffered intensely. She complained to the Most High, and your lameness is the retribution for that crime. No prayers will avert the evil.

"The three brothers wept and acknowledged their guilt.

"The Prefect Wang Chi, of Anp'ing, heard of the diviner's fame and invited him to come on a visit, and be went. It happened that the wife of the magistrate of Hsintu suffered from headaches and his son from pains in the heart. Kuan Lu was asked to discover the reason. He cast lots and said that at the west corner of the main hall there were buried two corpses, one of a man who held a spear, the other of a man who had a bow and arrows. The wall was built across them. The spearman's master had gashed his head and so his head pained. The archer's master had stabbed him in the heart and so his heart suffered anguish. They dug where he indicated and, about eight feet down, found two coffins, one with a spear inside and the other with a strung bow and wooden arrows. All were much decayed. Kuan Lu bade them remove the bones and bury them ten
li
outside the walls. Thereafter the woman and her son suffered no more.

"A certain Chuko Yuan, magistrate of Kuant'ao, newly promoted to Prefect, was leaving for his new post, and Kuan Lu went to see him off. One of the guests mentioned that Kuan Lu could divine what was hidden from sight. The Prefect doubted such powers and said he would put a test. He got a swallow's egg, a wasp's nest and a spider and concealed them in three separate boxes. He asked Kuan to guess the contents. The divination made he wrote three quatrains:—

The latent life will declare itself;
It will cling to your lordly hall,
Or male or female, flung into space,
Wide wings will prevent its fall.

This seems to indicate a swallow's egg.

'A many-chambered dwelling
Is hanging to your eaves,
Each room has a poisonous tenant;
Who'll be flying when he leaves.

'This answers to a wasp's nest.

'Therein's a long-shanked, trembling thing,
Who spins a thread from his inside
And spreads a fine spun net for flies;
He profits most at eventide.

'And this it a spider.'

"The guests were amazed.

"An old woman in his village having lost a cow, came to consult him. After the divination he told her that seven men had taken away the cow and were cooking and eating it on the bank of a certain mountain stream. She had better go there quickly and see who they were. If she went with all speed she would find the skin and the flesh. She went and found the seven men hidden behind a small shanty, boiling beef. Most of the cow's flesh was still there. She told the Prefect, who arrested the seven men and punished them. Then he asked the old lady how she got to know exactly who the offenders were, and she told him.

"He was dubious, too. He sent for Kuan Lu and put him to the following test. He placed his seal and a pheasant feather in a box and asked what were the contents. The reply was:—

'Square within, without so round,
Beauteous colours here abound;
The jewel within is held secure
And what it witnesses is sure.

'Is not this a seal in its bag?'

"With regard to the other thing, Kuan Lu said:—

'There's a bird on the precipice steep,
Its body with flame seems aglow,
Its wings are barred yellow and black,
At sunrise it ne'er fails to crow.

'And I think this hints at a pheasant feather.

"The Prefect Liu treated the marvellous diviner with great honour.

"One day Kuan Lu saw a youth ploughing a field. After watching him for a long time, Kuan Lu suddenly asked his name and age.

"'My name is Chao Yen, and I am nineteen,' said the young man. 'Pray, who may you be, Sir?'

"'I am Kuan Lu
_;
you may have heard of me. I see an air of early death about you, and you will be done with life in three days. It is a pity that one so handsome should die so young.'

"Chao Yen forsook his plough, hurried home and told his father. The father at once set out to find Kuan Lu, and, having found him, threw himself on the ground and besought him to save his son.

'"How can I avert the doom? It is fate,' said Kuan Lu.

'"Alas! I have but this one son, I pray you to save him.'

"And the son added his tears and prayers to those of his father. Kuan Lu was deeply touched. Then he turned to the lad and said, 'You get ready some good wine and some venison. Tomorrow go into the forest on the south there, and underneath a lofty tree you will see two men seated on boulders playing
wei-cb'i.
One of them will be dressed in white, and he will be facing the south. He is very evil looking. The other will be seated opposite, dressed in red. He is very handsome. They will be deeply absorbed in their game and will not notice who offers them food and wine, which you will humbly present on your knees. When they have eaten and drunk, you will prostrate yourself and with tears pray them to grant you length of days. You will gain an increased span of life, but, above all things, do not mention that I told you what to do.'

