The Battle in Red Cliffs is a textbook case demonstrating how small kingdoms could defeat a superpower.
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During the 3rd century, the once strong empire Han Dynasty, which dominated the land of the Far East for nearly 400 years, was crumbling and torn apart.
Cao Cao, the last prime minister of the dying dynasty with an ambition to replace the Han monarch, ruled the vast areas in the central plains and northern China.
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Red Cliffs, the battleground of the three kingdoms, ink painting by Wu Yuanzhi, of the 12th century
Yet in the southeast of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the most fertile land in China, a new kingdom named Wu was rising.
And to the southwest in today’s Sichuan, a Shu Kingdom was also forming.
Facing the challenges to his dream of power, Cao Cao decided his troops must return to the Yangtze River, which would enable him to access the southern region.
In the autumn of 208, he led about half a million marine troops sailing downstream aiming to crush the Wu Kingdom.
When Wu learned the news, the opinions in the ruling circle were sharply divided. Most military generals wanted to take up the challenge but some scholar-officials preferred to buy peace with money, land and even sovereign rights.
Zhuge Liang, the top political and military advisor of the Shu Kingdom, saw clearly that once Wu was destroyed by the superpower, the next target would be Shu, the weakest and poorest among the three. Hence he toiled hard to persuade Wu to form a strategic partnership with Shu against their common threat.
His hard work paid off. With the help of Zhou Yu, Wu’s Commander-in-Chief, a military alliance between the two kingdoms was established with the objective to thwart Cao Cao’s plan to return to the Yangtze River.
Borrow the Arrows
Beijing Opera The Battle of Red Cliffs:
Cao Cao, the leader of the Wei Kingdom, played by Meng Guanglu;
Zhuge Liang, the top advisor from the Shu Kingdom, played by Yu Kuizhi;
Zhou Yu, the command-in-chief of the Wu Kingdom, played by Li Hongtu.
Soon, the superpower’s naval force arrived at Wu Kingdom’s doorsteps, which looked pretty awesome.
“My responsibility covers all the land I can see, from Yellow River to Yangtze River, from Mt Zhongnan to Mt Yandang, and beyond. In the name of Han, I order you to surrender to the representative of the establishment chosen by Heaven,” Cao Cao demanded solemnly from his flagship.
Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu toasted to each other in their small boat. “What do you think you are Cao Cao?” Zhuge Liang laughed after emptying his cup, “Ask your own soldiers, does anyone not know you are a usurper of the Han? Do you want me to elaborate in detail on what you’ve done to the emperor, to the empress, and to the princes?”
The mentioning of the Han PM’s mental torture of the emperor, the killing of the empress and princes, and his ambition to replace the Han with his own dynasty made Zhuge Liang’s comments particularly galling to Cao Cao.
“You try to demonize me and that’s really ugly,” Cao Cao slammed. “I think in a lot of ways the communications that come out of you, they are quite insulting! — Commanders,” he shouted out to his generals, “Hear my order, be ready to fight tonight!”
Yet the fight didn’t take place that night as Wu armies declined to take up the challenge. Wu was economically advanced but militarily weak and didn’t have a large arsenal to combat the naval force on that scale.
On the other hand, Cao Cao’s navy was unfamiliar with the local terrain, therefore Cao Cao had to wait for the optimal time and suitable location to land his fleet and conquer the kingdom.
Then one morning, amid a heavy fog that fell upon the river, boats from Wu somehow emerged in front of Cao Cao’s ships and were about to breach the containment.
Unable to assess the scale of the attack with no time to conduct further investigation, Cao Cao hurriedly instructed his men to fire arrows at the boats.
It didn’t take long to transform the vessels into hedgehog-like beasts.
The boats turned around and swiftly sailed away. Cao Cao’s soldiers couldn’t resist but enjoyed shooting at the fleeing force until the targets faded into the fog.
“Thanks, Cao Cao, for your generous provision of arsenals!” from the thick clouds, came a spell of laughter and words of appreciation. “We will soon return all these arrows to your soldiers in the battles.”
That morning the allied force harvested 100,000 arrows.
Farewell to Hero
https://youtu.be/QldrrKps4X0?t=62
Beijing Opera The Battle of Red Cliffs:
Zhou Yu, the command-in-chief of Wu Kingdom, played by Ye Shaolan;
Huang Gai, a Wu general, played by Shang Changrong.
However, weapons shortage was not the only problem the allied force faced. For one thing, they only had mere 50,000 troops together while Cao Cao’s army was about ten times stronger.
Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang burned the midnight oil to conduct a SWOT analysis, and eventually discovered a big weakness in the enemy’s mighty naval force.
Cao Cao’s soldiers were mainly from the north where rivers are few and land is dry, seasickness was a common problem among those unaccustomed to living on ships. In order to reduce boat swing, Cao Cao chained his ships from stem to stern to make super vessels (like giant aircraft carriers ~_^).
Thus a grand master plan to win the war was formulated:
If allied forces could send vessels to collect arrows from Cao Cao, what should stop them from sending fireboats to blaze the ships that were chained together?
