Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast

An announcement about my new podcast project, and an update on a couple things I’ve been doing with the Three Kingdoms Podcast. * Transcript* Water Margin Podcast website* Internet Archive collection of the Three Kingdoms Podcast audio files* The Three Kingdoms-themed marble panels at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology Transcript PDFDownload Hey everyone. Happy New Year! Welcome to 2019, and I just want to drop a short update on this feed to let you know what I’ve been up to since the podcast concluded last summer. So first of all, as many of you already know, I just launched my next project, the Water Margin Podcast, where we are essentially doing the same thing we did on this podcast, but with the novel The Water Margin, which is also often referred to as Outlaws of the Marsh. So if you haven’t yet, go check out that new podcast at outlawsofthemarsh.com. It’s also already on iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, and the other major podcast platforms. Before I got all wrapped up in launching that podcast, I spent the past six months or so ensuring that my work on the Three Kingdoms Podcast will survive should something calamitous happen to this website. One of the things I’ve done is to upload all the audio files to the Internet Archive, which is about as permanent as something on the Internet can be. I’ve included a link to that collection with the notes for this update on the website, so check it out there if you want. You’ll notice that the order of the files are kind of scrambled. Reordering things on the Internet Archive is apparently a huge pain, so I was only able to make partial progress on that before having to shift my attention to the Water Margin Podcast. Another thing I’ve been doing is going back and re-recording some of the earlier episodes of the Three Kingdoms Podcast to improve their quality. I’ve done this for just the first three episodes so far, but my plan is to do one or two here and there going forward. Of course, now that I’m immersed in producing the Water Margin Podcast, that work will be pretty sporadic. Finally, I want to mention a neat little discovery I made. Last spring, someone at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at Berkeley reached out to me. They have in their collections a set of five marble panels that were carved sometime in the mid-1700s. They came from an old Buddhist temple in Shanxi Province in China. The carvings depicted various scenes from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and the museum was looking to compile more information about those scenes so that it would be on...

A reflection on this four-year ride, and a glimpse of things to come. * Transcript Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 154. So, here we are, the end of a journey that started on April 9, 2014, when I hit Publish on the first episode of this podcast — an episode that I foolishly numbered episode zero, creating all sorts of metadata annoyances for myself for the next 154 episodes). I had no idea what kind of audience would be out there for this project. Well, after 4 years, 1 month, 5 days; 175 total episodes; more than 81 hours of recordings; 700,000-plus words of scripts; 2 computers; 2 crashed hard drives; and one lightning strike; I have my answer, and it’s beyond anything I could have imagined. By industry standards, our numbers are by no means huge, but it’s definitely bigger than what I could have expected, and the enthusiasm I have seen from you is simply unparalleled. So before anything else, let me say once again: Thank you so much for checking out my little corner of the podcast universe and for dragging others into it. You guys are awesome. Many of you have asked what I’m doing next, and I’ll get to that in a bit. But first, I want to do some reflection on the novel and the podcast. I explained in the first episode what the novel means to me. I see it as a quintessential part of Chinese culture, and I wanted to share it with people who may not have been familiar with it and might find it hard to get into due to the language barrier. Based on the enthusiasm I have seen in your emails and comments, I feel that goal has come to fruition. But more than that, I have found that in doing this podcast, I have greatly expanded my own understanding of the novel. When you are trying to not only recite a book, but also explain its many intricacies to an audience, you find yourself combing through its pages in a way you would not have done otherwise. Details that I had glossed over on previous readings and references that I only half-understood before now had to be explored and researched much more thoroughly so that I can explain it to you. And in that way, I have gained a whole new appreciation for the novel. A listener asked why I think the novel has become so popular in China. I think there are many reasons for it. For one thing, the stories and characters of the novel are from more than 1,800 years ago, so they have had plenty of time to become ingrained in Chinese lore. The novel itself may have been written in the 14th century, but the historical text the Records of the Three Kingdoms was written during the Jin Dynasty, in the immediate aftermath of the Three Kingdoms era, and it’s safe to say that there were likely already stories being told about the people and events from the era during that time. Second, I think anyone who grew up in Chinese culture could see various Chinese values illustrated in the novel. Every society and every culture likes to present some kind of mythical, idealized vision of what its values are, how it sees itself. For me, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms embodies many of the values that we Chinese like to hold up as our ideals, such as the honor of Guan Yu; the loyalty, dedication, and wisdom of Zhuge Liang; the valor of Zhao Yun ; or the unbending principles of every court official who dared to speak up against the next would-be usurper, even it meant losing their head. Beyond those values, I think the novel is appealing to the Chinese sensibility because one of the things that we Chinese have been taught to take pride in is o...