"The father kept Kuan Lu as a guest, and the next day the son followed out his instructions. He entered the forest and soon came upon the two mer seated beneath a pine, playing
wei-ch'i.
They seemed oblivious to all around them. Chao Yen presented the wine and the food, and the two men ate absent-mindedly, for the game went on.

"But when Chao Yen threw himself on the ground and implored the gift of long life, they seemed startled.

"'This must be some of Kuan Lu's doing,' said Red Robe. 'Still, as we have accepted a gift at his hand we must have pity on him.'

"He who was dressed in white then lifted up a book that hung at his side and looked therein.

'"You are nineteen this year,' said he to Chao Yen. 'You ought to die. But we will insert a 'nine' over the 'ten' and so make it read ninety and nine, and that is the age you will attain. But when you go back, tell Kuan Lu he is not to betray the secrets of fate, or Heaven will surely punish him.'

"Then Red Robe took out a pen and added the figure. A gust of wind passed, and the two old men were transformed into two cranes that rose into the sky and flew away.

"Chao Yen came back home and told what he had seen. Kuan Lu told him the red-robed man was the Southern Dipper Constellation, and the white-robed, the Northern Dipper.

'"But the Northern Dipper consists of nine stars, and there was only one man,' objected the lad.

'"Separately they are nine, but they combine to form one. The Northern Dipper records deaths, the Southern Dipper births. Now the extra figure has been added you need have no anxiety; you will live long.'

"Father and son both thanked him most sincerely, but thereafter Kuan Lu was very careful how he divined for people lest he should betray celestial secrets.

"Now, this man is at P'ingyuan, and you, O Prince, can seek your fate of him. Why not call him?"

Kuan Lu was sent for and came. As soon as the salutations were over, Ts'ao Ts'ao asked him to cast lots for him.

Kuan Lu at once found that the illness was only due to magical machinations, and said so; at which Ts'ao Ts'ao was much relieved in his mind, and his health began to improve.

Next Ts'ao Ts'ao wished to know about the conditions in the world's affairs. After the necessary calculations the prophet said, "Three-eight crosswise; the yellow boar meets the tiger: stop the southern expedition with the loss of one limb."

Then Ts'ao Ts'ao asked him to enquire whether his life should be long or not.

He replied, "Lion in the Palace to preserve the talents of ancestors: the Prince's way is securely renewed and his son and grandson shall come to high honour."

Then Ts'ao Ts'ao asked concerning himself.

"Divinations concerning the fate of the universe may not be foreknown; wait a time and I will look into it."

Ts'ao Ts'ao was pleased and would like to keep such a man near him, so he offered him the post of historiographer (who was also soothsayer) at his court, but it was declined.

"My destiny is mean, my luck despicable; I am not equal to such an office and dare not undertake it."

"Why not?" said Ts'ao Ts'ao.

"My forehead has no lofty fullness; my eyes no steady expression; my nose no bridge; my feet no round, solid heels my back lacks the triple armour (of shoulder blades and intervening muscles); and my breast the three marks (like the character
jen,
which indicates wealth). I can only control evil spirits securely; I cannot rule living men."

"What think you of my physiognomy?"

"What can a minister of extremely exalted rank like yourself desire further?" said Kuan Lu.

Ts'ao Ts'ao pressed him to say: the soothsayer only laughed. Then Ts'ao asked him to look at the many officers of all kinds standing around.

"Every one of them is a servant equal to the administration of the world," said Kuan Lu.

But when Ts'ao Ts'ao asked whether good or bad fortune was to be his, the soothsayer would not give a clear and full reply.

A poem says:—

Kuan Lu was a seer of old,
Stars to him their secrets told.
Mysteries, occult and dim,
were as daylight unto him.
His so subtle intellect
Could the shade of death detect,
But the secrets of his skill
Died with him,—are secrets still.

Again Ts'ao Ts'ao asked him to divine concerning his rivals Wu and Shu. He said the former had just lost a famous leader and the latter had encroached on his territory. Ts'ao's doubts as to the accuracy of one of these events were soon set at rest, for a messenger came from Hofei to say that Lu Su had died. Then Ts'ao sent hurriedly into HanChung, and the scout returned to say that Chang Fei and Ma Ch'ao had taken the Pass at Hsiapien. Ts'ao Ts'ao was angry and inclined to march at once against the invaders; but he consulted the great soothsayer, who advised him not to move.