Never Strike the Stone

 

By and bye, strolling out of the banquet room into the temple grounds, Liu Bei came to a boulder. Drawing his sword he looked up to heaven and prayed, saying, “If I am to Jingzhou and achieve my intent to become a chief ruler, then may I cleave this boulder asunder with my sword. But if I am to meet my doom in this place, then may the sword fail to cut this stone.”

Raising his sword he smote the boulder. Sparks flew in all directions, and the boulder lay split in twain.

It happened that Sun Quan had seen the blow, and he said, “Why do you thus hate that stone?”

Liu Bei replied, “I am near my fifth decade and have so far failed to rid the state of evil. I greatly regret my failure. Now I have been accepted by the Dowager as her son-inlaw, and this is a critical moment in my life. So I implored of Heaven a portent that I might destroy Cao Cao as I would that boulder and restore the dynasty. You saw what happened.”

“That is only to deceive me,” thought Sun Quan. Drawing his own sword, he said, “And I also ask of Heaven an omen, that if I am to destroy Cao Cao, I may also cut this rock.”

So he spoke. But in his secret heart he prayed, “If I am to recover Jingzhou and extend my borders, may the stone be cut in twain.”

He smote the stone and it split in twain. And to this day there are cross cuts in the stone, which is still preserved.

One who saw this relic wrote a poem:

 

The shining blades fell and the rock was shorn through,

The metal rang clear and the sparks widely flew.

Thus fate then declared for the dynasties two

And the tripartite rule there began.

From: Luo Guanzhong, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 257–59 (Charles Henry Brewitt-Taylor, trans., 1925) (first printed version circa 1522).

I wonder if this passage from Three Kingdoms was in some fashion influenced by the Bible?

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Never Strike the Stone,’ New Reform Club (Aug. 2, 2024, 4:25 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2024/08/never-strike-stone.html>;