[Three Kingdoms 365 · Day 159] Words That Seated Eleven — Zhuge Liang debates eleven officials at the hall

Of the eleven civil officials, Zhang Zhao (張昭), at the foremost seat, spoke first toward Kongming (孔明).

"Wolong Sir, your name has long been heard by rumor. What meaning has the step you have carried this time into the east, into Jiangdong (江東)? In the present state, where Liu Bei (劉備) has lost Jingzhou (荊州) and is being pursued, together with twenty-four thousand of the people, by Cao Cao (曹操), by what ability does Wolong intend to turn this game around?"

Kongming's fan moved quietly.

"Zhang Zhao Sir's question is a fitting first line for this morning's hall. Only, the assumption that Liu Bei's present state is 'a state of being pursued' makes one foot of the question stand a little shorter than the other. Liu Bei is slow because he has not abandoned his people; he is not pursued. That slowness was, rather, the ground upon which the two fires at Xinye (新野) and the fire at Bowang (博望) could grow."

Zhang Zhao's head dropped a little. He did not re-open his reply.

Yu Fan (虞翻) spoke second.

"Cao Cao's million-man army, and Liu Bei's force of ten thousand. At the middle of that ratio, what stratagem of Wolong can turn the game around?"

Kongming's fan moved a second time.

"Yu Fan Sir. Cao Cao's million is a million only in name; in truth it is two hundred thousand. Of those two hundred thousand, half are soldiers who have not crossed the northern river before. That half is not yet accustomed to the sway of a boat upon water. If, at the middle of the river, a sliver of fire catches, that half of the two hundred thousand will remain floating upon the face of the river."

The air of the hall fell quiet. The two characters of Red Cliffs (赤壁) had not yet been spoken, yet the outline of those two characters had already begun to appear inside Kongming's reply.

Bu Zhi (步騭) spoke third.

"Submission to Cao Cao is the highest course. The six commanderies of Jiangdong lie in the middle of peace. Is it not a better path to continue that peace by submission, than to go to a fiery war?"

Kongming answered for the third time.

"Bu Zhi Sir. That judgment of yours is the judgment of the civil officials of the six commanderies of Jiangdong; it is not the judgment of the lord Sun, the sovereign. The duty of a vassal of one sovereign is, first, to guard the name of that sovereign. If one submits to Cao Cao, the name of the house of Sun in Jiangdong will never again be called, from this morning onward."

Bu Zhi closed his lips. Then he did not open his reply.

Lu Ji (陸績) rose fourth.

"Wolong Sir is no mere scholar. I have heard by rumor that Sir compares himself with Guan Zhong (管仲) and Yue Yi (樂毅). Guan Zhong was the chancellor of Qi (齊); Yue Yi was the general of Yan (燕). In what seat, exactly, can Sir sit beside those two men?"

Kongming's fan moved a fourth time.

"Lu Ji Sir. Guan Zhong made Qi one of the five hegemons. Yue Yi, with Yan's weak army, took seventy cities of Qi. Whether this morning's Wolong may sit in the same seat with those two is a matter to be judged not this morning, but in the spring that will come after tomorrow's sliver of fire."

Lu Ji moved his eyebrow a little. Then he sat down again.

The remaining seven officials each raised a question in turn. Each question ran in a different direction. A line concerning the submission of Liu Cong (劉琮), the son of Liu Biao (劉表). A line concerning the internal affairs of Jiangdong. A line concerning Wolong's origins. A line concerning the state of Jingzhou. Seven questions opened in seven directions.

Kongming's fan moved seven times. Each answer was turned briefly toward each question's direction. Then Kongming opened his last line, at once.

"The questions of the eleven of you have been divided into eleven directions. Yet those eleven directions connect into a single stream. The decision of this morning will be made upon that stream. The name of that stream is Han (漢). Does the vassal of Han guard Han, or does the vassal of Han abandon Han? At the middle of the eleven of you this morning, that stream is flowing."

The air inside the hall fell quiet. The eleven gazes of the eleven men rested, each for a while, at the end of Kongming's last line. Then the eleven heads, each at its own seat, lowered themselves as if seating themselves. Whether the lowered head was an angle of agreement or an angle of silence differed upon each face. Yet, after Kongming's last line, not one of the eleven opened his mouth again.

The morning sunlight had now moved a notch westward from the east window of the hall. Kongming's fan was set down again, quietly, upon his knees.

The hall of the fifth morning of Book 6 was set in order, quietly, upon a single line of Wolong. Sun Quan (孫權) himself had not yet entered the hall. Yet in a room outside the hall, the long resonance of this morning's line must already have been listening.

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