"Formerly, the realm was split into three kingdoms. The people of Wei occupied the Central Plains, the clan of Han possessed the regions of Min and Yizhou, while Wu controlled the provinces of Jingzhou and Yangzhou and spread to grasp the lands of Jiaozhou and Guangzhou. But although the Cao family had performed outstanding achievements among the Xia (ethnic Han) people, their cruelty was just as great, stirring up the people's hatred against them. As for the old codger Liu (Liu Bei), though he controlled difficult terrain and had pretensions to cleverness, his achievements were slight things, and his state was a mean and vulgar one. It was very different with Wu, which had its foundation laid down by the martial feats of King Huan (Sun Ce) and completed by the virtues of Taizu (Sun Quan).
"How numerous were Taizu's good qualities! He was intelligent and wise, astute and perceptive; he was understanding and measured, generous and farsighted. He sought out worthy people as though worried that he would never have enough of them, and he sympathized with the people as though they were his own children; he drew people in with complete demonstrations of his abundant virtues, and he exhibited kinship and benevolence through utter displays of love and affection. From out of the rank and file of the soldiers did he pluck Lü Meng; from among the masses of the captives did he recruit Pan Jun. He was ever sincere and invariably trusting, with no reservations that we might be swindled or cheated; he was always taking the full measure of a person and employing them according to their full potential, with no suspicion that his proteges might turn against us.
"He could confer the whip of authority upon others, as displayed by the power he granted to Lord Lu (Lu Xun); he could entrust the military defense of the state to subordinates, as exhibited by the army he assigned to Zhou Yu. He lived in a humble palace and ate meager fare, so that he might richly reward the achievements of his subjects; he was modest and unassuming about himself, the better to accept the plans and strategies of his advisors. Thus did Lu Su join him after only a single meeting; thus did Shi Yue yield to his rule despite the natural defenses of his own domain.
"He respected Lord Zhang's (Zhang Zhao's) virtues and so dispensed with the frivolities of wandering and hunting; he honored Zhuge Jin's advice and so reduced indulging his personal wishes and desires; he was moved by Lord Lu's (Lu Xun's) arguments and so mitigated the burdens of the laws and punishments; he was impressed by Liu Ji's criticism and so swore 'the oath of the three cups' (to ignore his commands while drunk). Holding his breath and treading silently, he peered through the gap in the wall to observe Ziming (Lü Meng) on his sickbed; fighting back tears and denying himself delicacies, he adopted the orphans of Ling Tong; ascending the altar and overwhelmed by emotion, he recalled the achievements of Lu Zijing (Lu Su); dismissing and denying words of slander, he trusted in the good faith of Ziyu (Zhuge Jin).
"His loyal ministers all exhausted their minds for his sake, and his ambitious subjects all devoted their full strength to his cause. His aims and ambitions were distant and lofty indeed, nor was he content to restrict himself to a small domain. And for that reason, his offices of state formed quite the collection, nor had he ever any respite from his affairs.
"When the capital was first established at Jianye (in 229), Taizu's ministers asked him to prepare the rites and offices at the usual glorious standards, but he declined and would not agree, saying, 'What would the realm say of me?' And his palaces and chambers, his carriages and clothing, were all kept accordingly frugal. For since the world was experiencing a new era and the division of the realm was a fact, Taizu established the imperial offices on a modest basis and rarely added to their luster. Though there was a gradual increase in finery, it never reached the excesses of past dynasties; though Taizu reduced the forms of government affairs, they were still sufficient for the administration of the state.
"Was not Wu remarkable in those days? Its territory encompassed about ten thousand li, and its army boasted a million armored soldiers. Its fields were fertile, its soldiers were disciplined, its weapons were keen, and its resources were rich. To the east it hugged the wine-dark sea, and to the west it straddled the mountains and gorges; the Yangzi girded its border, and the steep mountains guarded its fiefs and regions. Never before had the state enjoyed such great and abundant advantages.
"If only its later rulers had perpetuated such a system and kept up its practices! If only they had led the people to preserve the laws, acted cautious in their conduct and circumspect in their government, maintained and defined the policies of state, and closely guarded and observed the avenues of approach. Then Wu could have continued to exist, down the years and through the ages, without the slightest worry of destruction or collapse.
"There are those who argue that 'Wu and Shu needed each other like the teeth need the lips; the destruction of Shu meant that Wu's fall was only a matter of time'. Now it was certainly a benefit to Wu to have Shu as its ally and helper. Yet Shu was not so critical to Wu that only through its existence could Wu survive. The border regions of Wu were sufficient in themselves to hold out against any foe. We had our share of many mountains and cliffs, so that nowhere was there any broad avenue of advance upon land, and our rivers had narrow points and swift currents, not to mention the difficulties posed by terrifying waves. Even if the enemy had an army of a million soldiers altogether, the terrain of our land meant that the heads of their columns could never exceed a thousand men; the enemy might amass a navy of a thousand ships, but its vanguard on the water could never surpass a hundred boats. And it was for this very reason that, when the Liu clan campaigned against us (at Yiling in 222), Lord Lu (Lu Xun) compared their army to a massive snake, unable to concentrate all its power at any one point.
