Horse
Dilu 的盧
About this item
Dilu was the horse Liu Bei rode. Chapter 34 of the Romance portrays it as a horse with tear tracks below its eyes and a white spot at the edge of its forehead, one said to bring harm to its master. In the Romance, Dilu is the horse Zhao Yun seizes from Zhang Wu, a general who had surrendered, and Liu Bei sends it to Liu Biao and gets it back; when Liu Bei is in danger at the banquet in Xiangyang, it carries him across the Tan Stream in a single leap of three zhang (ten-chi units). Romance, Ch. 34 §5–6 · 10–11 · 40–42
Dilu does not appear in Chen Shou's text. The Shiyu (Sayings of the Age), quoted in Pei Songzhi's commentary on the Liu Biao passage of the Biography of the First Sovereign in Records of Shu 2, gives the name of the horse Liu Bei rode as Dilu and records its leap across the Tan Stream, and in the same commentary Sun Sheng dismisses this as an idle popular tale. The Romance mentions Dilu in Chapters 34, 35 and 67. Records, Shu 2 §19Romance, Ch. 34 §10Romance, Ch. 35 §26Romance, Ch. 67 §51
In the Records
The Biography of the First Sovereign in Records of Shu 2, in Chen Shou's text, records that when Liu Bei went to Liu Biao after Cao Cao had defeated Yuan Shao, Liu Biao came out to the outskirts in person to welcome him, treated him with the courtesy due an honored guest and had him garrison Xinye, but as more and more of the bold men of Jing Province turned to Liu Bei day by day, Liu Biao grew suspicious of his intentions and secretly guarded against him. Chen Shou's text has no record of Liu Bei's horse. Records, Shu 2 §19
According to the Shiyu quoted in Pei Songzhi's commentary on this passage, Liu Biao treated Liu Bei, who was stationed at Fancheng, with courtesy but was wary of his character and did not much trust him, and when he invited Liu Bei to a banquet, Kuai Yue and Cai Mao meant to seize Liu Bei there. Liu Bei noticed this, pretended to go to the privy and slipped away; the horse he rode was named Dilu. Fleeing on Dilu, he fell into the water of the Tan Stream west of the city of Xiangyang and could not get out, and Liu Bei cried urgently, "Dilu, today we are in peril; do your utmost!" Dilu then leapt three zhang in a single bound and got across. While Liu Bei was crossing the river on a raft, his pursuers arrived midstream, apologized on Liu Biao's behalf and asked, "Why do you leave so quickly?" Records, Shu 2 §19
In the same commentary Sun Sheng called this an untrue account. He commented that Liu Bei was then a wandering guest whose position differed from that of his host, so had such an incident occurred, how could he have lived on untroubled until Liu Biao's death? All this, he said, was idle popular talk and not fact. Records, Shu 2 §19
In the Romance
In Chapter 34 of the Romance, Liu Bei, who has taken refuge with Liu Biao of Jing Province, goes out against Zhang Wu and Chen Sun, surrendered generals who have rebelled at Jiangxia, and seeing that the horse Zhang Wu rides is very magnificent, calls it a thousand-li horse. Zhao Yun spears Zhang Wu off his horse, takes its reins and leads it back. Later, when Liu Biao sees this horse Liu Bei is riding and cannot stop praising it, Liu Bei sends the horse to Liu Biao. Romance, Ch. 34 §5–6 · 10
Kuai Yue says that this horse is a dilu, with tear tracks below its eyes and a white spot at the edge of its forehead, that it brings harm to its master and that Zhang Wu too died because of it, and on hearing this Liu Biao returns the horse to Liu Bei. Yi Ji tells Liu Bei the same thing as he leaves for Xinye, but Liu Bei answers that a man's life and death depend on fate, so how could a horse harm him? Romance, Ch. 34 §10–13
Cai Mao, who has invited Liu Bei to the gathering at Xiangyang, posts troops at the three gates on the east, south and north to kill him, and leaves the west gate unguarded because the Tan Stream blocks the way in front of it. Liu Bei, who has come riding Dilu, ties the horse in the rear garden, and on a hint from Yi Ji he unties Dilu and flees alone through the west gate. When the horse's forelegs sink in the Tan Stream, Liu Bei cries, "Dilu, Dilu! Today you will be my undoing!" and Dilu surges up out of the water and in a single leap of three zhang flies up onto the western bank. Cai Mao, arriving in pursuit, says, "What divine aid is this?" Romance, Ch. 34 §31 · 36 · 38–44
In Chapter 35, Shan Fu, who asks to look at Liu Bei's horse again, says that Dilu, though a thousand-li horse, harms its master, and after hearing about the Tan Stream he says that this was saving its master but that it will in the end harm one master, so Liu Bei should give it to someone he bears a grudge against and ride it once the calamity has passed. When Liu Bei changes color and refuses, Shan Fu apologizes, saying he was only testing him, and Liu Bei makes him his Military Adviser. In Chapter 67 too, in the scene at Xiaoyaojin where Sun Quan's horse leaps across the broken bridge, the Romance includes a poem by a later writer: "That day Dilu leapt the Tan Stream." Romance, Ch. 35 §25–28Romance, Ch. 67 §50–51
Where the Romance differs
Dilu's origins: In Chapter 34 of the Romance, Dilu is the horse Zhao Yun takes by spearing Zhang Wu, and Liu Bei sends it to Liu Biao and gets it back because of Kuai Yue's words. On the Records' side, the Shiyu in Pei Songzhi's commentary only gives the name of the horse Liu Bei rode as Dilu, and records neither its origins nor any saying that it harms its master. Romance, Ch. 34 §6 · 10–11Records, Shu 2 §19
After crossing the Tan Stream: In Chapter 34 of the Romance, Liu Bei leaps up onto the western bank on Dilu, exchanges words with Cai Mao, who has come in pursuit, and flees to the southwest. In the Shiyu in Pei Songzhi's commentary, his pursuers apologized on Liu Biao's behalf while Liu Bei was crossing the river on a raft, and Sun Sheng commented that the story was not true. Romance, Ch. 34 §42–44Records, Shu 2 §19
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.
Ownership history
| Owner | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Liu Bei Disputed | Novel & History 「所乘馬名的盧」 · 「此皆世俗妄說，非事實也」 · 「玄德急解的盧馬」 | |
| Liu Biao | Romance 「玄德遂將此馬送與劉表。表大喜，騎回城中」 · 「敬當送還」(yy-034:s11) | |
| Zhang Wu | Romance 「望見張武所騎之馬，極其雄駿」 · 「張武爲此馬而亡」(yy-034:s11) |
Ownership is checked against the source texts (3KDEX) — each entry rests on the passage where the item changes hands. Owners not in the People index are not shown.