A rapid-fire look at a bunch of supporting players in the novel. * Transcript Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is a supplemental episode. So from time to time, listeners would write in and ask if I can do a supplemental episode on this or that side character. Alas, the answer in most cases is that I just don’t have enough historical material about those characters, or their historical lives do not differ enough from their characters in the novel, for me to do a whole supplemental episode on any one of them. But, now that the show is winding down, I would like to use this episode to do a rapid-fire look at a number of side characters. But instead of doing their life stories, I’m going to do is to give just one interesting tidbit about each of these characters. So let’s start with the characters in the kingdom of Wei, and I’m going to expand this to include people served under Cao Cao, which was technically before the founding of the Wei, and people who served in the successor kingdom of Jin, which seized power from the Wei in the final pages of the novel.   Alright, here we go. First up is Xiahou Dun, Cao Cao’s kinsman and veteran general who lost an eye in a battle and proceeded to swallow that eyeball. Not surprisingly, he was very sensitive about having just one eye. He got saddled with the nickname “blind Xiahou,” and it’s said that whenever he looked in a mirror, he would become so displeased with his cyclopic countenance that he would push the mirror over. So, keep your mirrors away from Xiahou Dun.   Next, we have Xiahou Yuan, who was also Cao Cao’s kinsman and a trusted general under Cao Cao. Now, remember that he got chopped in two by the Shu general Huang Zhong in a showdown at Dingjun (4,1) Mountain in the region of Hanzhong. In the novel, Huang Zhong had laid a clever trap, luring Xiahou Yuan into complacency before charging down the mountain to catch him off guard for the easy kill. In real life, however, Xiahou Yuan’s death went a bit differently. He and his comrade Zhang He were attacking Shu camps at Dingjun Mountain. He and Zhang He were each defending one end of their camps. Liu Bei devised a scheme where he had his men burn the barricade of brambles that defended Xiahou Yuan’s camp and then attacked Zhang He’s side of the camps, putting him in some danger. Xiahou Yuan responded by sending part of his troops to help Zhang He. Meanwhile, Xiahou Yuan personally led the clean-up effort over at his own camp. But while he was busy helping to rebuild the barricades, the Shu general Huang Zhong attacked, caught Xiahou Yuan isolated and flat-footed, and killed him. When Cao Cao got word of Xiahou Yuan’s death, he lamented how Xiahou Yuan was always personally sharing his soldiers’ burdens by doing basically grunt work alongside the rank-and-file troops. In fact, Cao Cao said, “As a commander, you should not even personally go fight, much less go help rebuild the barricade.” And there’s also an interesting postscript here. After he was killed, Xiahou Yuan got a proper burial, not from Cao Cao, but from Liu Bei. Remember that in the supplemental episode about Zhang Fei, we mentioned how Zhang Fei abducted Xiahou Yuan’s niece for his wife. That niece now went to beg Liu Bei to give her uncle some dignity in death, and Liu Bei concurred.   Moving on, we come to the general Xu Huang, the guy who wielded a big battle axe. In real life, much like in the novel,

One hundred and fifty-three episodes later, we have finally reached the “long divided, must unite” part of the novel. * Transcript * Map of Key Locations * Graph of Key Characters and Relationships Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 153. Last time, after many delays and postponements, the kingdom of Jin finally decided to march South. Its army was cutting through Wu territory like a hot knife through butter, or if you prefer the Chinese equivalent of that saying, like a knife through bamboo. They were knocking on the doorstep of Jianye, the Wu’s capital city, but there was dissent back home about whether to press forward. The senior court official Jia Chong wanted to recall the troops on account of fatigue and disease, but his colleague Zhang Hua (2) spoke against it, prompting Jia Chong to scold Zhang Hua. But Sima Yan was like, if you’re done, Mr. Let’s Recall the Army, I would like to say something, seeing how I’m, you know, emperor and all. “It is my intention to continue,” he said. “Zhang Hua just happens to share my opinion. There is no need to bicker.” And just then, a dispatch arrived from the Jin grand commander Du (4) Yu (4), also urging Sima Yan to continue pressing the troops forward. With all second thoughts erased, Sima Yan promptly gave the order to advance.   With that command, the Jin army resumed its course on land and water, and just like before, the people of Wu surrendered at the first sight of their banners. When Sun Hao heard this, he turned pale. “The Northern army draws nearer by the day,” his officials told him. “And our soldiers and people are surrendering without a fight. What should we do?” “Why do they not fight?” Sun Hao said. Oh, I don’t know. Could be that decade-plus of hell you just put them through? That would be my guess. Sun Hao’s officials now pointed the finger at the chief eunuch that had been mucking things up at court, saying that if Sun Hao would execute him, then they would all go and fight it out with the enemy. “But he is just a eunuch,” Sun Hao said. “How could he have doomed the state?” To this, everyone at court shouted, “Your majesty, did you not see what the eunuch Huang Hao (4) did to the kingdom of Shu?!” And then, the mob decided that they weren’t even going to ask for permission from their lord. They just weren’t going to take it anymore. The court officials all stormed into the palace, tracked down that eunuch, cut him to pieces, and — just to show how much contempt they had for this guy — ate his flesh, raw. Wiping grisly human remains from his chin, the official Tao (2) Jun (4) said, “The warships under my command are all small. Please give me 20,000 troops on large ships. That will be enough to defeat the enemy.” So Sun Hao did as he requested and sent the imperial guard to accompany Tao (2) Jun (4) to go up river to face the oncoming foe. Meanwhile, the Forward Army General, Zhang Xiang (4), led the navy into the river. But just as they were about to set sail, a strong gale kicked up from the northwest. All the banners of the Wu forces were blown over. Seeing this, most of the men said thanks but no thanks, and they scattered rather than get on the ships.So Zhang Xiang was left with all of a few dozen men.   Meanwhile,

