The letter of invitation from Xiangyang (襄陽) reached the magistrate’s office at Xinye (新野) three days after Liu Bei (劉備) opened the dawn of his forty-seventh year.

The letter was courteous. Liu Biao (劉表), Inspector of Jingzhou, was setting a place for the new year, and wished to receive Liu Bei together with the governors, notables, and generals of Jingzhou. The writing was in Liu Biao’s own hand. The paper, too, was of good quality. On the corner of the envelope, six characters were written neatly: “荊州牧 劉景升”, Liu Jingsheng, Governor of Jingzhou.

Yet the seating chart (座次表) folded inside the envelope was of another kind. At the topmost row stood Liu Biao himself. In the second row, Cai Mao (蔡瑁), younger brother of Liu Biao’s second wife Lady Cai (蔡氏). In the third, the governors of Jingzhou. In the fourth, the admirals and staff of the navy. The fifth row was packed with names. At the bottom of that fifth row, second from the last, was a single name drawn lightly with the tip of the brush.

新野 劉備.

Zhang Fei (張飛) saw the seating chart first. His face flushed red at once.

“Brother. This is not a seat to which a man is called. This is a seat upon which a man is to be stepped.”

Zhang Fei’s voice was not loud, yet the air of the room shook with it. Guan Yu (關羽) was looking down at the chart quietly. With a long, gentle finger he traced the name of Liu Bei. He said nothing.

Liu Bei folded the chart. Then he spoke quietly.

“Yide (翼德). A seat to which a man is called need not be the highest seat. Even the lowest seat has its reason.”

“What reason?”

“The lowest seat is also the seat in which the face of the one who sits at the very end is longest remembered.”

Zhang Fei tilted his head a while. Guan Yu smiled quietly. Liu Bei took the invitation and picked up his own brush to write the reply himself.

Four days later, at noon, the three brothers arrived at Xiangyang. The banquet was held in the great hall (大廳) within the Inspector’s residence (刺史府).

From the moment he entered, Liu Bei was guided in the order of the seating chart. Past Liu Biao at the head, past Cai Mao beside him, past the governors of the third row, past the admirals of the fourth, past the officials of the fifth, and then the very end seat by the door was given to Liu Bei. A single chair stood nearly against the wall. One of its four legs was a little shorter than the other three.

Liu Bei sat down on the chair without a word. As he sat, he leaned his body slightly to the left, to carry less weight on the short-legged side. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were instructed to stand in the corridor outside the door, each a step apart.

Cai Mao glanced at this scene. A thin smile hung at the corner of his mouth. The smile did not quite fade for a long time.

The banquet began. Cups went round.

Liu Biao called Liu Bei first. An old voice. A cough cut in, yet in his eyes the old Inspector’s dignity still remained.

“Xuande (玄德). Your seat is a little far. Come closer.”

Liu Bei rose from his chair. As he rose, his weight leaned toward the side of the short leg. The chair wobbled slightly. Very slightly, but a governor beside him caught the sound and looked up.

Liu Bei ignored that gaze. He walked slowly up to Liu Biao. With hands clasped, he offered greeting and received a cup. Then he returned to his own seat. He sat again on the chair with the short leg.

Cai Mao gave a short laugh at that moment. The laugh was not loud. But it was just loud enough for Liu Bei alone to hear.

About midway through the banquet, Liu Biao rose and went to the southern window, where he coughed long. The cough grew longer, and in the end Liu Biao withdrew to the inner hall, supported by an attendant.

With the Inspector gone from the seat, Cai Mao’s face pressed slightly forward.

“To His Highness the Imperial Uncle of Xinye (皇叔). Since you have sat at the farthest seat of this banquet today, may I ask you to compose one stanza (首), giving us a strand of Jingzhou (荊州) as seen from the farthest place of this Inspector’s residence?”

His voice carried courtesy. Inside that courtesy, something else was mixed in.

Liu Bei rose from his chair. The short leg of the chair tilted again. But this time his body did not wobble. With his back drawn straight, he looked long from that seat toward the southern sky of Jingzhou. Then he spoke one short line.

“The prospect of Jingzhou seen from the lowest seat is, by one strand, wider than the prospect seen from the highest seat. For giving me this seat today, I am deeply grateful.”

A short saying. Yet behind that saying, the great hall lost words for a moment. Cai Mao’s thin smile, just then, froze briefly.

After the banquet, Liu Bei came out of the residence with his two younger brothers. The evening wind of Xiangyang passed behind their backs.

Guan Yu asked quietly on horseback.

“Brother. Was the prospect from the lowest seat truly wider than the prospect from the high seat?”

Liu Bei looked up at the far sky. Then he smiled.

“Yunchang. The prospect was the same. Only, the heart of the one who sits in the lowest seat must be, by one strand, wider than the heart of the one in the highest, for him to bear that seat.”

Zhang Fei was long silent on horseback. Then he, alone, clenched his fist.

Above the western sky on the road back to Xinye, the winter stars were already, little by little, finding their seats. The chair with the short leg remained at the very edge of the great hall at Xiangyang. Only, the one seat in the heart of the man who had taken it this day was already riding down upon the southern road, inside the reins of his horse.

—

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 39초 비추면 폰에 저장되어 인터넷 없이도 읽을 수 있습니다. Stream.mp4 도 여기서 받습니다.