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At that time Cao Cao was contemplating an attack on the south. His adviser Xun Yu dissuaded him, saying, “The winter is not favorable for this campaign. My lord should await milder weather.”

And Cao Cao yielded. But he began to prepare, and led the River Zhang's waters aside to form a lake, which he called the Aquamarine Lake, where he could accustom his soldiers to fight on the water.

As has been said Liu Bei prepared gifts to offer to Zhuge Liang on his visit. One day his servants announced a stranger of extraordinary appearance, wearing a lofty head-dress and a wide belt.

“Surely this is he” said Liu Bei, and, hastily arranging his dress, he went to welcome the visitor.

But the first glance showed him that it was the recluse of the mountains, Sima Hui. However, Liu Bei was glad to see him and led him into the inner apartment as he would an old friend.

There Liu Bei conducted him to the seat of honor and made his obeisance, saying, “Since leaving you that day in the mountains I have been overwhelmed with military preparations and so have failed to visit you as courtesy demanded. Now that the brightness has descended upon me, I hope this dereliction of duty may be pardoned.”

“I hear Xu Shu is here. I have come expressly to see him,” replied Water-Mirror bluntly.

“He has lately left for Xuchang. A messenger came with a letter telling of the imprisonment of his mother.”

“Then he has just fallen into Cao Cao's trap, for that letter was a forgery. I have known his mother to be a very noble woman; and even if she were imprisoned by Cao Cao, she would not summon her son like that. Certainly the letter was a forgery. If the son did not go, the mother would be safe; if he went, she would be a dead woman.”

“But how?” asked Liu Bei dismayed.

“She is a woman of the highest principles, who would be greatly mortified at the sight of her son under such conditions.”

Liu Bei said, “Just as your friend was leaving he mentioned the name of a certain Zhuge Liang. What think you of him?”

Water-Mirror laughed, saying, “If Xu Shu wanted to go, he was free to go. But why did he want to provoke Zhuge Liang into coming out and showing compassion for some one else?”

“Why do you speak like that?” asked Liu Bei.

He replied, “Five persons, Zhuge Liang of Nanyang, Cui Zhouping of Boling, Shi Guangyuan of Yingchuan, Meng Gongwei of Runan, and Xu Shu of Yingchuan were the closest of friends. They formed a little coterie devoted to meditation on essential refinement. Only Zhuge Liang arrived at a perception of its meaning. He used to sit among them with his arms about his knees muttering and then, pointing to his companions, he would say, 'You, gentlemen, would become governors and protectors if you were in official life.'

“When they asked him what was his ambition, he would only smile and always compared himself with the great ancient scholars Guan Zhong and Yue Yi. No one could gauge his talents.”

“How comes it that Yingchuan produces so many able humans?” said Liu Bei.

“That old astrologer, Yin Kui, used to say that the stars clustered thick over the region and so there were many wise humans.”

Now Guan Yu was there; and when he heard Zhuge Liang so highly praised, he said, “Guan Zhong and Yue Yi are the two most famous leaders mentioned in the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Periods. They well overtopped the rest of humankind. Is it not a little too much to say that Zhuge Liang compares with these two?”

“In my opinion he should not be compared with these two, but rather with two others,” said Water-Mirror.

“Who are these two?” asked Guan Yu.

“One of them is Lu Wang, who laid the foundations of the Zhou Dynasty so firmly that it lasted eight hundred years; and the other Zhang Liang, who made the Han glorious for four centuries.”

Before the surprise called forth by this startling statement had subsided, Water-Mirror walked down the steps and took his leave. Liu Bei would have kept him if he could, but he was obdurate. As he stalked proudly away, he threw up his head and said, “Though Sleeping-Dragon has found his lord, he has not been born at the right time. It is a pity.”

“What a wise hermit!” was Liu Bei's comment.

Soon after the three brothers set out to find the abode of the wise man. When they drew near the Sleeping Dragon Ridge, they saw a number of peasants in a field hoeing up the weeds, and as they worked they sang:

“The earth is a checkered board,

And the sky hangs over all,

Under it humans are contending,

Some rise, but a many fall.

For those who succeed this is well,

But for those who go under rough.

There's a dozing dragon hard by,

But his sleep is not deep enough.”

Liu Bei and his brothers stopped to listen to the song and, calling up one of the peasants, asked who made it.