知己/知音 ：Close/Bosom Friends

Dear Friends,

We talked about Zhu Geliang earlier regarding his wise 86 words to his youngest son while he was at the frontier in his last battle.

Zhu Geliang is always being depicted as the wisest strategist during the war-lord era of the Three Kingdoms.

On the contrary, Cao Cao is always being depicted as a ruthless and cunny strategist (奸雄  vs 英雄, unscrupulous opportunist as opposed to hero), strengthening his position by essentially keeping and controlling the young but powerless Han emperor (獻帝, Xian Di).

In those turbulent times, guess it is the power of one’s army and the guns, not much of righteousness, to which Liu Bei (刘备) is always being associated with as he was a distant relative of the Han royal family and therefore a rightful person in-line to rule the Han land. If you read the story of the Three Kingdoms careful, there is not much difference among the war lords, only the rules of jungle and who out maneuvered who. That’s it.

Apart from Cao Cao and Liu Bei, Sun Quan (孙权) formed the other power center.

Sun Quan’s most famous general was Zhou Yu (周瑜), young and very talented. In the novel by 罗贯中 (Luo Guanzhong, who wrote the Story of the Three Kingdoms. This was of course different from the real history though it described most of the famous events and battles, including the famous Battle at Red Cliff), Zhou Yu was outwitted by Zhu’s near divine wisdom and eventually died after losing his cool three times courtesy of Zhu (孔明三激周瑜).

At Zhou Yu’s funeral,  Zhu Geliang wrote a long obituary, citing his respect for Zhou’s courage, wisdom and a distinguished general. He ended by saying  “从此天下，更无知音！”,meaning ” from now onwards, there will be no one who can understand me better” .

In today’s world, it is very hard to find a friend, let alone an intimate friend who actually understands oneself.

Zhu stands out because of Zhou Yu, or Liu Bei stands out because of Cao Cao, or Guan Yu (关羽)’s loyalty and righteousness versus Lv Bu (吕布)’s yearn for fame and glory ahead of loyalty and righteousness.

So we can say “Zhou Yu therefore Zhu Geliang” or “Cao Cao therefore Liu Bei” etc.

There is a famous saying, “生瑜又生亮”, ie  “whereas the world already has Zhu Geliang, why give rise to a Zhou Yu ?”. Similarly, whereas there is already a Cao Cao, why give rise to a Liu Bei ?

In a short life time, how many people can we find that we can call “bosom friends” who can really understand us yet without any conflict of interest?  May be we can’t even exhaust counting using our fingers in one hand.

Or may be, just as Zhu Geliang put it, it may be the arch rival who can understands oneself best and has utmost mutual respect for each.

Remember Confucius’ saying again ”

知之为知之，不知为不知，是知（智）也。

知 is such a rare thing to grasp or  “understand” (satori, 悟）。

For those who are curious about what Zhu Geliang wrote i remembrance of Zhou Yu, here it goes :

“呜呼公瑾，不幸夭亡！修短故天，人岂不伤？我心实痛，酹酒一觞；君其有灵，享我烝尝！吊君幼学，以交伯符；仗义疏财，让舍以居。吊君弱冠，万里鹏抟；定建霸业，割据江南。吊君壮力，远镇巴丘；景升怀虑，讨逆无忧。吊君丰度，佳配小乔；汉臣之婿，不愧当朝，吊君气概，谏阻纳质；始不垂翅，终能奋翼。吊君鄱阳，蒋干来说；挥洒自如，雅量高志。吊君弘才，文武筹略；火攻破敌，挽强为弱。想君当年，雄姿英发；哭君早逝，俯地流血。忠义之心，英灵之气；命终三纪，名垂百世，哀君情切，愁肠千结；惟我肝胆，悲无断绝。昊天昏暗，三军怆然；主为哀泣；友为泪涟。亮也不才，丐计求谋；助吴拒曹，辅汉安刘；掎角之援，首尾相俦，若存若亡，何虑何忧？呜呼公瑾！生死永别！朴守其贞，冥冥灭灭，魂如有灵，以鉴我心：从此天下，更无知音！呜呼痛哉！伏惟尚飨。”