A look at what they ate and drank during the Three Kingdoms era. * Transcript * Video: A Bite of China: The Story of Staple Foods Feast! Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is a supplemental episode. In this episode, we’re going to take a look at food during the Three Kingdoms era. As we have seen throughout the podcast, food plays a significant role in the novel. It seems like every other scene we’re having a feast or a banquet for some reason or another. So let’s talk about what people ate in this era. I should mention that much of the information for this episode comes from a book called Society and Life in the Wei, Jin, and the South and North Dynasties. I talked about those dynasties in the 100th episode Q&A. Together, they spanned the years between 220 and 589. That’s more than 350 years, so obviously, not everything in that book would apply to the Three Kingdoms period, which is at the beginning of the time period covered by the book. I’m going to do my best to limit our discussion to only things relevant to the Three Kingdoms period, but just know that some of the things we touch on might be more extrapolations based on what happened before and after the Three Kingdoms period, and I’ll note that when the information is about periods before or after the Three Kingdoms. It’s not an exact science, but we’ll do our best.   Before we talk about food, let’s first talk about the absence of food. The end of the Han dynasty was a time of chaos, warfare, and natural disasters, all of which contributed to mass-scale famines. We see this mentioned in passing in the novel on a few occasions, but it didn’t really get much attention. In real life, though, this was a serious problem. For instance, there was a kid’s limerick that circulated around the region around the Yangzi River at this time that went something like this: “The armies are the size of cities; the dead bodies are like forests; it’s easier to get a hold of gold than millet, and millet is worth its weight in gold.” Yeah they didn’t exactly coddle the children back then, did they? When regular food was not available, the people had to get creative. For instance, we have records of Yuan Shao’s men turning to mulberries for sustenance. Yuan Shao’s cousin Yuan Shu, however, had it even worse. His men apparently had to eat locusts. Of course today we’d look back and say that they were early practitioners of today’s eat-insect food movement. But sometimes you can’t even find a swarm of locust to sate your hunger. In those situations, we have records indicating that desperate folks turned cannibalistic. Remember when a hunter served Liu Bei a piece of his wife for dinner because he couldn’t catch any game? That wasn’t just invented out of nothing; people apparently were forced to eat the dead on occasion during this time. And it didn’t end with the Three Kingdoms era either. With all the turmoil over the next 350-plus years, there were records of more cases of severe famine leading to instances of cannibalism.   Now that we have established that people were on the menu during times of severe food shortages, let’s talk about what they ate, aside from each other, during times that weren’t quite Walking Dead-level horrible. Now, these days, when you order Chinese, you get your meat-and-veggie dish, whether it’s beef and broccoli or sweet-and-sour chicken, and usually there’s a bowl of rice on the side.

While their respective states are sizing each other up for conquest, the Jin and Wu commanders at the borders are getting along famously. * Transcript * Map of Key Locations * Graph of Key Characters and Relationships Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 152. Last time, we left off with the kingdom of Jin (4), aka the kingdom formerly known as Wei, sizing up the kingdom of Wu with hungry eyes. But far from worried, the tyrant of Wu (2), Sun Hao (4), was entertaining fantasies of conquering the empire. So both sides garrisoned troops in the area around the city of Xiangyang (1,2) in Jing Province. The Jin troops were led by the commander Yang (2) Hu (4), while the Wu forces were under the command of Lu (4) Kang (4). Both commanders were aware of the other’s talent, so the two sides remained in a stalemate. One day, Yang Hu (4) and his officers went hunting, and as luck would have it, so did Lu Kang and his entourage. Instead of letting this turn into some kind of skirmish, Yang Hu ordered his men to stay on their side of the border, and so they did, never once setting foot on Wu territory while they hunted. When Lu Kang saw this from a distance, he sighed and said, “General Yang is disciplined. We must not encroach.” At the end of the day, Yang Hu returned to his base and tallied up the day’s catch. Among them were some game that had been shot by the Wu hunting party, and Yang Hu ordered all those animals be returned to the Wu camp. The Wu soldiers were delighted and reported this to Lu Kang. Lu Kang summoned the courier and asked him, “Can your commander hold his liquor?” The courier replied, “If it’s good wine, he will drink.” Laughing, Lu Kang said, “I have a gallon of wine that I have stashed away for a long time. Take it and present it to your commander. I personally brewed this wine for my own use. I am offering some to him as a thank-you for what he did at yesterday’s hunt.” After the courier left with the wine, Lu Kang’s officers all asked him what he meant by giving the wine to Yang Hu. Lu Kang simply replied, “Since he did right by me, how can I not return the favor?” Oh, ok. His officers were all kind of surprised. I mean, Yang Hu WAS commanding our enemy’s army after all. We just thought you were playing some four-dimensional chess here, but ok sure.   Meanwhile, the Jin courier returned to base and told Yang Hu that Lu Kang had sent him some wine. Yang Hu laughed and said, “So, he also knows about my capacity for drink!” And he immediately ordered  the wine be opened and served. One of his lieutenants said, “This could be a trick. Commander, don’t be too quick to drink it.” But Yang Hu laughed and said, “Lu Kang is not one to resort to poison. There is no need for suspicion.” Yang Hu then tipped the wine jug and drank straight from it. From that day forth, he and Lu Kang maintained regular correspondences to see how each other was doing. It’s almost like they weren’t enemies or something. One day, Yang Hu received a messenger from Lu Kang and asked him how his commander was doing. The messenger told him, “My commander has been bed-ridden for a few days with an illness.” “I suspect he has the same illness that I had,” Yang Hu said. “Here, I have some pre-made medicine. Let him have it.” So the messenger returned and presented the medicine to Lu Kang. Lu Kang’s men said, “Yang Hu is our enemy.

