Every Adaptation Does Wú Wrong
Here's the kind of Wú stories the adaptations should tell instead
I’ve probably been talking about Wèi-Jìn way too many times in a roll. This is supposed to be about Three Kingdoms, isn’t it? Let’s talk about Wú then. Or more strictly speaking, the faction that would eventually become Wú, since many of the figures I’ll be talking about this time, Zhōu Yú, Lǔ Sù, and Lǚ Méng, rather tragically, did not get to see the actual formal foundation of the state that they worked so hard to build. I’ll talk a bit more about Wú proper elsewhere.
Anyways, every single adaptation of the Three States period that includes a portrayal of early Wú, of Sūn Quán, Zhōu Yú, Lǔ Sù, etc. does the portrayals wrong.
Alright, alright, technically, they can’t be “wrong,” since they are creative decisions in fictional works. You can have an adaptation portraying Sūn Quán as an alien from Mars (not actually as crazy as it might sound1) and it still wouldn’t technically be “wrong,” just a creative decision. But I am quite frankly a bit sick of every single adaptation using the same basic features in their portrayal decisions over and over and over again, and thus missing out on some really fun potential stories over and over and over again. Here is why the standard portrayals are bad, and how I’d do things if I were writing my own story adaptation instead.
What the Standard Portrayals Usually Do
For at least the last five or six centuries or so, perhaps longer, when people think of Zhōu Yú, they think: “If [Zhōu] Yú is born, why was [Zhūgě] Liàng born?”2
In almost every major portrayal, Zhōu Yú is only “that guy who was inferior to Zhūgě Liàng in every way and died of jealousy.” And then when an adaptation wants to add extra drama, they upgrade it to “that guy who was inferior to Zhūgě Liàng who undermined and almost destroyed his own state in his desperate and stupid attempts to beat Zhūgě Liàng.” Zhōu Yú is portrayed as at odds with his lord Sūn Quán, continuously trying to break up the alliance between Sūn Quán and Liú Bèi in order to ramp up hostilities and prove himself as better than Liú Bèi’s advisor Zhūgě Liàng. His story arc then culminates to utter humiliation as Zhūgě Liàng outwits him again and again, until Zhōu Yù at last dies in despair and utters the above infamous last words, and Zhūgě Liàng gets one final victory by showing up at Zhōu Yú’s funeral to express exaggerated sorrow and mourning.
Lǔ Sù meanwhile is the compromise-seeking bumbling sidekick always holding Zhōu Yú back from doing the dumbest things, and always trying to smooth things over between Wú/Zhōu Yú/Sūn Quán and Shǔ/Zhūgě Liàng/Liú Bèi. He necessarily comes off a bit better than Zhōu Yú, if only because he’s not constantly losing to Shǔ characters, but he still occasionally gets taken advantage of by Shǔ characters whenever he actually tries to act in Wú’s interests, and ultimately he comes off as a rather weak sort of character.
Lǚ Méng tends to be treated as a rather minor character, comes to prominence as Lǔ Sù’s successor, destroys Guān Yǔ, and then in portrayals that keep supernatural elements, the ghost of Guān Yǔ takes gruesome revenge, possessing Lǚ Méng’s body to threaten Sūn Quán, and then bleeding from ever orifice and collapsing.
Sūn Quán tends to be seen as the weak leader resentful of being pushed around by Zhōu Yú, the portrayals then flipping between either “good and heroic” and “treacherous and evil,” depending on whether he is currently sided with Liú Bèi or not. And then most portrayals tend to outright forget about him once they start covering the later years of the period.
These portrayals are bad, not (only) because of how little they have in common with the portraits in the historiography that supposedly inspired them, but because they are not even all that entertaining. Rather than actually fun characters (and believe me, these characters could be a lot of fun if done right), they tend to be flat punching bags to be abused by the “good guys,” to teach moralistic lessons that tend to be about how Shǔ is good and Wú is bad when it opposes Shǔ and good(-ish) when it supports Shǔ. Zhōu Yú always loses to Zhūgě Liàng. Lǔ Sù always gets led around by someone else. Lǚ Méng is mostly only there for the gruesome death scene. Sūn Quán ends up almost completely forgotten in later parts of most story portrayals despite being the head of one of the titular three kingdoms, and one of the longest living ones at that.
Those of you who have conversed with me previously no doubt know that I have repeatedly said that I find the stories in the historiography more fascinating and even entertaining than the “standard” stories we seen in the novels, comic books, movies, and TV shows. That this should be the case should be disturbing to more people. What is the point of fiction if not to introduce more drama and entertainment? That the fiction is “watering things down” compared to what the historiography records is an absolute disgrace. How did it come to this?
