Three Kingdoms Most Moving Stories Ranking — Partings and Final Moments That Remain in the Heart

From Romance of the Three Kingdoms

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5th Place: The End of Jiang Wei

4th Place: The Entrustment of the Orphan at Baidicheng

3rd Place: Lady Mi at Changban

2nd Place: Xu Shu's Parting from His Mother

1st Place: Kongming at Wuzhang Plains

Extra: The Prince of Beidi, Liu Chen

Conclusion

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5th Place: The End of Jiang Wei

There is a man who tried to keep fighting even after Shu fell. Jiang Wei, courtesy name Boyue. He was the last general, who inherited Kongming's art of war. In time, Wei's two generals, Deng Ai and Zhong Hui, invaded Shu. The emperor Liu Shan surrendered. Chengdu was opened without a fight. Jiang Wei received that news at Jiange.

It is said that the generals and soldiers all prostrated themselves on the ground and wept, drew their swords, and cut at the stones. Even so, Jiang Wei chose the path of pretending to surrender. He drew close to Wei's Zhong Hui and fanned his ambition. To the Later Lord, he secretly sent a letter. Please endure a few days of humiliation. I will return the altars of the state from peril to peace, and make the hidden sun and moon shine brightly again, it said.

The plan collapsed at its final step. Amid the chaos, he drew his sword and fought, and, falling with pain in his belly, cried out: my plan has not succeeded — this is Heaven. The ambition inherited from Kongming thus came to nothing. These were the final moments of a general who, even after defeat, staked everything on one more move.

4th Place: The Entrustment of the Orphan at Baidicheng

Liu Bei, who had lost Guan Yu and Zhang Fei and been badly defeated at Yiling, fell ill at Baidicheng. Summer of Zhangwu 3, the fourth month. His end, at sixty-three years of age, was drawing near. The one called to his bedside was the Chancellor, Zhuge Liang (Kongming). Liu Bei first quietly warned him about a certain general. And then the words entrusting the future of the state were quietly laid down.

If you can assist the heir, assist him. If his talent is not enough, you yourself may become the lord of Chengdu, he said. They were words in which a ruler offered his subject even his own throne. Kongming broke into a sweat over his whole body, prostrated himself on the ground, and wept. How could I, your subject, not exert all my strength, guard loyalty and integrity, and continue it even unto death? he said.

He struck his head against the floor and kept striking until the blood flowed. Liu Bei also left word to his two sons: serve Kongming as a father. The weight of this oath decided the rest of Kongming's life.

3rd Place: Lady Mi at Changban

The Battle of Changban. Pursued by Cao Cao's army, Liu Bei's army broke. Zhao Yun realized that there was no sign of the lady and the young A'dou. He turned back alone into the midst of the enemy and searched for the two. The lady was near a dry well, beside a burned-down earthen wall. Holding A'dou, her left leg wounded by a spear, she was weeping, it is said.

The lady said to Zhao Yun: that man has wandered for half his life. This child is his only bloodline, she said. Protect this child, and let him see his father's face, she asked.

Zhao YunIf you do that, I will have no regrets even if I die.

Zhao Yun persuaded her, three times and five times, to mount the horse. But the lady shook her head. In her gravely wounded state, she would be a burden to the general, she said. And handing over A'dou, she said this child's life is in the general's hands. Zhao Yun took A'dou into the breast of his armor, broke through the enemy, and delivered him to Liu Bei.

The lady herself chose the decision to remain in that place. It was the quiet decision of a person who had fulfilled a mother's duty to the end.

2nd Place: Xu Shu's Parting from His Mother

Xu Shu served Liu Bei as a strategist under the name Shan Fu. At the Battle of Fancheng, he showed his skill by breaking Cao Ren's Eight Gates Golden Lock formation. But Cao Cao's minister Cheng Yu saw through his identity. Cao Cao invited his mother to Xuchang, but the mother refused to write a letter. She is said to have cursed Cao Cao as a traitor to Han and thrown an inkstone at him.

Cheng Yu saved the mother's life, treated her with hospitality, and collected her handwriting. And he made a forged letter of summons, imitating the mother's characters. Your younger brother has died, and your mother has been taken captive. Come at once, it said. Xu Shu read that letter and shed tears. His close attendants advised him to hold Xu Shu back, but Liu Bei shook his head.

To make a man let his mother be killed and then employ that son would be inhumane, he said. The two faced each other and wept through the night until dawn. Even if pressed by Cao Cao, I will offer not a single stratagem for the rest of my life, Xu Shu said. Liu Bei saw him off until his figure was hidden by the forest, and said:

Liu BeiI want to cut down every tree in this forest.

It was in order to recommend the Crouching Dragon of Longzhong, Zhuge Liang. Recommending Zhuge on horseback — "Zouba jian Zhuge." I am a worn-out horse or a crow; Kongming is a qilin or a luanfeng, he said as he left. Waiting for Xu Shu, who had arrived in Xuchang, was his mother's anger. You abandoned the light and cast yourself into darkness. Loyalty and filial piety cannot both stand, she rebuked him.

After that, the mother avoided people's eyes and never showed herself again. Xu Shu buried his mother south of Xuchang and refused all gifts. And for the rest of his life, he offered not a single stratagem for Cao Cao, it is related.

1st Place: Kongming at Wuzhang Plains

Facing death, he arranges the arrangements for withdrawal, one by one. Conceal the death, issue no mourning, and withdraw the camps quietly one by one, he ordered. Sima Yi read the heavens, rejoiced that Kongming had died, and set out in pursuit. But from the shadow of the mountain, a carriage bearing Kongming appeared, together with his banners. Sima Yi cried that he had fallen into a trap, and fled fifty li.

Learning later that it was a wooden statue, Sima Yi lamented: I could read his life, but I could not read his death. The people of Shu said: the dead Kongming puts the living Zhongda to flight. He was a man who turned even his own death into the army's duty, and departed.

Extra: The Prince of Beidi, Liu Chen

As an extra, one more person. The Prince of Beidi, Liu Chen. He was Liu Bei's grandson. When Deng Ai pressed close to Chengdu, the debate at court continued over whether to surrender or to flee. When surrender was about to be decided on Qiao Zhou's counsel, a voice rose from behind the folding screen. Chengdu's soldiers still number in the tens of thousands. Jiang Wei's entire army at Jiange is also intact.

If we attack from within and without, complete success is possible. Do not lightly throw away the late emperor's enterprise, he said. Liu Shan did not accept it. Liu Chen raised his voice and wept. The late emperor's enterprise was not built easily. Even if I die, I will not accept disgrace, he said. The day after the surrender was decided, Liu Chen headed to the temple of Emperor Zhaolie.

He is said to have prostrated himself at the temple, wept, and bled from his eyes. The young prince, before his grandfather's temple, did not choose the path of living on together with his state. At that news, it is said, all the people of Shu grieved.

Conclusion

Let us line up the five scenes and one prince. Lady Mi entrusted her child and chose the side that remains. Xu Shu departed for his mother, and his mother, for that Xu Shu, could not remain. Kongming, even in death, moved to the side that withdraws the army. The moving scenes are not gathered in the scenes of victory.

They are gathered on the side that lost, the side that departs, the side that is left behind. That is why the tears of the Three Kingdoms were, at the same time as a record of war, a record of people's duties. The measure of this ranking is not the strength of each scene's sadness. It was measured by how clearly the duties of those who depart and those who are left behind are depicted.

Please write your own ranking in the comments as well.