Sure I just lost my kingdom, but look at all the fun stuff they have in the Wei capital! * Transcript * Map of Key Locations * Graph of Key Characters and Relationships Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 151. Last time, the last flicker of hope for the kingdom of Shu died with Jiang Wei, who killed himself after a failed coup that also claimed the lives of the Wei commanders Zhong Hui and Deng Ai. After order was restored, the former Shu emperor Liu Shan was taken to the Wei capital Luoyang, where Sima Zhao threatened to have him executed for his corrupt ways. Just as Liu Shan was about to wet himself, other court officials said, “Since the Lord of Shu lost his kingdom, he surrendered to us in a timely manner. We should spare him.” So Sima Zhao appointed Liu Shan as the Duke of Anle (1,4), which translates to the Duke of Peace and Joy, or more aptly, the Duke of Comfort. Liu Shan got a place to live in the capital, as well as a monthly stipend, 10,000 bolts of silk, and 100 servants. His son and the officials who followed him to the capital were also given titles. Liu Shan offered up his gratitude and left, happy to escape with his head. One guy who did not escape with his head was the eunuch Huang Hao. He had dodged death one time before thanks to generous bribes, but nothing would save him now. Sima Zhao had him taken to the public market, where he was suffered a literal death by thousand cuts. Word of Liu Shan’s fate got back to Huo (4) Ge (1), one of the last holdouts in the Riverlands. Huo Ge, who oversaw a district in the southern tip of Shu, had sworn that if Liu Shan was treated unkindly, he would never surrender. But now, seeing that his former lord got a pretty good deal, Huo Ge and his troops surrendered to Wei. The day after he was named the Duke of Comfort, Liu Shan went to Sima Zhao’s residence to offer his thanks again. Sima Zhao threw a feast for him. The entertainment at this feast began with Wei-style dancing, which made all the former Shu officials sad since it reminded them that they were now in a foreign land. Liu Shan, however, seemed to be enjoying himself. After the Wei-style dance concluded, Sima Zhao ordered some Riverlanders to play the music of their homeland. Now THIS cut like a knife, and the former Shu officials all wept. But Liu Shan alone laughed with amusement and did not seem embarrassed at all. After a few rounds of wine, Sima Zhao said to his adviser Jia Chong, “How can one be so heartless. Even if Zhuge Liang was alive, he would not have been able to keep him safe for long, much less Jiang Wei.” Sima Zhao then turned to Liu Shan asked him, “Do you miss Shu?” “It’s fun here; I do not miss Shu,” Liu Shan answered. Oh man. This guy. I swear. Anyway, moments later, Liu Shan excused himself to go use the bathroom. One of his former officials, Xi (4) Zheng (4), followed him and said, “My lord, why did you say that you did not miss Shu? If he asks you again, you should weep and say that your ancestor’s tombs are all far away in Shu, so you heart aches for the west and thinks about it every day. Then the Duke of Jin would no doubt allow you to return to Shu.” Liu Shan said ok and went back to the feast. After a few more cups, he was starting to get a buzz. Sima Zhao now asked him again,

We look at the architect of the Sima clan’s rise to power. Transcript Sima Yi (Source: Wikipedia) Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is a supplemental episode. In this episode, we will take a look at the real life Sima Yi, the architect of the Sima clan’s rise to power in the Wei court. Sima Yi was unceremoniously introduced in the novel. In episode 48 of our podcast, he appeared in a passing mention where he was one of several guys that Cao Cao promoted while beefing up the civil administration. I made a note at that time to that you should pay attention to Sima Yi. But in the novel, there was no call-out, and he just snuck in and lay low for about half the novel before rising to prominence after Cao Cao’s death. While it may appear that Sima Yi came out of nowhere, in reality, he definitely had a reputation that preceded him. The Sima clan was a prominent family even before the Han Dynasty. After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, the predecessor to the Han, the empire fractured into 18 small feudal states, and one of Sima Yi’s ancestors was the ruler of one of those states. Their state later became of the Han empire, and the Sima clan remained one of the most powerful families. Members of the clan served in the government for generations. The several generations immediately preceding Sima Yi served in various generalships and governorships, while Sima Yi’s father was a superintendent. Coming from this illustrious lineage, Sima Yi did not exactly fly under the radar. Even in his youth, he was said to have been crafty and often concerned about the empire, which was teetering at the time. At the age of 22, he was nominated to join the civil service. At that point, Cao Cao was not yet prime minister but had started his ascent up the political ladder. When Cao Cao heard about Sima Yi’s reputation, he wanted to bring the guy onto his personal staff. Sima Yi, though, didn’t want to serve under Cao Cao, so he claimed that he had been paralyzed and could not serve. Cao Cao was naturally suspicious, so he sent someone to spy on Sima Yi at night. Sima Yi, well aware that Cao Cao might be keeping him under tight watch, laid motionless in bed all night, and that fooled the spy, who told Cao Cao that Sima Yi was indeed paralyzed. Fast forward seven years, and Cao Cao was now the prime minister, and through the grapevine he had learned somewhere along the way that Sima Yi had miraculously gotten better from his paralysis. So now, Cao Cao made another effort to court Sima Yi. Well, “court” isn’t exactly the right word for it. Let’s just say that Cao Cao made Sima Yi an offer he couldn’t refuse, not if he wanted to keep his head. Given the choice of serving or dying, Sima Yi chose the pragmatic path, and that was how he came to be in the Han court. This is the point where Sima Yi first appeared in the novel. He started out as an attendant to the crown prince and then moved on to various other positions. But gradually, Cao Cao began to have second thoughts about this guy he tried so hard to recruit. He detected that Sima Yi may be harboring uncommon ambitions. Cao Cao warned his son Cao Pi that Sima Yi  was not one to take orders from somebody else forever, so best be on guard against him. Fortunately for Sima Yi, he was on very good terms with Cao Pi, so nothing really came of it.   Now, in the novel, we didn’t really hear much about Sima Yi after he began serving Cao Cao.