I’ll tell you how: moralists trying to forcefully inject their dogma into stories at the expense of the stories themselves. The actually fun stuff gets removed so that the moralists can replace them with lessons to bash against your forehead. It happened in the 1200s-1600s after the explosion of popular Three Kingdoms stories that began in the 900s-1200s, and it’s happening right now to-
Ahem, sorry, I digress.
How I’d Do It Instead
Well, probably the single most important change from the “standard” portrayal I’d make is that I’d let Sūn Quán be Sūn Quán.
Sūn Quán
The picture of Sūn Quán we get in the historiography may be controversial, but it’s fun. The historiography portrait of Sūn Quán is not the portrait of an indecisive and quiet boy pushed around by those around him, it is a portrait of a passionate and willful thrill-seeker with big dreams. It is a portrait of a man every bit as brave/reckless as his father and older brother,3 a man who hunted tigers for fun despite his ministers begging him not to,4 a man who in the face of a windstorm wanted his boat to catch a faster ride,5 a man who had to be physically restrained from personally killing one of his ministers in a drunken rage,6 a man who set fire to the gates of senior statesman Zhāng Zhāo’s house because he was trying to apologize and wanted to force Zhāo to come out and accept the apology.7
No, I didn’t make any of the above up. Every one of those examples is indeed based on an actual anecdote preserved in the historiography. Even if you personally disapprove of this type of person, you have to admit that this sort of portrayal would be so much more fun to watch than what we usually get.
Almost everything then comes naturally from that.
Zhōu Yú and Lǔ Sù
Once you let Sūn Quán be fun, Zhōu Yú and Lǔ Sù become his fun enablers. In the historiography, the portraits of Zhōu Yú and Lǔ Sù are not as unreliable and potentially treasonous officials, but as ambitious men with visions aligning with Sūn Quán’s own. When trying to recruit Lǔ Sù, Zhōu Yú hinted at a grand vision of Sūn Quán as a future Emperor, quoting Mǎ Yuán’s famed remark of “times in which ministers choose their lords” and prophecies of “the aura of Heaven’s Son is in the southeast.”8 Then, once in Sūn Quán’s confidence, Lǔ Sù went even further by boldly speaking of the potential for Sūn Quán to become an Emperor before even Sūn Quán himself dared speak of such lofty ideas.9 Lǔ Sù in particular is said to have been a rather unruly youth, to the point that the elders of his hometown had reportedly remarked: “The Lǔ family has fallen, to produce this wild boy!”10
The actual sort of story worth telling would be the drama within Sūn Quán’s Court, between the younger and more ambitious cohort of officers (like Zhōu Yú and Lǔ Sù) talking of bold and ambitious plans, and the elder and the more conservative cohort (like Zhāng Zhāo) urging restraint and caution. This would be the story of Sūn Quán’s attempts to find balance between the two sides, even as his own wild and ambitious side is always wanting to throw in with the younger ambitious officers, but most avoid alienating the older conservative officers. For a family story analogy, it’d be like the struggle between wanting to have fun with the wild big brothers but not wanting to disappoint stuck-up dad.
This divide appears in the historiography in 208 during the debates on how to respond to Cáo Cāo’s advancing army. Zhāng Zhāo (at the time aged 52) and other older advisors argued in favor of joining with Cáo Cāo, but Lǔ Sù (36) and Zhōu Yú (33) alone of the senior officers argued in favor of war. When Sūn Quán (26) decided in favor of Zhōu Yú and Lǔ Sù, he continued to receive petitions from the anti-war group, leading him to draw his sword and chop his petition-receiving desk, declaring: “Any officer or official that again argues for welcoming [Cáo Cāo] will be treated the same!”11
Zhōu Yú took the lead in operations and defeated Cáo Cāo at Chìbì “the Red Cliffs” (though the events as recorded in the historiography are almost nothing like how the fiction usually portrays it; more on that later). After the victory, Lǔ Sù returned first to report back to Sūn Quán. Sūn Quán personally welcomed and paid respects to Lǔ Sù, and asked if he felt honored by this reception. Lǔ Sù said: “Not yet.” Everyone who heard this was startled. Once they were seated, Lǔ Sù explained his answer: only when Sūn Quán was master of the entire empire and receiving Lǔ Sù like an Emperor welcoming his minister, would Lǔ Sù feel honored.12
Just try and tell me that this Lǔ Sù wouldn’t be more fun than the bumbling sidekick we get in most portrayals.
