Novel scene
Guo Jia's Last Plan Settles Liaodong 郭嘉遺計定遼東
About this event
This is the scene of the title of Chapter 33 of the Romance, "Guo Jia leaves a plan and Liaodong is settled": the passage in which, after Cao Cao's Battle of White Wolf Mountain, Gongsun Kang, Administrator of Liaodong, beheads the brothers Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang, who had fled to Liaodong, and sends their heads. The Romance portrays Cao Cao's staying at Yizhou without moving his troops as his following of a letter left by the dead Guo Jia. Romance, Ch. 33 §37 · 40–47
Chen Shou's text has no letter left by Guo Jia. Gongsun Kang's sending the heads of Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi is recorded in the Annals of Emperor Wu (Records of Wei 1) as Cao Cao's own reckoning, and also appears briefly in the account of Yuan Shao in Records of Wei 6 and the biography of Gongsun Du in Records of Wei 8. Records, Wei 1 §101–102Records, Wei 6 §70Records, Wei 8 §41Records, Wei 14 §40–42
In the Romance
In Chapter 33 of the Romance, Guo Jia, on the way to attack the Wuhuan, fell ill, unsuited to the water and climate, and stayed behind at Yizhou to recuperate. Cao Cao broke Tadun at Mount Bailang, entered Liucheng and then returned to Yizhou, by which time Guo Jia had already been dead for several days. When Cao Cao wept bitterly before his coffin, Guo Jia's attendants presented a letter he had sealed before his death, relaying his words that if the Chancellor followed it, the affair of Liaodong would be settled. Romance, Ch. 33 §32 · 34 · 36–38 · 40
When Xiahou Dun and others proposed attacking Liaodong before Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang could make a move, Cao Cao laughed and said that in a few days Gongsun Kang would send the two Yuans' heads of his own accord. In Liaodong, Gongsun Gong proposed luring the two Yuans in, killing them and presenting their heads, and Gongsun Kang decided to keep the two Yuans if Cao Cao's troops came and to kill them if they did not, and sent men to watch. Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang, for their part, intended to take refuge with him for a while and then kill Gongsun Kang and seize his land. Romance, Ch. 33 §41–44
On receiving a report that Cao Cao's troops were staying at Yizhou with no intention of coming down to Liaodong, Gongsun Kang hid axemen behind the hangings and admitted the two Yuans. When Yuan Shang asked for a cushion to be spread, he rebuked him—"Your two heads are about to travel ten thousand li; what need is there of a seat?"—and had the two beheaded. When the heads arrived, Cao Cao said, "It has not gone beyond Fengxiao's reckoning," and produced Guo Jia's letter, which said that if attacked with troops they would join forces to resist, but if left alone Gongsun Kang and the Yuans would plot against each other. Cao Cao enfeoffed Gongsun Kang as Marquis of Xiangping and General of the Left, and again offered sacrifice before Guo Jia's spirit tablet. Romance, Ch. 33 §44–48
Where the Romance differs
Whose plan was it: In Chapter 33 of the Romance, it is the letter Guo Jia left before his death that reckons that, if left alone, Gongsun Kang and the Yuans would plot against each other. In the Annals of Emperor Wu in the Records, when urged to attack Gongsun Kang, Cao Cao himself said he would have Gongsun Kang behead Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi and send their heads, and when he returned from Liucheng in the 9th month of the 12th year of Jian'an (207), Gongsun Kang sent the heads of Yuan Shang, Yuan Xi, Supuwan and the others. When the generals asked why, Cao Cao answered that if pressed they would join forces, and if left alone they would plot against each other. Romance, Ch. 33 §40 · 47Records, Wei 1 §101–102Records, Wei 8 §41
Guo Jia's illness and death: In Chapter 33 of the Romance, Guo Jia fell ill on the march and stayed behind at Yizhou, and by the time Cao Cao returned from Liucheng he was already dead. In the Biography of Guo Jia in the Records, Guo Jia advised at Yi County that they leave the baggage behind and hurry on with light troops, and he fell gravely ill on the way back from Liucheng and died at the age of thirty-eight. Romance, Ch. 33 §32–34 · 40Records, Wei 14 §40–41
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.