Everyone has a hidden agenda, except maybe for the guy suspected of hatching an insurrection. (Note: Special guest narrator this week) * Transcript * Map of Key Locations * Graph of Key Characters and Relationships Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 150. Last time, this became the Romance of the Two Kingdoms Podcast, as Deng (4) Ai (4) forced the Shu emperor Liu (2) Shan (4) to surrender. Deng Ai then sent a letter back to his boss, Sima (1,3) Zhao (1), advising that they leave Liu Shan in the Riverlands for now and treat him well so as to show the emperor of Wu that hey, you should really just surrender too. But that advice aroused in Sima Zhao a suspicion that Deng Ai was trying to set himself up to rule the Riverlands. So Sima Zhao now sent two documents. One was an official decree to Deng Ai; the other was a handwritten letter to Deng Ai’s army supervisor, Wei (4) Guan (4). The decree heaped praise upon Deng Ai for his accomplishments and informed him that he was to be promoted to grand commandant. He would have an extra 20,000 households added to his fiefdom, and his sons would receive titles of nobility and food from fiefdoms of a thousand households each. After Deng Ai received that decree, the army supervisor Wei (4) Guan (4) showed him the handwritten letter from Sima Zhao. It said that regarding what to do with Liu Shan, Sima Zhao needed to first run Deng Ai’s advice through the emperor, so he couldn’t act on it immediately. Of course, Deng Ai wasn’t buying that. I mean, when was the last time Sima Zhao ran anything through the emperor except a pointy weapon? “A general in the field may disregard an order from his lord,” Deng Ai said. “Since I have the authority of an imperial edict for my expedition, why should he reject my proposal?” So Deng Ai sent another letter back to the capital. By now, everyone at court was saying that Deng Ai must be thinking about a rebellion, which only added to Sima Zhao’s paranoia. And then, his envoy returned with Deng Ai’s letter, which basically said that we have to act quickly to firm up the loyalty of the people of Shu and to capitalize on the opportunity to win hearts and minds in the kingdom of Wu. So I can’t wait until you run this proposal through the emperor. As the Spring and Autumn Annals said, “Beyond the borders, a high official may do as he sees fit as long as his purpose is in the best interest of the state.” I will never do anything to harm the state’s interest, so I will go ahead and put my proposal into effect.   Uhh, this was exactly the wrong time to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. Sima Zhao was shocked by the audacity expressed in the letter, so he quickly huddled with his adviser Jia (3) Chong (1). Sima Zhao said, “Deng Ai is getting too arrogant and is acting on his own accord. His rebellious intent is showing. What should we do?” “Why not promote Zhong (1) Hui (4) to check him?” Jia Chong suggested. So Sima Zhao promoted Zhong Hui to minister of the interior and put Wei (4) Guan (4) in charge of both armies in Shu. He also sent another handwritten letter to Wei Guan, telling him to work with Zhong Hui to keep an eye on Deng Ai, in case Deng Ai did decide to rebel. Upon receiving his promotion, Zhong Hui met with Jiang (1) Wei (2), the former Shu commander who had surrendered to Zhong Hui and become his sworn brother.