In 209, Zhōu Yú followed up on his victory at Chìbì by pushing further north against Cáo Cāo’s defenses, but though he successfully captured the strategic city of Jiānglíng, the resistance had been fierce and Zhōu Yú had been personally wounded by an arrow in the chest.13 At this stage, Zhōu Yú presented Sūn Quán with a grand strategy for victory over the empire, the first step of which would be a western campaign to conquer the Shǔ region and eventually outflank Cáo Cāo’s defenses. Sūn Quán approved of the plan, but during the campaign preparations Zhōu Yú took ill and died in 210.14 As he was lying ill and facing his impeding death, Zhōu Yú spent his remaining time writing a letter to Sūn Quán to nominate Lǔ Sù as his successor in the west, and to continue outlining grand strategy plans for after his own passing.15 It is said that when Zhōu Yú died, Sūn Quán wept and cried: “Now that he has suddenly gone, who can I depend on?”16
Zhōu Yú was indeed succeeded by Lǔ Sù as Sūn Quán’s chief officer in the west, a position Lǔ Sù held until his own death in 217. Lǔ Sù was then succeeded by Lǚ Méng.17 Of course, a lot of fun stuff happened during this time (especially in the border disputes of 215), but all that fun is deserving of getting its own treatment, so I’m omitting a lot here.
Lǚ Méng
Lǚ Méng in particular has incredible potential for a longer story arc for a proper treatment of the ambitious young officers of Wú. Only four years older than Sūn Quán, Lǚ Méng joined the army as a teenager. When his mother protested, Lǚ Méng reportedly remarked: “If I do not enter the tiger cave, how can I catch a tiger cub?”18 After an incident where he killed a man in a rage for making fun of his youth, he devoted himself to making suicidal charges in battle as penance, where he caught the attention of Sūn Quán’s older brother Sūn Cè and later of Sūn Quán himself. Sūn Quán is said to have personally encouraged Lǚ Méng to study and learn military strategy despite Lǚ Méng’s humble origins. The learning paid off and Lǚ Méng rose through the ranks, and the change in Lǚ Méng was said to have utterly surprised Lǔ Sù, who had initially dismissed Lǚ Méng for his lowly origins. Thereafter, Lǔ Sù and Lǚ Méng became good friends,19 and after Lǔ Sù’s death in 217, Lǚ Méng eventually inherited command of the west. This career, relatively well documented in the historiography, rising up from a soldier to Sūn Quán’s top officer in the west, would be an excellent character arc to serve as a mirror for Wú’s own story arc of growth from the conquests of a young officer’s small army to a claimant Empire.
In 219, after Lǚ Méng won his greatest victory in destroying Guān Yǔ, his old illness became severe just as Sūn Quán was giving out rewards for the campaign. The story of Lǚ Méng’s illness preserved in the historiography particularly shows the depth of the connection that Sūn Quán felt toward his closest officers. Sūn Quán had Lǚ Méng moved into his own palace to receive treatment, and, wanting to constantly know of Lǚ Méng’s condition without also constantly bothering him with visits, bored a hole in the wall to look through. But though Sūn Quán would forget to eat and sleep in anxiety whenever Lǚ Méng’s condition worsened, and offered rewards in gold for any doctor that could cure Lǚ Méng, and even called upon mystics to pray to the stars, Lǚ Méng died shortly thereafter, aged forty-two.20
The Real Drama
In 229, when Sūn Quán (47) made his claim for Imperial Title, he is said to have remarked: “If I had not had Zhōu Gōngjǐn, I would not be Emperor.”21 Elsewhere he is said to have remarked: “In the past Lǔ Zǐjìng once spoke of this; he can be said to have understood things.”22 In a third account, when Zhāng Zhāo (73) was about to speak in praise of the new regime, Sūn Quán interrupted to say: “If I had followed Excellency Zhāng’s plan, now I would be begging for my food.”23
The story of early Wú I would tell would be the story of a scrappy young start-up state, its leadership roughly divided between the older conservative groups, who advocate for the traditional ideal of becoming a local hegemon restoring the authority of Hàn as its representative in the region, and the younger and more ambitious officers, who dare dream of founding Hàn’s successor. The climax would be in 229, when the dream seems to be achieved at last with Sūn Quán’s ascension as Emperor, only for him to look around and see how so many of his fellow dreamers who worked so hard to put him there are no longer around to share in it.
