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“My lord, by the slaughter of Guan Yu you have brought misfortune very near to this state. You know the oath sworn in the Peach Garden. Now Liu Bei has the force of the two Lands of Rivers at his back, Zhuge Liang as adviser, and those heroes Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, and Ma Chao to carry out his behests. When Liu Bei hears of the death of both father and son, he will set in motion the whole force he has to avenge them, and I fear you cannot stand such an onslaught.”

Sun Quan started up in a fright. “Yes; I have made a little mistake,” said he. “But seeing it is so, what shall I do?”

“You need have no fear,” replied Zhang Zhao. “I have a plan to fend off the armies of the west from our borders and keep Jingzhou quite safe.”

“What is your plan?” asked Sun Quan.

“Cao Cao with his many legions is greedily aiming at the whole empire. If Liu Bei wants revenge, he will ally himself with Cao Cao, and, should they combine against this country, we should be in great danger. Therefore I advise you to send Guan Yu's head to Cao Cao to make it appear that Cao Cao was the prime cause of his destruction. This should divert Liu Bei's extreme hatred toward Cao Cao and send the armies of Shu against Wei instead of toward Wu. After carefully considering the whole matter, I counsel this as the best course of action.”

Sun Quan thought the move worth making, and so the head of the great warrior was placed in a box and sent off as quickly as possible to Cao Cao.

At this time Cao Cao's army had marched back from Mopo to Luoyang. When he heard of the coming of the gruesome gift, he was glad at heart and said, “So Guan Yu is dead; now I can stick to my mat and sleep soundly at night.” But Sima Yi saw through the ruse and said from his place by the steps, “This is a trick to divert evil from Wu.”

“What do you mean? How?” said Cao Cao.

“The Peach Garden Oath bound the three brothers to live and die together. Now Wu is fearful of revenge for the execution of one of the three and sends the head to you to cause Liu Bei's wrath to fasten on you, O Prince. Sun Quan wishes Liu Bei to attack you instead of himself, the real perpetrator of the crime. Then he will find a way of accomplishing his ends while you two are quarreling.”

“You are right, friend;” said Cao Cao, “and now how can we escape?”

“I think escape is easy. You have the head of Guan Yu; make a wooden image of the remainder of the body, and bury the whole with the rites suitable to a minister of state. When Liu Bei hears of this, he will turn his hate toward Sun Quan and raise all his forces to attack him. If you will think it out, you will see that whichever is victor the other will be smitten; and if we get one of the two, the other will follow before very long.”

Cao Cao was pleased with the solution. Then he ordered the messenger to come in with the box, which was opened, and he looked upon the face of the dead. The features had not changed; the face bore the same appearance as of old. Cao Cao smiled.

“I hope you have been well since our last meeting, Guan Yu,” said Cao Cao.

To his horror, the mouth opened, the eyes rolled, and the long beard and hair stiffened. Cao Cao fell to the ground in a swoon.

They rushed to him, but it was a long time before he recovered consciousness.

“General Guan Yu is indeed a spirit,” he said.

Suddenly the messenger who had brought the dead warrior's head became also possessed by the spirit of Guan Yu, and fell to cursing and reviling his master, Sun Quan, and he told the story of what had befallen Lu Meng.

Cao Cao, filled with dread, prepared sacrifices and performed the rites for the honored dead. An effigy was carved out of heavy fragrant wood and buried outside the south gate with all the rites of a princely noble, a huge concourse of officials of all grades following in the procession. At the funeral Cao Cao himself bowed before the coffin and poured a libation. He also conferred on the dead the posthumous title of Prince of Jingzhou, and appointed guardians of the tomb. The messenger was sent back to Wu.

The Prince of Hanzhong returned to his capital Chengdu. Fa Zheng memorialized, saying, “O Prince, thy consort has passed away and the Lady Sun has returned to her maiden home, perhaps never to come again. Human relations should not be set at nought, wherefore a secondary consort should be sought, so that all things may be correctly ordered within the palace.”

The Prince having signified his acceptance of the principle, Fa Zheng continued, “There is the sister of Wu Yi, comely and good, and declared by the physiognomist as destined to high honor. She was betrothed to Liu Mao, son of Liu Yan, but he died in youth, and she has remained unwedded. Take her as a wife.”

“It is incompatible with propriety; Liu Mao and I are of the same ancestry.” “As to the degree of relationship, would it differ from the marriage of Duke Wen of Jin and Huai Ying?”