Huang Gai, a Wu general, was self-recommended to be the arson.
It was a high-risk mission. At the riverbank, Zhou Yu offered Huang Gai a cup of wine and urged him to return in one piece.
Shortly after Huang Gai left, Zhou Yu suddenly realized a massive hole in the war plan: there would be no wind from the east in the winter to spread the fire westwards.
And that was allegedly the time when Zhuge Liang lodged a formal application to heaven for purchasing a spell of the east wind.
Borrow the East Wind
Beijing Opera Borrow the East Wind:
Zhuge Liang, the top advisor of the Shu Kingdom, sung by Li Shaochun.
According to the only universal law of cause & consequence (karma), when you paid enough tributes and made a great contribution to Heaven and the world under it, you may gain credit which can be used to purchase some superior power that mortals usually do not have access to.
Traditionally throughout Chinese history, there were many highly cultivated Daoists who would return to the mundane world to help save the situation in the time of crisis, both out of their conscience regarding social responsibilities and due to the requirement to complete the final assignment in cultivation.
Zhu Geliang was one of them.
When he was called by the Shu Kingdom which was trying to restore Han heritage, he was already halfway to an immortal domain. But he decided to answer the call.
This video clip demonstrates an application process for a higher power, and the ritual is still used by Chinese Daoists today.
During the process, the applicant Zhuge Liang, donning a robe embroidered with symbols of tai chi and Eight Trigrams and holding a seven-star Dragon Spring sword, walked along an invisible path of the Polar Constellations in the guide of Daoist melody.
Tribute to Enemy Soldiers Died in the Battle
Beijing Opera The Battle of Red Cliffs:
Zhuge Liang, the top advisor from the Shu Kingdom, played by Yu Kuizhi.
The mission was a great success. With the help of the extra arsenal and the mysterious assistance from the East Wind, Cao Cao’s super fleet was destroyed in the flame at the Red Cliffs.
This decisive battle transited China from a chaotic post-Han period into the Three Kingdoms Era.
But Zhuge Liang’s heart was heavy. Despite the allies having defeated the most powerful naval force under the heaven of the time, the massive loss of lives in Cao Cao’s army broke so many families — the parents who lost their sons, the wives who lost their husbands, and the children who lost their fathers.
On a moonlit night, he offered three cups of wine to the river: the first cup presented to the east wind along the river that allowed the peace and prosperity in the east of Yangtze to be maintained; the second to the bright moon above the river, expressing his hope for Han heritage to be restored; and the third to the flow in the river, mourning all those buried in the water.
Couplets composed by Zhuge Liang
If you can win people’s hearts, you don’t need wars; If you don’t know the situation, you can’t win any wars.
能攻心则反侧自消，从古知兵非好战； 不审势即宽严皆误，后来治蜀要深思。
Note: It is to win people’s hearts not people’s minds because most people don’t think but respond by emotion and, sometimes, instinct.
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COMMENTS FROM TWITTER
gregorylent
Could have applied that wisdom in hong kong .. didn’t .. costly
All Things Chinese
Chinese government lost many people’s hearts in Hong Kong and Taiwan because they tried to reason with them and tried to please them without principles thus dignity and justice had been compromised.
The same goes for their previous dealings with the US, UK, OZ and many other Western countries.
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Show them, don’t tell them!
COMMENTS FROM TWITTER
July 20, 2020
Marsha clocks trollbots
I say this to my art students all the time.
All Things Chinese
It’s because only beings more advanced than humans (celestial) mainly use the mind, while beings less advanced (ex. animals) chiefly rely on instincts. As for people, we are basically ruled by emotions – the majority of us are firstly touched, moved then act.
The Memory of Red Cliffs
Kun Opera Song The Memory of the Ancient Battle at the Red Cliffs:
Lyrics: Song Dynasty poet Su Dongpo (1037 – 1101)
Singer: Guan Dongtian
800 years later, one of China’s greatest poets and statesmen Su Shi, of the Northern Song dynasty, visited the Red Cliffs and composed this most recited verse about the battle on the Yangtze River:
大江东去
浪淘尽
千古风流人物
The great river eastward flows
Sweeping away all distant heroes
故垒西边
人道是
三国周郎赤壁
In the west beyond the fortress
Rising Red Cliff of Three Kingdoms
Where Marshal Zhou Yu
Defeated Cao Cao’s powerful marines
乱石穿空
惊涛拍岸
卷起千堆雪
江山如画
一时多少豪杰
Scraggy rocks piercing clouds
Roaring waves smashing the coasts
Producing a thousand flakes of snow
The charming land attracts countless heroes
遥想公瑾当年
小乔初嫁了
雄姿英发
羽扇纶巾
谈笑间
樯橹灰飞烟灭
By then Zhou Yu was in his prime
Holding his young wife in his arm
In full majestic splendour
Are Zhuge Liang’s fan and headcover
While they drank and laughed
Cao Cao’s ships went up in flame
故国神游
多情应笑我
早生华发
人生如梦
一尊还酹江月
A journey to the past in spiritual
I must be over-sentimental
Life is like a transient dream
I toast to the moon’s reflection in the stream
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