Sources of Authority

Joe Anderson

01 Mar 2026 — 1 min read

Chapters 20-21

This week, I saw a lot of parallels to Western ideas of power and authority. On p. 332, the Emperor meets Liu Bei. To establish Liu Bei’s pedigree, one of the imperial aides reads off the lineage of Liu Bei: Zhen begat Ang, Ang begat Lu, etc. It’s like the New Testament where Luke traces Jesus’s lineage back to Adam. Both legitimize authority through ancestry

Then later, we see some of the entertainments of the royal court. They hunt, they meet over tea, and they discuss gardening. It wouldn’t be out of place in the English court drama Wolf Hall that I’m currently reading.

The relative quiet of court life is a nice break from the recent death of Lu Bu. It gives us room to breathe so we can enjoy a dramatic political meeting between Liu Bei and Cao Cao. By the end of Chapter 21, we are back at war. Another character dies: Yuan Shu. He has an ignominious death, coughing up blood in bed while pleading with his servants for honey. (p. 361) He once held the imperial seal. Now it is in Cao Cao’s hands.

Regarding Magic: the Gathering, the “Imperial Edict” shows up here: the Emperor wants to get away from Cao Cao, so he sends a message in blood to someone he trusts. (p. 340) The message eventually reaches Liu Bei, separating Cao Cao and Liu Bei.

Death by Indignation

Chapters 31-33 The plot takes us farther north than we’ve been before, into the desert. We meet a “khan.” And we finally get the “Desert Sandstorm” Magic card (p. 607). The desert is dangerous; Cao Cao only survives his visit through luck. When he returns from it, he rewards

Enter el-Hajjaj

Nights 228-246 (Although I had originally scheduled only through night 245 this week, night 246 was only 2 pages and resolved the story from nights 237-245). The two stories this week aren’t the best stories of lovers, but they are fast-paced. The first story is better. In it, al-Amjad,

Millennium: Purification and Guidance

Chapters 29-30 Sun Ce has a memorable death. A poison arrow ultimately killed him. He could have recovered, but he insisted on burning a holy man to death. The holy man haunted him, greatly distressing Sun Ce and exacerbating the poison until he finally died. His legacy passes to Sun

Peak Misogyny

Nights 210-227 Wow, this story really fell apart. It had been one of my favorites, but it took a very bad turn in this week’s reading. We left Princess Budur, dressed as a man, betrothed to Princess Hayat. Through some twists and turns (and some homophobia), the problem is

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Death by Indignation

Enter el-Hajjaj

Millennium: Purification and Guidance

Peak Misogyny