Petition on Taking the Field

Permit your servant, Liang, to observe: the late sovereign was taken from us while his life's work, the restoration of the Han, remained unfinished. Today, in a divided empire, our third, the province of Yizhou, war-worn and under duress, faces a season of crisis that threatens our very survival. Despite this, the officials at court persevere in their tasks, and loyal-minded officers throughout the realm dedicate themselves to you because one and all they cherish the memory of the exceptional treatment they enjoyed from the late sovereign and wish to repay it in service to Your Majesty.

Truly this is a time to widen your sagely audience in order to enhance the late Emperor's glorious virtue and foster the morale fo your dedicated officers. It would be unworthy of your majesty to demean yourself by resorting to ill-chosen justifications that would block the avenues of loyal remonstrance.

The royal court and the ministerial administration constitute a single government. Both must be judged by one standard. Those who do evil and violate the codes, as well as those who are loyal and good, must receive their due from the proper authorities. This will make manifest Your Majesty's fair and enlightened governance. Let no unseemly bias lead to different rules for the court and the administration.

Privy Counselors and Imperial Attendants like Guo Youzhi, Fei Yi, and Dong Yun are all solid, reliable men, loyal of purpose, pure in motive. The late Emperor selected them for office so that they would serve Your Majesty after his demise. In my own humble opinion, consulting these men on palace affairs great or small before action is taken will prevent errors and shortcomings and maximize advantages. Xiang Chong, a general of fine character and fair-minded conduct, profoundly versed in military matters proved himself in battle during the previous reign, and the late Emperor pronounced him capable. That is why the assembly has recommended him for overall command. In my humble opinion, General Xiang Chong should be consulted on all military matters large or small to ensure harmony in the ranks and judicious use of personal.

The Former Han thrived because its emperors stayed close to worthy vassals and far from conniving courtiers. The opposite policy led the Later Han to ruin. Whenever the late Emperor discussed this problem with me, he decried the failings of Emperors Huan and Ling. Privy Counselors Guo Youzhi and Fei Yi, Secretary Chen Zhen, Senior Advisor Zhang Yi, and Military Counselor Jiang Wan are all men of shining integrity and unshakable devotion. I beg Your Majesty to keep close to them and to trust them, for that will strengthen our hopes for the resurgence of the house of Han.

I began as a common man, toiling in my fields in Nanyang, doing what I could to keep body and soul together in an age of disorder and taking no interest in making a name for myself among the lords of the realm. Though it was beneath the dignity of the late Emperor to do so, he honored my thatched cottage to solicit my counsel on the events of the day. Grateful for his regard, I responded to his appeal and threw myself heart and soul into his service. Hard times followed for the cause of the late Emperor. I assumed my duties at a critical moment for our defeated army, accepting assignment in a period of direst danger. Now twenty-one years have passed. The late Emperor always appreciated my meticulous caution and, as the end neared, placed his great cause in my hands. Since that moment, I have tormented myself night and day lest I prove unworthy of his trust and thus discredit his judgment.

That is why I crossed the River Lu in the summer heat and penetrated the barren lands of the Man. Now, the south subdued, our arms sufficing, it behooves me to marshal our soldiers to conquer the northern heartland and do my humble best to remove the hateful traitors, restore the house of Han, and return it to the former capital. This is the way I mean to honor my debt to the late Emperor and fulfill my duty to Your Majesty.

As for weighing the advantages of internal policy and making loyal recommendations to Your Majesty, that is the responsibility of Guo Youzhi, Fei Yi, and Dong Yun. My only advice is to obtain and execute your commission to chasten the traitors and restore the Han. Should I prove unfit, punish my offense and report it to the spirit of the late Emperor. If those three vassals fail to sustain Your Majesty's virtue, then their negligence should be publicized and censured.

Your Majesty, take counsel with yourself and consult widely on the right course. Examine and adopt sound opinions, and never forget the last edict fo the late Emperor. Overwhelmed with gratitude for the favor I have received from you, I now depart on a distant campaign. Blinded by my tears falling on this petition, I write I know not what. 

