Cao Cao gets a promotion, nine very nice pieces of swag, and a hint about Sun Quan’s imperial destiny.

* 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 77.

Last time, Sun Quan had used a little dirty trick to bring his sister, who was married to Liu Bei, back from Jing Province so that he could launch a war to take the province without putting her life at risk and, more critically, drawing their mother’s ire. But just as he was preparing for war, he received two pieces of bad news.

First, he got word that Zhang (1) Hong (2), a long-time adviser who had retired due to illness, had died. As he lay dying, Zhang Hong wrote one last letter to Sun Quan, in which he advised Sun Quan to relocate his seat of power to Moling (4,2), where, Zhang Hong said, the mountains had an imperial air. Zhang Hong told Sun Quan that he should move there at once and make this auspicious place the base of his empire.

Upon reading this letter, Sun Quan wept loudly in front of his officials and said, “How can I dare to not follow Zhang Hong’s advice?” And so he ordered a city of stone to be built at Moling (4,2).

In the meantime, he had to deal with a second piece of bad news. It was no biggie. Just a report that Cao Cao was marching south with, oh, 400,000 troops to avenge the defeat at Red Cliff. As Sun Quan discussed this matter with his staff, the general Lü (3) Meng (2) told him they needed to build ramparts at the mouth of the Ruxu (2,1) River to hold off Cao Cao’s troops. But all the other generals were like, “Why would you need ramparts? We can just attack from shore or retreat into our boats.”

To that, Lü Meng answered, “The fortunes of war are never constant; victory is never assured. If we have a sudden run-in with the enemy, with infantry and cavalry jostling together, we might not make it back to the water and our boats.”

Sun Quan was quite impressed by Lü Meng’s foresight and ordered several tens of thousands of men to build the ramparts.

 

Meanwhile in the capital Xuchang (3,1), Cao Cao’s power and fortune were growing by the day, and his men were suggesting that maybe he was due for a promotion. But when you are already prime minister, what do you get promoted to? Well, one of his civil officials, Dong (3) Zhao (1), went to court and said to the emperor:

“No official in history has matched the prime minister’s merits, not even the Duke of Zhou or the great statesman Jiang (1) Ziya (3,2). Over the course of 30 years, he has overcome all difficulties and wiped out the wicked to protect the people and restore the house of Han. How can he be treated the same as the likes of the other officials? He should receive the title of the Duke of Wei (4) and receive the nine dignities.”

So what are the nine dignities? They are nine items that were considered the highest honors an emperor could bestow upon an official. The nine things are:

* Gilded chariots drawn by eight horses.

* Court dresses, which consisted of dragon-embroidered robes, headdresses, and shoes. And if you didn’t know, the dragon is kind of a symbol for the emperor, so to be allowed to wear robes with dragons embroidered on them carries some rather significant implications.

* Hanging chimes and music fit for an emperor.

* Red doors in your house, which were a symbol of fortune.