A Shu commander tries to live up to his father’s legacy, while a Shu prince refuses to follow his father’s example. * Transcript * Map of Key Locations * Graph of Key Characters and Relationships Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 149. Last time, the armies of Wei were closing in on the Shu capital Chengdu. The Shu commander Jiang Wei was mounting a stiff defense against the forces led by Zhong Hui at the Saber Pass, the main road leading to Chengdu. But unbeknownst to Jiang Wei, the other Wei commander, Deng Ai, had led a small detachment of troops on a daring trek across treacherous mountain terrain to sneak around him. Now, Deng Ai was on his way to attack Chengdu. The Shu emperor Liu Shan asked his courtiers what he should do. Most of the officials had no ideas. One official, Xi (4) Zheng (4), stepped forward and said, “With the situation so dire, your highness should summon the son of the Marquis of Wu (3) to discuss how to repel the enemy.” The Marquis of Wu (3), of course, was Zhuge Liang, and his son was named Zhuge Zhan (1). Zhuge Zhan was known for his intelligence even as a child, but really, how could he not? I mean, the guy is the child of Zhuge Liang, and as we discussed in the supplemental episode on Zhuge Liang, his mother was also known for her talent and might’ve been even smarter than Zhuge Liang. Later, Zhuge Zhan was married to Liu Shan’s daughter, making him the emperor’s son-in-law, and he assumed his father’s marquiship. In the year 261, he was promoted to acting supervisory general, but when Huang Hao began to control the affairs of the court, Zhuge Zhan decided to just stay home on the pretext of illness. But now, there was nowhere for him to hide. Liu Shan sent three decrees back to back, summoning him to court, so Zhuge Zhan went. Liu Shan wept and said to him, “Deng Ai has already taken the city of Fucheng (2,2). Chengdu is in danger. On account of your father, please save me!” Zhuge Zhan also wept and replied, “My father and I have received tremendous kindness from your majesty. Even if my innards were scattered across the ground, I would not be able to repay you. Please mobilize all the troops in the city, so that I may take them to go fight it out.” So Liu Shan called up 70,000 troops and put them under Zhuge Zhan’s command. Zhuge Zhan then asked his officers who dared to be the vanguard. Before he finished speaking, a young man stepped forward and said, “Father, since you hold such immense responsibility, I am willing to be the vanguard.” This was Zhuge Zhan’s eldest son, Zhuge Shang (4), and he was only 19 years old. But he had taken after his father and grandfather and was already well-versed in military texts and skilled in combat. So Zhuge Zhan appointed him as the vanguard and set out immediately.   Meanwhile, Deng Ai had received a map from the newly surrendered general Ma (2) Miao (3). It laid out the roads covering the 100-some miles between his present location of Fucheng (2,2) and Chengdu. When he finished studying the map, Deng Ai said with alarm, “If we just stay here and the enemy occupies the hills ahead, how can we succeed? If things drag on for too long and Jiang Wei arrives, our army would be in danger.” So he summoned his son Deng Zhong and a lieutenant named Shi (1) Zuan (3) and told them, “Lead an army and rush to the city of Mianzhu (2,2) to take on the enemy.

A dive into the real life of the guy who ran the family business for 50-plus years. Transcript Sun Quan (Source: Dhugal Fletcher, via Wikipedia) Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is a supplemental episode. In this episode, we are delving into the life of the real Sun Quan, the longtime ruler of the Southlands. In the novel, Sun Quan took over the reins of his family’s enterprise at the age of 18, and he kept the Southlands safe for the next 52 years of his life, until his death at the age of 70. He was painted as a generally wise, if sometimes quick-to-anger, ruler. Let’s see if the real history bears this out. Sun Quan was born in the year 182, a couple years before the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion that kicked off our novel. Now, according to the author of the historical text the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, the Sun family came from humble backgrounds. But there’s a legend that they were actually descendants of Sun Zi (3), he who wrote the now famous text the Art of War. But there is no proof of that, and it sounds like the kind of embellishment one might go back and tack onto one’s family history after one had become the ruler of his own kingdom. While Sun Quan’s more distant family roots may be ordinary, his more immediate connections definitely made names for themselves. His father Sun Jian (1) made his name in helping to put down the Yellow Turban Rebellion and then became a prominent player in the early period of the novel. He was one of the 18 warlords who joined forces to take on the tyrannical prime minister Dong Zhuo. That coalition quickly dissolved, and Sun Jian went home to the Southlands to begin building his empire. But he was killed in the year 191 while waging war against Liu Biao, the imperial protector of Jing Province. Four years after Sun Jian’s death, his eldest son Sun Ce began his grand enterprise of carving out an empire in the Southlands. Sun Quan was only about 13 years old at this point, but he accompanied his brother on campaign and was said to have been one of his advisers. In fact, Sun Ce was so impressed by his younger brother that he felt Sun Quan was even more talented than himself. When they feasted with guests, Sun Ce apparently would often turn to Sun Quan and tell him, “All of these people will one day serve you.” By the time he was 17 years old, Sun Quan had begun leading troops for Sun Ce. A year later, Sun Ce was assassinated, and at the age of 18 or 19, Sun Quan became the patriarch of his family. The early years of Sun Quan’s reign were unsteady to say the least. At that point, his domain consisted only of six districts, and after he came into power, five of those six districts fell into rebellion. Even members of his own clan were plotting against him. One of his cousins was in secret contact with Cao Cao. Another launched an attack on one of the districts. And several other officials also staged insurrections. To his credit, though, Sun Quan faced them all down. After a series of battles over three or four years, he managed to pacify the districts and bring some stability to his reign. I think this was more or less glossed over in the novel, which made it seem like Sun Quan was inexperienced and relatively untested when he was facing Cao Cao’s invasion at Red Cliff. In reality, he had been fighting for his throne from the moment he sat down in it.

