Sleeping Dragon, Disappointed Mother

Chapters 36-37

Kongming gets the best introduction in the book. It starts with a whole chapter of fake-outs: Liu Bei keeps seeing people he thinks is Kongming, but they turn out to be one of Kongming’s friends or family instead. Of all the things to remind me of, it reminded me of the Japanese fantasy video game Secret of Mana. In the game, the characters try to meet the great Sage Joch for advice. Before they can meet him, Joch’s aide sends them on a bunch of wild goose chases to find Joch. After going through all the trials to try to find him, they later learn that the aide is actually Joch himself. Maybe we’ll see the same thing here? It seems so close to the video game that I wouldn’t be surprised if the game took it from Three Kingdoms.

Kongming’s introduction is also full of history. He is compared to several historical figures. One of the big ones is Guan Zhong, who the footnotes tell me was called a “savior of Chinese civilization” by none other than Confucius. (p. 653) We also get what I think are the book’s first references to chess (p. 660). 

And last, the character that tells Liu Bei where to find Kongming is named Shan Fu. I don’t think we’ve met him yet. His story is sad: he has to leave Liu Bei because Cao Cao has kidnapped his mother. When Shan Fu goes to her, she is so upset that she left Liu Bei on her account that she commits suicide. The author writes a poem that approves of her actions (pp. 657-658) called “In Praise of Mother Xu.” She must be the greatest of all disappointed Chinese mothers.