Second Petition on Taking the Field   Post By：2008-2-19 12:30:30

Painfully recognizing that either the kingdom of Han or the kingdom of Wei must fall and that our royal rule will never know security if confined to a part of the realm, the later Emperor empowered me to wage righteous war against the northern traitors. Accurately appraising his vassal's abilities, he knew full well what feeble talent I had to pit against so strong an enemy; but not to go forward spelled our doom. To arms, rather than to bow to fate! Thus, the late Emperor charged me, and he never wavered in that commitment.

The day I received his mandate, I neither slept nor ate; the northern expedition occupied my thoughts. But first we had to move into the region south of us. In the fifth month I crossed the River Lu and penetrated deep into aboriginal territory, going without food for days at a time-not because I threw caution to the winds but because, knowing that your majesty's rule could never have survived confined to the Shu capital, we would have faced any danger, any difficulty, to carry out the late Emperor's last wishes. Critics have complained of this plan. Now, when teh traitors are spent in the west and occupied in the east, military logic tells us to exploit their distress. It is time to move forward. Allow me to present further details of this case.

The founder of the Han, Emperor Gao Zu, had wisdom of a heavenly scale and advisers of great depth and subtlety. Yet he tested treacherous terrain and suffered painful defeats, gaining security only after many trials and ordeals. Your Majesty will never surpass Emperor Gao Zu; your advisers will never surpass Zhang Liang and Chen Ping. How Your Majesty could seek a long-range plan for conquering the empire from a passive position is the first thing I fail to understand.

Imperial Inspector Liu Yao and Governor Wang Lang each held imperial territory. They were concerned for their security and worked out plans, freely citing the ancient sages. But a crowd of doubts filled their breasts, innumerable obstacles impeded their thinking, and they put off military action from year to year. That they thus allowed Sun Ce to wax in power unhampered and eventually engross the whole of the Southland is the second thing I fail to understand.

Cao Cao-no shrewder planner than he- waged war in a manner worthy of Sunzi and Wu Qi. Nonetheless, his enemies trapped him at Nanyang, put him in straits in Wuchao, imperiled his life at Qilian, pressed him hard at Liyang, nearly ruined him at Beishan, and almost killed him at Tong Pass. After all that, he enjoyed a brief period of false security. How then this vassal, Liang, with so much less talent than Cao Cao, could ever conquer the north without running risks is the third thing I fail to understand.

Cao Cao attacked Changba five times but could not subdue it. He tried to cross Lake Chao four times and failed. He took Li Fu into his service, but Li Fu conspired against him. He gave authority to Xiaohou Yuan, but Xiaohou Yuan died. The late Emperor always acknowledged Cao Cao's capabilities, yet he had his failures too. How then one so inferior as this vassal could guarantee a victory is the fourth thing I fail to appreciate.

Alas, since arriving in Hanzhong, in one year we have lost Zhao Zilong, Yang Qun, May Yum Yan Zhi, Ding Li, Bo Shou, Liu He, Deng Tong, and others, in addition to unit leaders and positional commanders totaling more then seventy. We also lost more then a thousand of our special forces-shock troops, units of the Cong, Sou, and Black Qiang nations, rangers and armed cavalry. To assemble these elite forces from around the realm took many decades; no single province can make up the loss. And in a few more years, we will lose another two-thirds of them. How to deal with the enemy is the fifth thing I fail to understand. At present, though the population is strained to the utmost and the armed forces near exhaustion, events will not stand still; and in their swift course, action is no dearer then restraint. Not to act when the hour beckons, trying instead to sustain a protracted struggle with the resources of but a single province is teh sixth thing I fail to understand.

Events are the hardest things to control. Once the late Emperor lost a battle in Jingzhou, and Cao Cao gleefully rubbed his hands together, confident that he had conquered the empire. But then the late emperor allied himself with Wu and Yue in the east, took Ba and Shu in the west, and marched against the north. Xiahou Yuan fell. This was something Cao Cao failed to reckon on and a promise of success for the cause of Han. But the Southland turned on its Riverlands ally; Lord Guan perished, Zigui fell, and Cao Pi proclaimed a new dynasty. That's how things happen; it is difficult to anticipate things to come. Humbly I shall toil to the last ounce of my strength, until my end; but whether the outcome will favor us or not is beyond my powers of prediction.