Bamboo Scroll竹簡 Ep. 8 · High Water
Guan Yu's tower warships bearing down on the flooded walls of Fancheng as the Han River overflows, autumn 219 CE
Bamboo Scroll · Three Kingdoms · Episode 8

High Water

Fancheng and Jing Province, 219 CE — In the autumn of 219 the rains gave Guan Yu the greatest victory of his life — and within months the same river carried away his army, his province, and his head.
17 panels~7 min read free to readevery line sourced
Panel 01: Autumn, 219 CE. Guan Yu marched north to Fancheng, and the rains came with him, and the Han River rose. For one season his might shook all under heaven. Then the water fell, and everything fell with it.
Autumn, 219 CE. Guan Yu marched north to Fancheng, and the rains came with him, and the Han River rose. For one season his might shook all under heaven. Then the water fell, and everything fell with it.
Panel 02: Liu Bei had just taken Hanzhong and been named king of it. In the seventh month of 219, the general of his Jing Province armies marched north: Guan Yu against Cao Ren at Fancheng, and against Xiangyang, walled on the river's south bank.
Liu Bei had just taken Hanzhong and been named king of it. In the seventh month of 219, the general of his Jing Province armies marched north: Guan Yu against Cao Ren at Fancheng, and against Xiangyang, walled on the river's south bank.
Panel 03: Cao Ren held Fancheng on the north bank of the Han. Cao Cao sent Yu Jin south with seven armies to raise the siege, and in the van rode Pang De, who had told his men: I have received the state's grace, and in honour I must die — this year I kill Guan Yu, or Guan Yu kills me.
Cao Ren held Fancheng on the north bank of the Han. Cao Cao sent Yu Jin south with seven armies to raise the siege, and in the van rode Pang De, who had told his men: I have received the state's grace, and in honour I must die — this year I kill Guan Yu, or Guan Yu kills me.
Panel 04: Behind Guan Yu, on the river, sat two officers who already feared him. Mi Fang at Jiangling and Fu Shiren at Gong'an had failed him in supplies; the histories say both had long felt slighted by him, and both heard the same message from the front.
Guan Yu When I return, I will deal with them.
Behind Guan Yu, on the river, sat two officers who already feared him. Mi Fang at Jiangling and Fu Shiren at Gong'an had failed him in supplies; the histories say both had long felt slighted by him, and both heard the same message from the front.
Panel 05: Then came the autumn rains. The histories give it in a clause: the Han River overflowed, and there were fathoms of water on the level ground. The camps of the seven armies, set low by the water, were taken in the open.
Then came the autumn rains. The histories give it in a clause: the Han River overflowed, and there were fathoms of water on the level ground. The camps of the seven armies, set low by the water, were taken in the open.
Panel 06: Guan Yu put his men on the great ships and attacked the drowned camps from the water. Yu Jin, ringed on high ground with what was left of the seven armies, surrendered. Pang De fought from dawn past noon until his arrows were gone, was taken alive, and would not kneel.
Guan Yu put his men on the great ships and attacked the drowned camps from the water. Yu Jin, ringed on high ground with what was left of the seven armies, surrendered. Pang De fought from dawn past noon until his arrows were gone, was taken alive, and would not kneel.
Panel 07: Pang De stood before Guan Yu without kneeling, and cursed him, and was killed. Cao Cao wept for him when the news came, said he had known where Pang De's loyalty lay, and enfeoffed his sons. Yu Jin lived; the histories treat that as the harder fate.
Pang De stood before Guan Yu without kneeling, and cursed him, and was killed. Cao Cao wept for him when the news came, said he had known where Pang De's loyalty lay, and enfeoffed his sons. Yu Jin lived; the histories treat that as the harder fate.
Panel 08: At Fancheng itself the water rose inside the walls. The garrison bailed by hand while Guan Yu's boats came to the ramparts and the siege closed in layers. There was counsel to leave the city and let the river have it. Cao Ren held.
At Fancheng itself the water rose inside the walls. The garrison bailed by hand while Guan Yu's boats came to the ramparts and the siege closed in layers. There was counsel to leave the city and let the river have it. Cao Ren held.
Panel 09: Yu Jin in chains, Pang De dead, Fancheng under water and Xiangyang still closed: the news did what no army had done. The histories use four characters — his might shook all under heaven (威震華夏). At Xuchang they began to speak of moving the capital out of his reach.
Yu Jin in chains, Pang De dead, Fancheng under water and Xiangyang still closed: the news did what no army had done. The histories use four characters — his might shook all under heaven (威震華夏). At Xuchang they began to speak of moving the capital out of his reach.
Panel 10: The grudge was older than the war: Sun Quan had once sent to ask for Guan Yu's daughter for his son, and Guan Yu had cursed the envoy and refused the match. Now Sun Quan wrote to Cao Cao, offering to take Guan Yu himself — and asking that not a word of it leak.
Sun Quan I will take Guan Yu myself. Let no word of this be leaked.
The grudge was older than the war: Sun Quan had once sent to ask for Guan Yu's daughter for his son, and Guan Yu had cursed the envoy and refused the match. Now Sun Quan wrote to Cao Cao, offering to take Guan Yu himself — and asking that not a word of it leak.
Panel 11: Lu Meng, who commanded at Lukou, reported himself gravely ill and went down to Jianye. In his place came a young scholar-general whose name Guan Yu did not think worth fearing: Lu Xun. Guan Yu watched the sickbed and the promotion — and drew troops off the river defences to send them north to the siege.
Lu Meng, who commanded at Lukou, reported himself gravely ill and went down to Jianye. In his place came a young scholar-general whose name Guan Yu did not think worth fearing: Lu Xun. Guan Yu watched the sickbed and the promotion — and drew troops off the river defences to send them north to the siege.
Panel 12: Lu Xun wrote to Guan Yu as a junior writes to a hero: praising the taking of Yu Jin, calling himself a bookish man unfit for command, and begging the protection of so great a neighbour. Guan Yu read it and was pleased, and put away what was left of his caution.
Lu Xun I am a scholar newly given a camp, unfit for the charge. I can only look up at your great victory, and ask your forbearance.
Lu Xun wrote to Guan Yu as a junior writes to a hero: praising the taking of Yu Jin, calling himself a bookish man unfit for command, and begging the protection of so great a neighbour. Guan Yu read it and was pleased, and put away what was left of his caution.
Panel 13: Then the river moved. Lu Meng hid his picked soldiers in the hulls and dressed his rowers in white, as merchants; the oars were muffled, and the fleet drifted past the watch-posts of Jing Province day and night. No beacon was lit, because no one saw an enemy — only trading boats on the water.
Then the river moved. Lu Meng hid his picked soldiers in the hulls and dressed his rowers in white, as merchants; the oars were muffled, and the fleet drifted past the watch-posts of Jing Province day and night. No beacon was lit, because no one saw an enemy — only trading boats on the water.
Panel 14: Gong'an surrendered and Jiangling opened its gates; the families of Guan Yu's army and the province's treasuries fell intact into Lu Meng's hands. He sealed the treasuries for Sun Quan, forbade his soldiers to take a thread from the people, and sent physicians, food and clothing to the old and the sick.
Gong'an surrendered and Jiangling opened its gates; the families of Guan Yu's army and the province's treasuries fell intact into Lu Meng's hands. He sealed the treasuries for Sun Quan, forbade his soldiers to take a thread from the people, and sent physicians, food and clothing to the old and the sick.
Panel 15: Guan Yu's messengers came back from the south unharmed, and every man in the camp heard that his own household was safe and even better treated than before. An army whose homes are untouched has nothing left to fight for — and everything to walk home to. The siege of Fancheng dissolved from inside, man by man.
Guan Yu's messengers came back from the south unharmed, and every man in the camp heard that his own household was safe and even better treated than before. An army whose homes are untouched has nothing left to fight for — and everything to walk home to. The siege of Fancheng dissolved from inside, man by man.
Panel 16: What was left of the army was not an army. Guan Yu fell back, shut himself in the small walled town of Maicheng, raised a false show of surrender on the walls, and slipped out by night with a few hundred riders. He was caught on the road; the histories agree that he was taken and killed, with his son Guan Ping, and disagree about exactly where.
What was left of the army was not an army. Guan Yu fell back, shut himself in the small walled town of Maicheng, raised a false show of surrender on the walls, and slipped out by night with a few hundred riders. He was caught on the road; the histories agree that he was taken and killed, with his son Guan Ping, and disagree about exactly where.
Panel 17: Sun Quan sent the head to Luoyang, and Cao Cao buried it with the honours of a marquis; Jing Province passed out of Liu Bei's house for good. Lu Meng lived weeks past his victory. Yu Jin, sent home a year later, was shown a painting of his own surrender and died of shame. Two years after that, Liu Bei came down through the gorges to take the province back, and the fire at Yiling closed the account.
Sun Quan sent the head to Luoyang, and Cao Cao buried it with the honours of a marquis; Jing Province passed out of Liu Bei's house for good. Lu Meng lived weeks past his victory. Yu Jin, sent home a year later, was shown a painting of his own surrender and died of shame. Two years after that, Liu Bei came down through the gorges to take the province back, and the fire at Yiling closed the account.

