Cheng Yu (程昱) of Xudu (許都) brought the old mother (老母) of Xu Shu (徐庶) from Yingchuan (潁川) to Xudu. Soon after, a forged writing (僞書) was delivered into Xu Shu’s hand at Xinye (新野).

The first line of the forgery read: “To my son Yuanzhi (元直). Your mother has today been placed beneath General Cao’s hand at Xudu. General Cao treats me with the greatest courtesy; I beg you to turn your step toward Xudu and come to this mother’s side.”

Xu Shu read the forgery. His eyes widened. The hand resembled his mother’s, yet one character’s break differed, shallowly, from her usual stroke. Xu Shu swallowed a low sigh. “The hand of Cheng Yu of Xudu lies beneath this.”

Yet Xu Shu’s nature placed his mother’s body deeper than his father’s teaching. At once he entered Liu Bei’s (劉備) seat.

Xu Shu bowed low and deep. “Governor. A letter from my mother reached me today. I know this letter to be a forgery. Yet my grain, set upon the place where my mother’s body lies beneath Xudu, cannot refuse to move toward Xudu.”

Liu Bei swallowed a long silence. A single word fell from his mouth, low. “Yuanzhi. My grain shall not block today’s seat. A mother’s grain is the root of a man’s grain. Only one request. Before you depart today, leave a single name at this seat.”

Xu Shu bowed his head deeply. “Governor. I shall leave that single name here today. At Longzhong (隆中) there is a young scholar. His name is Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮); his style, Kongming (孔明); his sobriquet, Wolong (臥龍, Crouching Dragon). He is the one whom Master Shuijing (水鏡) called Fulong (伏龍, Hidden Dragon). Governor. Receive him with the grain of the Three Visits to the Thatched Hall (三顧草廬).”

Liu Bei’s eyes widened. “Yuanzhi. I shall inscribe today’s name deep in my chest. Please, return to your mother’s side.”

Xu Shu mounted his horse. With a single step he passed beyond the gate of Xinye. Liu Bei watched his back for a long while. A drop of dew at the edge of Liu Bei’s eye went unwiped.

At the crossroads a li beyond the gate, Xu Shu turned and rode back toward Liu Bei. Liu Bei stood upon the road and did not stir. Xu Shu dismounted a step short of Liu Bei, bowed a second time, and spoke low. “Governor. I had forgotten to add one line to today’s name. Do not visit Zhuge Liang lightly. He does not receive visitors who come without their own need pressed deep into the bosom. Visit him with such a grain.” Liu Bei nodded deeply. Xu Shu remounted and rode south. This second parting was quieter than the first. A parting that requires a second crossing is remembered by the road itself; for many years, the villagers would recall that crossroads as “the place where Yuanzhi turned back twice.”

At Xudu, in a small chamber near the main gate, Xu Shu’s old mother sat upon a cushion and read the forgery Cheng Yu had shown her as a courtesy. She had not written it. She read it through, laid it face-down upon the low table, and spoke quietly, without looking at any attendant. “The son of a mother who has lived to sixty does not need such a letter.” She did not weep. In the coming weeks, when her son would arrive from the south, she would rebuke him with a grain firm enough to carry her own quiet grief; and not long after, she would take her own life rather than be the rope that dragged her son’s grain from its proper seat. Tonight, however, she only laid the forgery face-down and asked for a cup of warm water.

Inside the hall at Xinye after Xu Shu had gone, Liu Bei sat at the low table where Xu Shu’s tea cup had rested a few hours earlier. A servant had cleared the cup away; yet the low ring of moisture from its base remained upon the wood, a grain dark against the grain of the table. Liu Bei laid a fingertip upon that ring and did not wipe it. A governor who has sent away a counselor he did not wish to lose rarely wipes the moisture ring of the last cup the counselor drank. The ring would dry on its own after some hours; by then, the governor would already have begun to prepare the grain of a first step toward Longzhong.

The ninety-eighth evening of Book 4 deepened quietly upon the back departing beyond the gate of Xinye. The three characters Moseo-wi (母書僞, the forged writing of a mother’s name) were planted as a seed: the breath of the forgery’s first line, one character’s broken grain, Xu Shu’s parting greeting, and the single name Zhuge Liang · Wolong rested together at one seat. The revealing of Day 97’s Seomyeong-hyeon (庶名現) had, this evening, reached upon the back of a departure.

—

WIA Code 스캐너로 비추면 인터넷 없이 발행 사실과 위·변조 여부를 확인할 수 있습니다.
휴대폰 기본 카메라로 찍으면 스캐너 안내 페이지가 열립니다 — 기사 바로 열기

움직이는 코드(스트림) 한 장에 기사 전문(사진 포함)이 담겨 있습니다 — WIA Code 스캐너로 약 40초 비추면 폰에 저장되어 인터넷 없이도 읽을 수 있습니다. Stream.mp4 도 여기서 받습니다.