Chapters 78-80 Tons of plot in these chapters. Most importantly, we get the deaths of a major character (Cao Cao) and minor characters (Xiahou Dun, Hua Tuo, Liu Feng). Hua Tuo’s death is one of my favorites, given my love of lost books. His “Book of the Black
Nights 681-695 After the last couple weeks, I was worried that I was tiring of the Nights. But there was some good stuff here! My enthusiasm for the Nights has been restored. We can thank al-Asma’i, who the index says was a real-life expert on the
Chapters 76-77 With the biggest death of the book so far, and likely one of the biggest in the book overall, we really get the sense of the end of a great one. Sun Quan beheads Lord Guan and quickly regrets it. Sun is advised that Liu Bei will
Nights 649-680 It’s hard for me to say why I found this story so much more tiresome than what came before it. Maybe I’m getting tired of the Nights. Maybe work is particularly stressful right now. If I were to look for an objective reason, I’d
Chapters 74-75 Lord Guan continues to seem more imperious and arrogant. He is almost a new character, not the hero of the march we saw in Chapters 27-28. We are almost rooting against him in Chapter 74 when Pang De arrives to fight him. But it’s not
Nights 624-648 For the next couple weeks or so, we’re in a war story. It has been very violent and fast-paced so far, almost to a fault. Some of the villains appear and are dispatched so quickly that it has been hard to get invested in them.
Chapters 71-73 We start this week with Cao Cao. First, he visits with a wealthy woman at “Indigo Field.” She was once captured and violated by the northern tribes. While there, she gave birth to two children and wrote “Eighteen Tunes for Foreign Flute” (p. 1275). We learn that
Nights 607-623 This is the story of Judar. He has two nasty brothers who mistreat him and his mother. Aside from that, Judar gets great luck and acquires many magical items. The most notable items are his saddlebags: they are like Bugs Bunny’s endless pockets: full of any
Chapters 69-70 This is the time for some of the old guys to shine. In Chapter 69, the old sage Guan Lu gives some advice from the Book of Changes. He refuses to explain the fates of Cao Cao and his men, but he does reveal the fate of
Nights 579-606 There are about 26 stories over 60 or so pages in these Nights. The frame involves a king’s son. He has been accused of sleeping with the king’s slave girl, and the king is torn between trusting his accuser (a woman) or his advisers. Over
Chapters 67-68 A couple nice episodes this week. In the first chapter, we root for Zhang Liao. It's unusual to cheer on one of Cao Cao’s men. But he’s a real hero as he holds off Hefei (this is certainly the reason he’s called
Nights 567-578 The City of Brass is a big memento mori. It is a massive tomb, with some of its bodies all perfectly preserved. Sort of like an Egyptian Pyramid. There are words all over with themes about how you can’t take your wealth with you when you