Guan Yu’s ghost finds inner peace … and then starts killing and spooking people.

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Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 98.

Last time, we killed off a major character for the first time in a long time, as Guan Yu lost Jing Province and fell into the hands of Sun Quan, who had him beheaded. As you can imagine, this is going to knock over a whole lot of dominoes. So let’s get to it.

The first person we need to talk about is … well, Guan Yu. I know, Guan Yu is dead, so what more is there to say? Well, apparently we need to tie up the loose ends with his ghost. Hey, this is a novel, not history. So Guan Yu’s ghost was, understandably, just slightly peeved about having lost his head. So instead of drifting off to heaven, his spirit just kind of hung around the mortal realm, drifting here and there.

One day, he came upon a mountain called Jade Fountain Mountain. On this mountain resided an old monk by the name of Pu (3) Jing (4). We’ve actually met him before. Back in episode 33, when Guan Yu was leaving Cao Cao’s service to rejoin Liu Bei, the commander at one of the checkpoints along the way set up an ambush to kill Guan Yu at a nearby monastery. The abbot of that monastery was none other than this monk, Pu (3) Jing (4). Pu Jing was from the same hometown as Guan Yu, and he tipped off Guan Yu to the deception. After Guan Yu killed the officer trying to ambush him, Pu Jing decided to get out of dodge as well. His travels took him everywhere before he came across this mountain. He loved the view, so he stayed, built himself a straw hut, and spent his days in meditation. He also had a young acolyte with him, whose job it was to go out and beg for food, which was a common way for monks to make a living.

On a clear and breezy night, Pu Jing was sitting in his hut and meditating. Just after midnight, he suddenly heard a loud cry from the sky.

“Return my head!”

Since this wasn’t something that happened every day, Pu Jing stepped outside to take a look. In the sky, he saw a man riding a Red Hare horse and holding the green dragon saber. He was flanked by two officers, one with a fair complexion, and the other with a dark complexion and curly whiskers. As the cloud that this trio rode on drifted near the peak of the mountain, Pu Jing recognized that it was Guan Yu. He struck the door with a deer-tail whisk, an act that’s supposed to protect him against spirits.

“General Guan, where are you now?” the monk said.

Guan Yu’s spirit dismounted and glided down to the hut.

“Who might you be, master?” he asked.

“My name is Pu Jing. We met when I was at the monastery near Sishui (4,3) Pass. Have you forgotten?”

“I am forever grateful for your saving me, and will never forget it,” ghost Guan Yu said. “Today, a calamity has befallen me, and I am dead. I would like to request your redeeming counsel to point me out of the darkness of my wandering.”

And this was what Pu Jing said to Guan Yu:

“Right and wrong, past and present are relevant no more. Retribution follows human action with the certainty of fate. You died at Lü Meng’s hand and cry, ‘Return my head.’ Yet, what about the likes of Yan Liang, Wen Chou, or the six officers at the five checkpoints you ran? Whom should they ask for their heads backs?”

And in case you weren’t paying attention,