Magical Oranges

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 “Hero of Hefei” in his Magic card. But the real character this week is Zuo Ci. It’s the first of two chapters where he dominates the plot. 

Zuo Ci is a magician, more than any character we’ve met so far. He talks about the sources of his powers (the three scrolls: Avoidances, Heaven; Avoidances, Earth; Avoidances, Men). He conducts all sorts of miracles in Cao Cao’s court. He produces a dragon’s liver by drawing a dragon on a wall and producing a liver from it (cue Cao Cao’s skepticism: “You had that in your sleeve!” (p. 1235)). He produces flowers and fish, the latter reminding me of the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes in the Bible.

His first miracle was my favorite, though. On his way to meet Cao Cao, he sees men carrying a load of oranges. He offers to carry the heavy load for them, and does it all by himself. When they arrive at Cao Cao (now a king), whenever Cao Cao opens an orange peel, he sees that it’s empty. He blames Zuo Ci, but Zuo Ci laughs it off and shows that when he opens an orange, it’s just a normal orange with its pulp still inside. He then proceeds to eat an entire sheep.

The episode with the oranges reminded me of my favorite episode in a collection of Chinese short stories that I’ve read, “A Boat Crossing” in Zhu Wen’s I Love Dollars. In the story, the main character ends up sharing a bedroom on a boat with several scoundrels. He first encounters them after a nap, waking up to see them sitting on their beds, staring at him and eating the oranges that he had brought on board with him. I liked the pacing of the scene in “A Boat Crossing” and am happy to think that it may have been inspired by Zuo Ci.

For Magic cards, “Zuo Ci, the Mocking Sage” is the obvious new one. His card depicts him producing the dragon liver.