Dragon and Phoenix from the Mirror

Chapters 34-35

In these chapters, Liu Bei meets a recluse called Still Water. This recluse, who functions as somewhat of a mirror (of “still water”) tells Liu Bei that he will meet two important men who will help achieve his goals. Still Water calls them Young Phoenix and Sleeping Dragon. By the end of this section, we meet Young Phoenix (Pang Tong).

I found it interesting that a phoenix and dragon had just been mentioned in Chapter 34. When Cao Cao built a “Bronze Bird Tower” (p. 614) in honor of what he believed was a strong omen, his son Cao Zhi encouraged him to build three towers total, with bridges across them. The first bridge was for the bronze bird, the second for “the Jade Dragon,” and the third for “the Golden Phoenix.” My endnotes to the chapters don’t comment on the similarity between the Dragon and Phoenix mentioned in the two consecutive chapters. I wonder about the differences between the “Jade Dragon” and “Sleeping Dragon” and the “Golden Phoenix” and the “Young Phoenix.” 

As a note, we get two new Magic cards here: Pang Tong has a card, and “Riding the Dilu Horse” occurs in these chapters. The Dilu Horse is a nice episode with Liu Bei: he uses the ambiguously-omened horse in a dramatic way to escape assassination.