A look at the most legendary battle of the novel and how the fictional account differs from the real showdown.

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A painting of Red Cliff (photo by Yun Jie Dai via Flickr)

Transcript

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

In this episode, we are going to take a look at the real Battle of Red Cliff versus the fictional version. Considering that we spent all or part of 11 episodes of the podcast on this battle and the events immediately leading up to it, it goes without saying that this was a seminal event in the novel, and that mirrors its significance in real history, even if the players involved may not have realized it at the time. This turned out to be essentially the battle that set us on the path to having three kingdoms instead of one kingdom run by Cao Cao. However, as you may have guessed, a lot of the events described in the novel are exaggerations or just pure fiction.

So let’s start with what was real. To do that, I’m going to read you what was written about this battle in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, which is generally considered the most reliable source of information on the Three Kingdoms period. This is actually a collection of three books, each one being the official history of one of the three kingdoms. I’ll start off with the Book of Wei (4), which is the kingdom that Cao Cao’s descendants will found. Here’s roughly what it says about the Battle of Red Cliff:

“Cao Cao arrived at Red Cliff and fought against Liu Bei. The outcome was unfavorable. Also, there was pestilence and many soldiers died, so he led his army back. Liu Bei then gradually gained the counties of Jing Province and the Southlands.”

So yeah, not a very substantial record of what is supposed to be such an important event. Perhaps we should not be surprised by this, since one can hardly fault Cao Cao’s descendants for not wanting to spill too much ink on this less-than-glorious chapter in their ancestor’s career.

But surely, Cao Cao’s enemies would have much more to say about their triumph, right? Well, let’s see what the book of Shu (3), the official history of the kingdom that Liu Bei would create, has to say:

“Liu Bei sent Zhuge Liang to go form an alliance with Sun Quan. Sun Quan sent Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu, and a navy of several tens of thousands to join forces with Liu Bei. They fought against Cao Cao at Red Cliff and routed him, burning his ships. Liu Bei and the Dongwu troops advanced on land and water and pursued to Nanjun. At this time, there was pestilence, causing many deaths in the Northern army, so Cao Cao retreated with his forces.”

Ok, so that’s a little more, but still not that much. Let’s see what’s in the book of Wu (2), Sun Quan’s kingdom.

“Liu Bei moved to Xiakou and sent Zhuge Liang to meet with Sun Quan. Sun Quan sent Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu. At the time, Cao Cao had just added Liu Biao’s forces and looked very strong. Many advisers were intimidated and advised Sun Quan to welcome him. Only Zhou Yu and Lu Su advocated resistance, which Sun Quan agreed with. Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu served as left and right commanders, each leading 10,000 men, and advanced with Liu Bei.