While Jiang Wei scrambles to mount a last-ditch defense, his old nemesis searches for a way to go around his roadblock. * Transcript * Map of Key Locations * Graph of Key Characters and Relationships Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 148. Before we continue where we left off, I have a quick announcement. We are rapidly approaching the end of the podcast here. I still have a few more supplemental episodes I want to put out, but we are looking at no more than five or six regular episodes remaining, if that. I do plan on doing a wrap-up episode at the end of the whole thing, and as part of that episode, I will answer any questions you may have. Now, I’ve gotten a number of questions about whether I’m doing another similar podcast after this one, and I will address that in the wrap-up episode, so no need to send in more questions about that. Also, please listen to the 100th episode Q&A first, so that you don’t send in a question that was already answered in that episode. Alright, on with the show.   Last time, the kingdom of Wei had sent the generals Zhong Hui and Deng Ai to lead two large armies to invade the Riverlands. Zhong Hui kicked down the front door to the region of Hanzhong and was cruising along when he suddenly ran into some spooky supernatural stuff around Dingjun (4,1) Mountain. He asked around and learned that this was the final resting place of none other than Zhuge Liang. “This must be the work of his spirit; I need to personally go offer sacrifices to him,” Zhong Hui said. So the next day, Zhong Hui prepared a first-class sacrifice and went to Zhuge Liang’s grave, where he prostrated and offered up the sacrificial items. No sooner had the ceremony ended did the violent winds stop and the ominous clouds dissipate, replaced by a light breeze and drizzle, which soon gave way to sunlight. The Wei troops were all delighted by this turn in the weather, and they offered up their gratitude before returning to camp. That night, Zhong Hui was sleeping in his tent when suddenly, a light breeze swept into the tent, followed by man donning a headscarf and wielding a feather fan. He wore a crane-pattern robe, white shoes, and a black sash. His face was like fine jade, and his lips were daubs of red. His eyes were bright and clear, and he moved with the light grace of divine immortal. Zhong Hui stood up and greeted the man, asking, “Sir, who might you be?” The guy was like, dude, have  you not been listening to the last 147 episodes of the Three Kingdoms Podcast? “I was honored by your visit this morning,” the man said. “I have a short message for you: Even though the rites of the Han are at an end and heaven’s mandate must be followed, the people of the Riverlands have suffered much during this long period of war and should be pitied. Once you have entered their territory, please do not slaughter the civilians.” And with that, the visitor flicked his sleeves and departed. Zhong Hui tried to keep him, but suddenly startled awake. He immediately realized who the visitor was, so he ordered his troops to erect a white banner that said, “Protect the Kingdom, Spare the People.” Wherever they went, whoever kills a single innocent would pay with his life. And what do you know? That worked. Wherever they went in Hanzhong, the people of came out of the towns to welcome them. Zhong Hui put all their minds at ease with kind words,

Meet two statesmen who really mastered the art of saying, “That’s not in my job description.” Bing Ji (left) and Chen Ping * Transcript Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is a supplemental episode. In this episode, we’re going to look at a story related to Bing (3) Ji (2) and Chen (2) Ping (2), two famous officials from the Western Han dynasty. One of Zhuge Liang’s aides name-dropped them both as he tried to convince Zhuge Liang to delegate some of his responsibilities for the sake of his own health. The aide said, “Look at Bing Ji, who cared not for dying men on the road but worried about a panting ox, or Chen Ping, who did not know how much grain or money the state had.” Now, on the surface, it would seem like those are not exactly good traits for a prime minister, but there are stories behind those references. Let’s first look at the story of Bing Ji. He was born sometime in the second century BC and died in 55 BC. There’s an interesting backstory about him that I want to a little bit about first before we get to the crux of our episode. He started out as a provincial jailer and eventually rose to one of the highest officials in the judiciary in the capital, but then he was demoted back to the provinces for some transgression. Now, this was during the time of the Han emperor Wu (3), who lived to age of 69 and reigned for 54 years. That 54-year reign, by the way, would stand as the longest in Chinese history for 1,800 years. This emperor Wu was a very important ruler and oversaw China’s greatest expansion. But toward the end of his reign, he ran into some major turmoil. In the year 92 BC, the wife of his prime minister was exposed for casting curses on the emperor, which led to the prime minister and his entire family being executed. But it didn’t stop there. Members of the imperial house were dragged into this mess, and somewhere along the way, an official who had a grudge against Emperor Wu’s heir apparent accused said heir apparent of partaking in witchcraft. Whether or not that was true soon became immaterial. The prince, feeling cornered, decided that fortune favored the bold. While Emperor Wu was out of the capital, the prince faked an imperial decree and launched an armed uprising in the capital. He killed the officials who were making accusations against him, but that was as far as fortune carried him. When the emperor heard that his son was leading an uprising in the capital, that pretty much confirmed everything he suspected, so he sent an army to put down this rebellion. The prince was defeated and committed suicide. But he wasn’t the only member of the clan to go down. His wife, his son, and his son’s wife were all executed. And even the prince’s grandson, an infant of just a few months, was arrested and put in jail. And the guy who was in charge of the jail at the time? That’s right. None other than Bing Ji. He had been summoned back to the capital to help out with the caseload during all these purges. Bing Ji knew that the prince was innocent, so he looked after the dead man’s infant grandson in jail. He selected a couple female prisoners to nurse the baby, commuting their sentences for the duration. Meanwhile, Emperor Wu’s paranoia continued to rage. Even after purging his own heir apparent and his family, the old emperor was still worried about potential challengers to his power. He got the notion that there was still an imperial aura hanging around the jail in the capita...

