Three Kingdoms and Chinese Culture

Foreword: The Language of Values in the Ming Novel Three Kingdoms

vii Foreword The Language of Values in the Ming Novel Three Kingdoms ‫ﱠ‬ Moss Roberts Three Kingdoms (Sanguo yanyi) can be read as a study of values in conflict, such as righteousness (yi) against loyalty (zhong), and filial piety (xiao) against brotherhood (xiongdi). In a time of peace and stability, these ideals should coexist and enhance one another; in a time of crisis they may become incompatible. The word yi, a key term in the novel, can be rendered widely in English by any of the following: responsibility, obligation, duty, the Code, commitment, service, cause, self-sacrifice, honor. In his essay in this volume Jiyuan Yu translates the term as“appropriateness.” At the“conventional” end yi refers to the duties required of a particular role. In the “Liyun” chapter of the Liji the phrase “duties of men” (zhongcheng) covers a wide range of social and political obligations including “the father’s kindness, the son’s filiality . . . the ruler’s benevolence, the vassal’s loyalty,” and so on. At the “extreme” end, however, yi involves sacrifice, as in the common phrases jiuyi (to die for the mission) or dayi mieqin (for the sake of the greater cause to destroy family bonds). The phrase yanyi in the novel’s title, really a genre title, probably signifies“elaborating on the moral significances of.” Thus yi in its semantic richness and versatility forms a contrast with the more restricted term zhong. In early and mid Warring States texts zhong typically meant “singleminded sincerity”; by the end of the period, in the Xunzi, for example, it means a vassal’s loyalty to the state or the emperor, as in the “Liyun” phrase cited above, zhongcheng. Thereafter, the word zhong stabilized in that sense, and cheng roughly meant “sincerity.” The common compound zhongcheng probably is a synonym compound,“true-hearted sincerity.” Ideally,zhong and yi, loyalty and honor,should reinforce each other.In chapter 1 of Three Kingdoms, when the three brothers take an oath jieyi (binding their honor) to die for one another and to aid the Han royal house, zhong and yi are aligned. The brothers’ mutual commitment (yi) supports their loyal service to the Han throne.At a later point in the narrative, however, the two values become opposed. When Cao Cao captures Lord Guan (Guan Yu), Lord Guan chooses not to die honorably for his lord, Liu Bei (Xuande), who has disappeared in the chaos of battle; instead Lord Guan surrenders to Cao Cao, stipulating that his surrender is to the Han throne and not to Cao Cao, who is virtually the shogun of the Han dynasty. In this way Lord Guan turns his submission to Cao Cao into an act of loyalty to the Han emperor, a virtual puppet of Cao Cao. Soon after, upon discovering that Liu Bei still lives, Lord Guan chooses to honor his commitment to his elder brother Liu Bei: he leaves Cao Cao’s service to rejoin Liu Bei. At this point yi again takes precedence over zhong. The ambiguity of values here is reflected in Zhang Fei’s behavior. The third brother has become suspicious of Lord Guan’s sojourn with Cao Cao, and attacks Lord Guan for betraying Liu Bei (chapter 28). It falls to Liu Bei’s wives to defend Lord Guan’s conduct and avert a showdown between the two brothers. Two decades later, in the final crisis brought on by Shu’s ill-fated invasion of Wu, it is Liu Bei’s turn to repay Lord Guan’s devotion. The Southland leader Sun Quan has captured Lord Guan and put him to death; Liu Bei decides to avenge his brother (to satisfy the demands of yi) by leading the Riverland (Shu-Han) attack on the Southland (Wu). By launching this invasion, Liu Bei forsakes his quest to overthrow the usurping Wei dynasty and restore the Han (zhong). Kongming (Zhuge Liang), who stands for zhong and for xiao, but not for yi, had opposed this campaign, just as he has had his doubts about the brotherhood all along. The novelist , however, means to show that yi prevails over zhong. It is perhaps for this very reason—namely, the brothers’ commitment to one another rather than to Liu Bei’s imperial career—that readers have taken the three into their hearts. If for the brothers yi takes precedence over zhong, it also takes precedence over family ties and values. The rubric phrase comes from the Zuozhuan (Yin 4): dayi mieqin. This means “for the...