Jin Xiang 靳詳

In Chapter 97 of the Romance, Zhuge Liang, on receiving the Later Sovereign's edict, takes the field again and, giving Wei Yan command of the vanguard, heads for the mouth of the Chencang road. At the mouth of Chencang a city has already been built and is held by the commander Hao Zhao; when Wei Yan attacks it from all four sides for several days without breaking it, Zhuge Liang, in a great rage, is about to have Wei Yan beheaded. Then a man below the tent steps forward, saying that though he has no talent, he has followed the Chancellor for many years without yet repaying his favor, and that he will go into the city of Chencang and persuade Hao Zhao to surrender, so that not a single bow need be drawn. Romance, Ch. 97 §15 · 17–18

Everyone looks and sees that it is the retainer Jin Xiang. When Zhuge Liang asks what words he will use to persuade him, Jin Xiang replies that he and Hao Zhao are both men of Longxi and have been friends since childhood, so if he persuades him by setting out the advantages and dangers, Hao Zhao will surely come over and surrender; Zhuge Liang then sends him. Romance, Ch. 97 §19

Jin Xiang gallops to the foot of the walls and calls out that Jin Xiang, an old friend of Hao Bodao, has come to see him. Hao Zhao has the gate opened to let him in and meets him on the wall. When Jin Xiang says that he serves on Kongming's staff in Western Shu, taking part in military counsels and treated with the courtesy due an honored guest, and that he has been sent specially to deliver a message, Hao Zhao changes color and says that Zhuge Liang is the enemy of their state, that he serves Wei while Jin Xiang serves Shu, and that though they were once like brothers they are now enemies, and tells him to leave the city. Jin Xiang tries to speak again, but Hao Zhao has already gone out onto the watchtower, and the Wei soldiers hurry Jin Xiang onto his horse and drive him out of the city. When Jin Xiang points his whip at Hao Zhao, who is leaning on the railing, and asks how he can be so unfeeling, Hao Zhao replies that his elder brother knows the laws of Wei, that having received the favor of the state he has nothing left but to die, and that Jin Xiang should go back and tell Zhuge Liang to come quickly and attack the city. Romance, Ch. 97 §20–22

When Jin Xiang returns and reports that Hao Zhao cut him off before he could even open his mouth, Zhuge Liang has him go again and persuade him by setting out the advantages and dangers. Jin Xiang goes once more to the foot of the walls and shouts to Hao Zhao, who has come out onto the watchtower, asking how he can hold off an army of several hundred thousand with a single isolated city, warning that if he does not surrender early it will be too late for regrets, and saying that in serving the treacherous Wei instead of following the great Han he neither knows the Mandate of Heaven nor can tell the pure from the foul. Hao Zhao, in a great rage, fits an arrow to his bow and aims it at Jin Xiang, shouting that what he said before stands and there is no need to say more, that Jin Xiang should withdraw at once, and that he will not shoot him. Romance, Ch. 97 §23–24

When Jin Xiang comes back and reports Hao Zhao's bearing in full, Zhuge Liang flies into a rage, saying that the common fellow is outrageously insolent, and, learning from a local man that the troops in the city number about 3,000, orders an immediate attack before the relief force can arrive. But the scaling ladders are burned by Hao Zhao's fire arrows, the battering rams are smashed by stones, and the tunnels are blocked by a second moat, so that for more than twenty days the city cannot be taken. The Romance records nothing more of Jin Xiang after this. Romance, Ch. 97 §25–28