As Cao Cao was closing his second engagement with Lü Bu at the Yanzhou main camp, within the prefect’s office (府衙) of eastern Xuzhou, Tao Qian (陶謙) was laying out the single line of his third yielding before Liu Bei.

After Liu Bei had driven Cao Cao’s army out of Xuzhou, Tao Qian set the seal of Xuzhou’s governance before Liu Bei at the banquet. “Lord Xuande. I would yield this old man’s seat of master to you. Please do not refuse.” Liu Bei rose in great surprise from his seat. “Lord. This Liu Bei has held no thought beyond rescue. I cannot take the seal of one commandery.” Tao Qian shook his head, yet Liu Bei refused firmly. That was the first yielding.

A few days later, Tao Qian offered a second yielding in the same courtyard. “Lord Xuande. That the people of Xuzhou have received peace today is owed to your humaneness. If this commandery is entrusted to you, the people will know peace for a lifetime.” Liu Bei bowed his head deeply. “Lord. For this Liu Bei to ascend to the seat of master of a commandery is not this Liu Bei’s meaning.” The second yielding was also refused.

Days passed and Tao Qian took to his sickbed. The breath of the aged Minister grew thinner day by day. One day he called Liu Bei to his sick room. Liu Bei entered; Tao Qian laid both his hands upon Liu Bei’s hand.

“Lord Xuande. The two sons of this old man, Tao Shang (陶商) and Tao Ying (陶應), are short of talent. They are not vessels to hold Xuzhou. If, after I die, this seat is not entrusted to you, it will fall again beneath Cao Cao’s blade. Please receive this third yielding. So that this old man may close his eyes in peace.”

Liu Bei drew a deep breath. He knelt beside Tao Qian’s sickbed. “Lord. Before this third yielding, this Liu Bei can refuse no longer. I shall act as regent of Xuzhou’s master-seat until your two sons come of age. When the two young lords reach the time of their growth, this Liu Bei shall return this seat to them.”

Tao Qian smiled. “Lord Xuande. This old man may close his eyes in peace tonight. I thank you.” At the end of that line, Tao Qian’s breath thinned. Before that night reached dawn, Tao Qian closed his eyes quietly. His two hands, still resting lightly upon Liu Bei’s hand, did not release their hold even as the breath withdrew. Liu Bei stayed at the bedside through the night. He spoke no lines aloud; he simply held the two hands until they grew cool. A regency must begin with a hand that does not let go before the hand above lets go first. That was the smallest rule of every Chinese regency worth its name; and Liu Bei had learned it without being taught.

The next morning, Liu Bei formally ascended upon the main hall of the Xuzhou office. The seal of Xuzhou was tied at Liu Bei’s waist. The deed whose name had not climbed on Day 5 (無名功) had, thirty years later, written itself down as the name of a grand administrator of a commandery. The afternoon of a single pair of straw sandals had passed into the morning of a commandery’s seal. Yet Liu Bei wore the seal lightly. A man who has received a seat three times offered and twice declined does not wear that seat as a crown; he wears it as a reminder of how long the seat had been offered before he accepted.

Guan Yu stood beside Liu Bei. His beard stirred lightly under the morning sun. Zhang Fei laughed loudly behind them. Zhao Yun kept spear at waist and stood at Liu Bei’s side. The three-cup oath of the peach garden (Day 4) had, thirty years later, extended into the breath of four seats upon the main hall of a commandery. The people of Xuzhou gathered before the office and cheered loud.

Mi Zhu (糜竺), who had ridden to Beihai as Tao Qian’s envoy, now stood beside Liu Bei as his civil counselor. His younger brother Mi Fang (糜芳) and their sister Lady Mi too joined the household. Old bonds of merchant houses, knitted by hospitality on a road long ago, were being tied this morning into the fabric of a new commandery. The grain of a merchant’s courtesy had, thirty years after, become the grain of a commandery’s backbone.

In the back room, Liu Bei stayed a moment alone. He took out the red thread from his chest pocket — the thread from Daxing, Day 5 — and looked upon it a long while. Then he placed it, not back into his pocket, but into a small lacquer box he had laid upon the desk. Some seeds, grown to their plant, no longer need to be carried against the chest. The red thread was, this morning, put down.

The eighteenth morning of Book 2 opened quietly upon the main hall of the Xuzhou office. The three characters Samyangseo (三讓徐, Xuzhou yielded thrice) were planted as a seed: the breath in which an old Minister’s three yieldings and a young imperial-kin’s single knee met at one seat. Behind Day 47’s Iljagye of one beard’s plan, this morning, the seal of a thrice-yielded commandery lay.

—

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 코드는 스트림입니다 — WIA Code 스캐너로 약 37초 비추면 기사 전문(사진 포함)이 폰에 저장되어 인터넷 없이도 읽을 수 있습니다.

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