Novel scene
Mi Heng Strips and Denounces the Traitor 禰正平裸衣罵賊
About this event
Mi Heng Strips and Denounces the Traitor is the first scene of the Chapter 23 title of the Romance, "Mi Zhengping strips and denounces the traitor; Imperial Physician Ji uses poison and suffers punishment," the story of Mi Heng, styled Zhengping, who strips off his clothes at Cao Cao's banquet and rebukes Cao Cao. The Romance opens the scene at the time when the generals Cao Cao had sent have been beaten by Liu Bei at Xuzhou and the troops are resting because it is midwinter, with Kong Rong recommending Mi Heng as an envoy to win over Liu Biao. Mi Heng is sent to Jing Province and is killed by Huang Zu of Jiangxia. Romance, Ch. 23 §1 · 6–7 · 16–19 · 22 · 27–28
Chen Shou's text has no such scene. In Chen Shou's text Mi Heng's name appears once, in Hu Zong's biography in Records of Wu 17, where Hu Zong says that Yin Fan's clever, nimble sophistry resembles Mi Heng's. Records, Wu 17 §35
In the Romance
In Chapter 23, when Cao Cao looks for a gifted writer to win over Liu Biao, Xun You recommends Kong Rong, and Kong Rong in a memorial recommends to the Son of Heaven his friend Mi Heng, whose talent he calls ten times his own. The emperor passes the memorial to Cao Cao, who summons Mi Heng but does not invite him to sit. Mi Heng sighs that for all the breadth of heaven and earth there is not a single man, and when Cao Cao lists Xun Yu, Xun You, Guo Jia and Cheng Yu, Zhang Liao, Xu Chu and others, he belittles each in turn and says the rest are nothing but clothes racks, rice bags, wine casks and meat sacks. When Zhang Liao draws his sword to cut him down, Cao Cao, saying he happens to be short of a drummer, gives him that post. Romance, Ch. 23 §6–7 · 11–14
Cao Cao explains that he does not kill him because Mi Heng's empty fame is known far and near, so if he killed him the realm would say he could not tolerate others. At the next day's banquet Mi Heng comes in wearing old clothes and plays "The Three Strokes of Yuyang," and when he is scolded to change his clothes, he strips off his tattered garments and stands naked. When Cao Cao calls him insolent, Mi Heng says he has merely bared the body his parents gave him to show his purity, and rebukes Cao Cao, saying his eyes are foul because he cannot tell the worthy from the foolish, and his heart is foul because he always harbors usurpation. Romance, Ch. 23 §15–18
When Kong Rong, afraid that Cao Cao will kill Mi Heng, intervenes, Cao Cao sends Mi Heng as envoy to Jing Province, saying he will make him one of the high ministers if Liu Biao comes over, and has two men flank the unwilling Mi Heng and take him away. When Xun Yu and the others do not rise at the send-off outside the east gate, Mi Heng weeps, saying he is passing among the coffins of the dead. Liu Biao, hearing his satire, says Cao Cao means to kill him by Liu Biao's hand, and sends him to Huang Zu of Jiangxia. When Huang Zu, drunk together with him, asks what he himself is like, Mi Heng says he is like a god in a shrine that has no spiritual power, and is beheaded, and Liu Biao has him buried by Parrot Isle. Cao Cao laughs that the pedant used his tongue as a sword and instead cut off his own life. Romance, Ch. 23 §19–22 · 27–28 · 30
Written by 3KDEX (not yet reviewed) — The tags at the end of each paragraph link to the exact passage in the Records volume or Romance chapter it is based on.