Page:Romance of the Three Kingdoms - tr. Brewitt-Taylor - Volume 1.djvu/334

 led his young master to the hall to receive the felicitations of his officers.

Sun Ch‘üan was endowed with a square jaw and a large mouth; he had blue eyes and a dark brown beard. Formerly, when Liu Yüan had gone to Wu to visit the Sun family, he said of the family of brothers, “I have looked well at them all and they are all clever and perspicacious, but none of them have the very ultimate degree of good fortune. Only the second has the look of a deep thinker. His face is remarkable, and his build unusual, and he has the look of one who will come to great honour. But none of them will attain to the blessing of a great age.”

History says that when Sun Ch‘üan succeeded to his brother and his brother’s might, there was still some reorganization to be done. Soon Chou Yü had arrived. The young ruler received him very graciously and said, “I need have no anxiety now that you have come.”

It will be remembered that Chou Yü had been sent to hold Pachiu. When he heard that his chief had been wounded by an arrow he thought it well to return to see how he was. But Sun Ts‘ê had died before Chou Yü could arrive. He hurried to be present at the funeral.

When he went to wail at the coffin of his late chief, Wu Fu-jên, the dead man’s mother, came out to deliver her son’s last injunctions. When she had told him the last charge he bowed to the earth, saying, “I shall exert the puny powers I have in your service as long as I live.”

Shortly after Sun Ch‘üan came in, and, after receiving Chou Yü’s obeisance, said, “I trust you will not forget my brother’s charge to you.”

Chou bowed saying, “I would willingly suffer any form of death for you.”

“How best can I maintain this grave charge which I have inherited from my father and brother?”

“He who wins men, prospers; he who loses them, fails. Your present plan should be to seek men of high aims and farseeing views and you can establish yourself firmly.”

“My brother bade me consult Chang Chao for internal administration, and yourself on external matters,” said Ch‘üan.

“Chang Chao is wise and understanding and equal to such a task. I am devoid of talent and fear to take such responsibility, but I venture to recommend to you as a helper one Lu Su, named Tzŭ-ching, a man of Tungch‘uan. This man’s bosom hides strategy and his breast conceals tactics. He lost his father in early life and has been a perfectly filial son to his mother. His family is rich and renowned for charity to the needy. When I was stationed at Ch‘ao-ch‘ang I led some hundreds of men across the Linhuai. We were short of grain. Hearing that the Lu family had two granaries there, each