Tired of Shu’s perpetual encroachment on its borders, Wei decides to take the fight to its nemesis. * Transcript * Map of Key Locations * Graph of Key Characters and Relationships Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 147. Last time, Jiang Wei … did NOT launch another Northern campaign. Yeah, I know. Crazy! Instead, he had been summoned back from the front lines by his emperor Liu Shan, thanks to some devious maneuvering by the wicked eunuch Huang Hao (4). Jiang Wei lost his cool and demanded that Liu Shan execute Huang Hao, but Liu Shan was like, “Yeah no, that’s not happening. I love that guy!” So Jiang Wei stomped off in a huff. But an official named Xi (4) Zheng (4) soon reminded Jiang Wei that you don’t do something like that without expecting some blowback, and Jiang Wei asked Xi Zheng how he could save himself. Xi Zheng said, “There is a place in the region of Longxi (3,1) called Dazhong (2,1). The soil there is quite fertile. You should follow the late prime minister’s policy of having the soldiers till the soil and ask his highness for permission to go do that in Dazhong (2,1). First, the harvested grain can go to help feed the army. Second, you can try to occupy all the nearby districts. Third, the Wei will not dare to make any moves on Hanzhong. And fourth, as long as you retain command of the army out in the field, no one can move against you, and you will be able to avoid disaster. This is a plan to save yourself and the kingdom. You should do it at once.” “Sir, your advice is priceless!” a delighted Jiang Wei said in gratitude. So the next day, Jiang Wei went to see Liu Shan and told him he wanted to go to Dazhong (2,1) and have the soldiers till the soil there. Liu Shan was like, yeah fine, go go go. The only thing you’re killing around here is my buzz. So Jiang Wei returned to Hanzhong and told his officers, “Our previous campaigns failed because we did not have enough provisions. So I’m going to take 80,000 men and go till the soil in Dazhong (2,1) and look for an opportunity to occupy the region. You all have toiled long and hard on the battlefield. Let’s pull back for now and defend Hanzhong. The enemy has to transport their provisions over a great distance across mountainous terrain. They will be fatigued, and they will fall back. Then we can give chase, and victory will be ours.” Jiang Wei then assigned his top officers to defend various key locations and headed off to Dazhong with 80,000 men.   Word soon reached Jiang Wei’s nemesis Deng Ai. When Deng Ai heard that Jiang Wei was in Dazhong and that he had set up 40-some camps in an unbroken line in the shape of a snake, Deng Ai sent spies to go check out the situation and draw it all up on a map. He then sent word of this to the Wei capital. When Sima Zhao saw this report, he was enraged. “Jiang Wei has encroached on the Heartlands time and again,” Sima Zhao said. “If we do not eliminate him, he will always be a concern.” His adviser Jia (3) Chong (1) said, “Jiang Wei has learned Zhuge Liang’s teachings well. It’s hard to repel him quickly. We could send a smart and courageous officer to assassinate him. Then we won’t even have to trouble the army.” But another adviser, Xun (2) Yi (3), disagreed. “You’re mistaken. Right now Liu Shan,

Jiang Wei finally gets the better of Deng Ai, but even that ends up backfiring. * Transcript * Map of Key Locations * Graph of Key Relationships Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 146. Last time, Jiang Wei had launched another incursion into Wei territory. Oh and by the way, I counted, and this is the fifth time in the last seven episodes where I began an episode with some variation of “Last time, Jiang Wei had launched another invasion of the North.” So yeah, the guys defending the Wei border were probably getting as tired of this as you are. So anyway, to repel Jiang Wei this time, one of Deng Ai’s strategists, a man named Wang (2) Guan (4), pretended to defect to Jiang Wei. But Jiang Wei wasn’t fooled at all, and he took Wang Guan in with the intention of turning Wang Guan’s scheme against him. He sent Wang Guan to escort his provisions to Qi Mountain. Meanwhile, Jiang Wei scrapped his original plan of marching through Xie (2) Gorge. Instead, he sent some men to hide along the road to watch for spies from Wang Guan. Sure enough, within a few days, they captured a messenger that Wang Guan had sent to Deng Ai. Jiang Wei interrogated the guy and got the letter. It said that Wang Guan was going to be transporting provisions to the main Shu camp on August 20, and that Deng Ai should meet him in the Tan (2) Valley. Intel in hand, Jiang Wei executed the messenger and then wrote a separate letter that said basically the same thing, except instead of a rendezvous on August 20, he told Deng Ai to lead his army to Tan (2) Valley on August 15. While that fake message was on its way to Deng Ai, Jiang Wei went about setting the trap. He had his men empty a few hundred of his provisions carts and fill them with fire-starters and covered them with blue cloth. He then ordered the general Fu Qian to lead the other 2,000 Wei soldiers who defected with Wang Guan and escort the carts as if they WERE provisions. Jiang Wei and Xiahou Ba then each led an army and lay in wait inside Xie Gorge. He also ordered three other generals, Jiang (3) Shu (1), Liao Hua, and Zhang Yi, to advance toward Qi Mountain.   When Deng Ai received the fake message about the rendezvous, he was delighted and immediately wrote back to say the plan was a go. On August 15, he led 50,000 crack troops toward Tan (2) Valley. While he was still a good ways off, he sent scouts to go take a look from a high vantage point, and they saw countless provision carts moving in the valley in an unbroken line. When Deng Ai took a look for himself, he saw that these carts were indeed being escorted by Wei soldiers. Now, Deng Ai’s men said, “It’s starting to get dark, we should go meet up with Wang Guan right away and escort him out of the canyon.” But Deng Ai replied, “The hills ahead fold in on each other. If there is an ambush, it would be hard to fall back. We should just wait here.” But just then, two riders rushed onto the scene and said, “General Wang is being pursued because he has transported the provisions across the border. He is asking for immediate backup.” Deng Ai immediately ordered his troops to advance. Around seven o’clock that night, the moon was shining bright, and Deng Ai heard loud cries coming from behind the hills. He figured it was Wang Guan engaged in a fight, so he rushed toward the sounds. Suddenly, an army dashed out from behind some woods. They were led by the Shu general Fu Qian,