Zhao Da 趙達

Zhao Da was a man of Henan. In his youth he studied under Shan Fu, a Palace Attendant of the Han, and his thinking was precise. Believing that there was the aura of a king in the southeast and that he could escape the turmoil there, he got away and crossed the Yangtze. He mastered the art of the Nine Palaces and One Calculation and probed its subtle meaning, so that he could produce an answer on the spot to suit any occasion. He answered questions as if by divine power, and even in counting flying locusts and guessing hidden objects he was never wrong. When someone objected that flying things could certainly not be counted, so who could know whether he was right, Zhao Da had him scatter several dou of small beans over a mat and fixed their number on the spot; when they were counted again, he proved correct. Records, Wu 18 §19–20

Once, when he called at the house of an acquaintance and was served a meal, the host said that it had all been so sudden that there was neither wine nor fine food. Zhao Da picked up a single chopstick from the tray and laid it crosswise and lengthwise two or three times, then said that below the east wall of the house there was one hu of fine wine and three jin of venison, so why did the host say there was none? The host, embarrassed, said he had only wanted to test him, brought out the wine and drank with him. Another time someone wrote a figure of ten million on a document, put it in an empty granary, sealed it and had Zhao Da calculate it; Zhao Da gave the figure exactly and said that it was a name only, with no substance. Chen Shou wrote that his precision was like this. Records, Wu 18 §20–21

Zhao Da treasured his art and kept it secret, telling nothing even to famous Confucian scholars and worthy gentlemen such as Kan Ze and Yin Li who humbled themselves to come and study with him. Gongsun Teng, Assistant to the Grand Astrologer, had served Zhao Da as his teacher from his youth and laboured diligently for many years; Zhao Da had promised to teach him for several years, but whenever the moment came to explain he would stop again. When Gongsun Teng brought wine and food, bowed, knelt and begged him, Zhao Da said that his forebears had obtained this art hoping to become teachers of emperors and kings, yet after three generations in office they had risen no higher than Gentleman of the Grand Astrologer, so he truly did not wish to pass it on again, and that the method of One Calculation was not spoken of even between father and son. Yet he said he would now truly pass it on, and taking out two scrolls of white silk the size of a finger, he said he would go over them once and give them to Gongsun Teng in a few days. Records, Wu 18 §22–23

When Gongsun Teng went on the appointed day, Zhao Da pretended to search for the books, then exclaimed in alarm that he had lost them, saying that his son-in-law had come the day before and must have stolen them. From then on the transmission to Gongsun Teng was cut off. Records, Wu 18 §23

Earlier, whenever Sun Quan moved his army on a campaign he had Zhao Da make calculations, and everything turned out as he said. Sun Quan asked about his method, but Zhao Da never told him, and for this reason he was treated coldly and his salary and rank did not rise. According to Wu Fan's biography, after Wu Fan died in the 5th year of Huangwu (226), Sun Quan, missing him, sought men in three provinces who knew numerological arts like Wu Fan or Zhao Da, offering to make them marquises of a thousand households, but in the end found none. Records, Wu 18 §24 · 13

Zhao Da often laughed at the practitioners who watched the stars, vapours and winds, saying that one could know the Way of Heaven by turning over calculations within one's tent without going out of the door, so was it not a hardship to expose oneself day and night to watch the vapours? Once, while idle at home, he drew out his counting rods and calculated for himself, then sighed that his calculation ran out on such-and-such a day of such-and-such a month of such-and-such a year, and that would be his end. His wife, who had seen his calculations prove true many times, wept on hearing this. To soothe her, Zhao Da calculated again and said that he had just made a mistake and it was not yet. Later he died on that very day. Records, Wu 18 §25–26

When Sun Quan heard that Zhao Da had books, he sought them but could not obtain them; he then had his daughter seized and interrogated and even opened his coffin, but found nothing, and his art died out. Records, Wu 18 §26

In his assessment Chen Shou said that the three men Wu Fan, Liu Dun and Zhao Da were each masters of their arts and subtle in the use of their minds, yet he wrote that if a gentleman is to exert his mind and spirit all the same, he should apply them to things great and far-reaching, and so men of discernment set that aside and take this. Records, Wu 18 §28