And that would be the real tragedy worth exploring in telling a story about Zhōu Yú, Lǔ Sù, Lǚ Mèng, and the other younger officers of Wú. It would be a story far more interesting than the usual tales of some imagined rivalry with Zhūgě Liàng where they always lose. These young officers were early believers who bet everything to support a dream that few others dared or even could dream of, only to die years or even decades before they could see that dream seemingly fulfilled.
And then, as the story moves into the post-229 Sūn Quán reign, we would start exploring the really fun drama (that time Sūn Quán set the gates of Zhāng Zhāo's house on fire while trying to apologize, anyone?) and tragedy (a lot of people died violently). And most adaptations don’t even touch on it.
So send me money and/or tell your rich friends to send me money, and once I’m a billionaire I’ll sponsor my own Three Kingdoms adaptation that does the Wú story right.
There are supernatural stories, such as one version recorded in Gān Bǎo's Sōushén jì, that tell of a mysterious boy from Mars (or alternatively, a human manifestation of Mars itself) who appeared in Wú and left a cryptic message hinting at the future unification under Jìn before suddenly disappearing into the sky.
既生瑜,何生亮。I absolutely hate this line.
SGZ 53: 權率輕騎將往突敵,紘諫曰:「夫兵者凶器,戰者危事也。今麾下恃盛壯之氣,忽彊暴之虜,三軍之衆莫不寒心,雖斬將搴旗,威震敵場,此乃偏將之任,非主將之宜也。願抑賁、育之勇,懷霸王之計。」權納紘言而止。
SGZ 52: 權每田獵,常乘馬射虎,虎嘗突前攀持馬鞌。昭變色而前曰:「將軍何有當爾?夫為人君者,謂能駕御英雄,驅使羣賢,豈謂馳逐於原野,校勇於猛獸者乎?如有一旦之患,柰天下笑何?」權謝昭曰:「年少慮事不遠,以此慙君。」然猶不能已,乃作射虎車,為方目,閒不置蓋,一人為御,自於中射之。時有逸羣之獸,輒復犯車,而權每手擊以為樂。昭雖諫爭,常笑而不荅。
Jiāngbiǎo zhuàn annotated to SGZ 47: 江表傳曰:權於武昌新裝大船,名為長安,試泛之釣臺沂。時風大盛,谷利令柂工取樊口。權曰:「當張頭取羅州。」利拔刀向柂工曰:「不取樊口者斬。」工即轉柂入樊口,風遂猛不可行,乃還。權曰:「阿利畏水何怯也?」利跪曰:「大王萬乘之主,輕於不測之淵,戲於猛浪之中,船樓裝高,邂逅顛危,柰社稷何?是以利輒敢以死爭。」權於是貴重之,自此後不復名之,常呼曰谷。
SGZ 57: 權旣為吳王,歡宴之末,自起行酒,翻伏地陽醉,不持。權去,翻起坐。權於是大怒,手劒欲擊之,侍坐者莫不惶遽,惟大司農劉基起抱權諫曰:「大王以三爵之後,手殺善士,雖翻有罪,天下孰知之?且大王以能容賢畜衆,故海內望風,今一朝棄之,可乎?」權曰:「曹孟德尚殺孔文舉,孤於虞翻何有哉?」基曰:「孟德輕害士人,天下非之。大王躬行德義,欲與堯、舜比隆,何得自喻於彼乎?」翻由是得免。權因勑左右,自今酒後言殺,皆不得殺。
