Page:Romance of the Three Kingdoms - tr. Brewitt-Taylor - Volume 1.djvu/384



riding a very handsome horse. They told him it was a prize taken from the recently conquered rebels, and as he praised it very warmly, the horse was presented to him. Liu Piao was delighted and rode it back to the city. Kʻuai Yüeh saw it and asked where it had come from. The Prefect told him it was a gift from Liu P'ei and Yüeh said, “My brother knew horses very well and I am not a bad judge. This horse has tear-tracks running down from his eyes anda white blaze on his forehead. He is called a tilu and he is a danger to his master. That is why Chang Wu was killed. I advise you not to ride him."

The Prefect began to think. Soon after he asked Yüan-tê to a banquet and in the course of it said, “You kindly presented me with a horse lately and I am most grateful, but you may need him on some of your expeditions and, if you do not mind, I would like to return him."

Yüan-tê rose and thanked him. The Prefect continued, "You have been here a long time and I fear I am spoiling your career as a warrior. Now Hsinyeh in Hsiangjang is no poverty-stricken town; how would you like to garrison it with your own men?”

Yüan-tê naturally took the offer as a command and set out as soon as he could, taking leave of the Prefect the next day. And so he took up his quarters in Hsinyeh. When he left the city he noticed in the gate a person making him emphatic salutations and the man presently said, “You should not ride that horse.”

Yüan-tê looked at the man and recognised in the speaker one of the secretaries named I Chi, a native of Shanyang. So he hastily dismounted and asked why. I Chi replied, “ Yester-day I heard that K‘uai Yüeh told the Prefect that that horse was a tilu and brought disaster to its owner. That is why it was returned to you. How can you mount it again?”

"I am deeply touched by your affection,” replied Yüan-tê, "but a man's life is governed by fate and what horse can interfere with that?"

I Chi admitted his superior view, but thereafter he followed Yüan-tê wherever he went.

The arrival of Liu P'ei in Hsinyeh was a matter of rejoicing to all the inhabitants and the whole administration was reformed.

In the spring of the twelfth year the Lady Kan gave birth to a son who was named Ch‘an. The night of his birth a crane settled on the roof of the house, screeched some forty times and then flew away westward.

Just at the time of birth a miraculous incense filled the chamber. Lady Kan one night had dreamed that she was looking up at the sky and the constellation of the Great Bear, Peitou, had fallen down her throat. As she conceived soon after she gave her son the milk-name of O-tou.