"When Shu first fell (in 263-264), our court ministers had various ideas of how we ought to respond. Some proposed checking the flow of the Yangzi by piling stones and boulders in it, while others advocated for setting up barriers and barricades across the river to guard against any developments. The Son of Heaven (Sun Xiu) convened an assembly to solicit the advice of the Grand Marshal, Lord Lu (Lu Kang). Lord Lu told them that, as the Yangzi was one of the Four Rivers (the Yellow River, the Huai River, the Ji River, and the Yangzi) whereby Heaven and Earth make manifest their power, any proposal to dam the river would be doomed to failure. He also argued against building any barricades, saying that they would be an obstruction to us as much as to the enemy; if our foes should ever cede their current advantage and appear weak, then we could use the Yangzi as our own avenue of invasion against them by having the navies of the Jingzhu and Chu regions row upstream. For the Yangzi was a treasure bestowed upon us by Heaven, as he said, and the best thing to do would be to carefully maintain our existing garrisons among the gorges and mouths of the river and wait for the momentum of war to shift in our favor.
"When Bu Chan rebelled against us (in 272), he offered up a valuable city to entice a powerful enemy (Jin) to invade, and he distributed heavy bribes to induce the Man tribes to rise against us. At that time, the vast forces of our enemy gathered together like clouds and advanced like lightning, pouring down upon the banks of the Yangzi; they built ramparts along the river and occupied critical places in order to halt our advance west, and they dispatched their fleet in the Ba and Han regions east down the Yangzi against us. Yet Lord Lu (Lu Kang) led a force of thirty thousand soldiers to occupy Dongkang to the north (of Bu Chan's base at Xiling), where he deepened the moats and raised the ramparts, maintained his soldiers and magnified his aura. The rebel swine (Bu Chan) simply huddled up in his city and waited for death, never daring to march north and take a chance on survival; our powerful foe suffered a great defeat and fled through the night, losing more than half their army. Lord Lu split off a detachment of five thousand keen soldiers and sent them west to block the arrival of the enemy's fleet. He triumped everywhere, east and west, and he took captives and prisoners by the tens of thousands. Such was the genius of this man's planning; would he ever have steered us wrong? And in the years following, there were rarely any disturbances which might have required the signal fires and hardly any concerns within the state.
"It was after Lord Lu left us (in 274) that our fortunes and our planning ebbed. Wu became engulfed by deep divisions, and our armies were gripped by defeatism and despair. In the invasion of the Taikang era (by Jin in 280), the enemy's forces were no greater than in former times, nor were the disturbances we experienced in Guangzhou (during the rebellion of 279) any worse than difficulies Wu had faced before. Yet the state toppled and collapsed, and the ancestral temple was left in ruins. Alas! 'Once good men have all departed, the state never lasts for long.' Was it not so?
"It may be true that the Book of Changes states, 'It was in accordance with the will of Heaven that Tang of Shang and King Wu of Zhou accepted the Mandate.' And someone did once say, 'An age of order will not take shape until the age of turmoil has reached its zenith.' Such things are indications of the importance which the sovereigns of old placed upon the circumstances of the age. Yet it is also true that the ancients tell us that 'Circumstance is not so important as favorable terrain', and when the Book of Changes speaks of 'the kings and nobles employing their natural defenses to safeguard the state', this too is an emphasis on such natural terrain. But greater still than either of these is common purpose among the people, for as the ancients assure us, 'Favorable terrain means less than a united will'. We are instructed to place our faith 'in virtue, not in terrain' because it is through the people that our defenses can be held at all. When Wu rose, it was because it observed all three of these aspects, and acted fully in accordance with the principles illustrated by Minister Sun (Xunzi); when Wu fell, it was because it focused on natural defenses to the exclusion of all else, violating the system that Minister Sun had laid out.
"The four provinces of Wu (Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Guangzhou, and Jiaozhou) had no shortage of manpower; the lands south of the Yangzi did not lack for talents. The natural terrain of our mountains and rivers were well-suited for defense, and our military equipment was neither dull nor difficult to use. We could easily have maintained the same practices which had worked for our ancestors. Why then did we fail? Why did we suffer calamity? It was because, though we had the means, we failed to use them.
"It was for such reasons that the kings of old were always sure to fortify their states by cultivating good traditions, and they studied the rises and falls of states across time. They were modest about themselves in order to reassure the people, and they were kind to the population in order to achieve harmony; they were open of hand in order to attract the advice of talented and righteous people, and they were kind of heart in order to bind the people to them with love. When this situation prevailed, then in times of peace the people shared in their joy, and in times of danger the populace shared in their sorrow. When joy is shared by all during peace, then even danger can pose no threat; when sorrows are held in common, then even chaos will never descend into bloodshed.
"If only this had been the case in our final years. Then we could have preserved our altars of state and protected our territory, and none among us would have experienced the agony of the Barley Ears poem or felt the despair of the Drooping Millet poem."
Heads up, Famitsu is running a character poll for the most requested characters for Dynasty Warriors. Previous winners of these polls have become characters in follow up games (ex Guo Jia and Chen Gong)
This is the best chance to get some late Wu characters (Sun Xiu, Zhuge Ke, Zhuge Jing, Lu Kang) into the game. Lu Kang has gotten close both times to winning the polls. Late Wu needs representation and it would be great if we could get Zhuge Jing or Lu Kang in there.
If you can read basic Japanese, please fill out the survey (or let me help you).