SGZ 52: 權數慰謝昭,昭固不起,權因出過其門呼昭,昭辭疾篤。權燒其門,欲以恐之,昭更閉戶。權使人滅火,住門良乆,昭諸子共扶昭起,權載以還宮,深自克責。昭不得已,然後朝會。
SGZ 54: 瑜謂肅曰:「昔馬援答光武云『當今之世,非但君擇臣,臣亦擇君』。今主人親賢貴士,納奇錄異,且吾聞先哲祕論,承運代劉氏者,必興于東南,推步事勢,當其曆數。終搆帝基,以協天符,是烈士攀龍附鳳馳騖之秋。吾方達此,足下不須以子揚之言介意也。」肅從其言。
SGZ 54: 權即見肅,與語甚恱之。衆賔罷退,肅亦辭出,乃獨引肅還,合榻對飲。因密議曰:「今漢室傾危,四方雲擾,孤承父兄遺業,思有桓文之功。君旣惠顧,何以佐之?」肅對曰:「昔高帝區區欲尊事義帝而不獲者,以項羽為害也。今之曹操,猶昔項羽,將軍何由得為桓文乎?肅竊料之,漢室不可復興,曹操不可卒除。為將軍計,惟有鼎足江東,以觀天下之釁。規模如此,亦自無嫌。何者?北方誠多務也。因其多務,勦除黃祖,進伐劉表,竟長江所極,據而有之,然後建號帝王以圖天下,此高帝之業也。」權曰:「今盡力一方,兾以輔漢耳,此言非所及也。」
Wú shū annotated to SGZ 54: 吳書曰:肅體貌魁奇,少有壯節,好為奇計。天下將亂,乃學擊劍騎射,招聚少年,給其衣食,往來南山中射獵,陰相部勒,講武習兵。父老咸曰:「魯氏世衰,乃生此狂兒!」
Jiāngbiǎo zhuàn annotated to SGZ 54: 江表傳曰:權拔刀斫前奏案曰:「諸將吏敢復有言當迎操者,與此案同!」
SGZ 54: 曹公破走,肅即先還,權大請諸將迎肅。肅將入閤拜,權起禮之,因謂曰:「子敬,孤持鞌下馬相迎,足以顯卿未?」肅趨進曰:「未也。」衆人聞之,無不愕然。就坐,徐舉鞭言曰:「願至尊威德加乎四海,總括九州,克成帝業,更以安車軟輪徵肅,始當顯耳。」權撫掌歡笑。
SGZ 54: 瑜與程普又進南郡,與仁相對,各隔大江。兵未交鋒,瑜即遣甘寧前據夷陵。仁分兵騎別攻圍寧。寧告急於瑜。瑜用呂蒙計,留淩統以守其後,身與蒙上救寧。寧圍既解,乃渡屯北岸,克期大戰。瑜親跨馬擽陳,會流矢中右脅,瘡甚,便還。後仁聞瑜臥未起,勒兵就陳。瑜乃自興,案行軍營,激揚吏士,仁由是遂退。
SGZ 54: 是時劉璋為益州牧,外有張魯寇侵,瑜乃詣京見權日:「今曹操新折衄,方憂在腹心,未能與將軍連兵相事也。乞與奮威俱進取蜀,得蜀而并張魯,因留奮威固守其地,好與馬超結援。瑜還與將軍據襄陽以蹙操,北方可圖也。」權許之。瑜還江陵,為行裝,而道於巴丘病卒,時年三十六。
Jiāngbiǎo zhuàn annotated to SGZ 54: 江表傳載:初瑜疾困,與權牋曰:「瑜以凡才,昔受討逆殊特之遇,委以腹心,遂荷榮任,統御兵馬,志執鞭弭,自效戎行。規定巴蜀,次取襄陽,憑賴威靈,謂若在握。至以不謹,道遇暴疾,昨自醫療,日加無損。人生有死,修短命矣,誠不足惜,但恨微志未展,不復奉教命耳。方今曹公在北,疆埸未靜,劉備寄寓,有似養虎,天下之事,未知終始,此朝士旰食之秋,至尊垂慮之日也。魯肅忠烈,臨事不苟,可以代瑜。人之將死,其言也善,儻或可採,瑜死不朽矣。」
Jiāngbiǎo zhuàn annotated to SGZ 54:「公瑾有王佐之資,今忽短命,孤何賴哉!」
SGZ 54.
SGZ 54: 蒙年十五六,竊隨當擊賊,當顧見大驚,呵叱不能禁止。歸以告蒙母,母恚欲罰之,蒙曰:「貧賤難可居,脫誤有功,富貴可致。且不探虎穴,安得虎子?」母哀而舍之。
SGZ 54 and Jiāngbiǎo zhuàn annotated to SGZ 54.
SGZ 54: 會蒙疾發,權時在公安,迎置內殿,所以治護者萬方,募封內有能愈蒙疾者,賜千金。時有鍼加,權為之慘慼,欲數見其顏色,又恐勞動,常穿壁瞻之,見小能下食則喜,顧左右言笑,不然則咄唶,夜不能寐。病中瘳,為下赦令,群臣畢賀。後更增篤,權自臨視,命道士於星辰下為之請命。年四十二,遂卒於內殿。時權哀痛甚,為之降損。
Jiāngbiǎo zhuàn annotated to SGZ 54: 後權稱尊號,謂公卿曰:「孤非周公瑾,不帝矣。」
SGZ 54: 權稱尊號,臨壇,顧謂公卿曰:「昔魯子敬嘗道此,可謂明於事勢矣。」
Jiāngbiǎo zhuàn annotated to SGZ 52: 江表傳曰:權既即尊位,請會百官,歸功周瑜。昭舉笏欲褒贊功德,未及言,權曰:「如張公之計,今已乞食矣。」