In this episode

The people who carried this year. The sources disagree about almost everything else.

Portrait of Guan Yu
Guan Yu關羽
d. 220 CE
Marched on Fancheng in 219. The flood gave him seven armies and a might that shook all under heaven; the river behind him gave him nothing back.
Portrait of Lu Meng
Lu Meng呂蒙
178–220 CE
Sun Quan's commander on the Yangtze. Feigned illness, crossed in merchant dress, and took a province without a pitched battle. Died weeks after the victory.
Portrait of Sun Quan
Sun Quan孫權
182–252 CE
Refused once by Guan Yu's envoy, and never forgot it. Promised Cao Cao his service, and sent Lu Meng across the river in white.
Portrait of Cao Cao
Cao Cao曹操
155–220 CE
Held the north from a distance. Sent seven armies to raise the siege, heard the counsel to move the capital, and took instead the advice that made an ally of the man across the river. Buried Guan Yu's head at Luoyang with the honours of a marquis.
Portrait of Lu Xun
Lu Xun陸遜
183–245 CE
Put at Lukou at thirty-six, a name Guan Yu thought beneath notice. Wrote the humble letters that emptied the river defences.
Portrait of Cao Ren
Cao Ren曹仁
168–223 CE
Cao Cao's cousin, holding Fancheng against the flood. Bailed the walls and would not go; the siege broke around him, not through him.
Portrait of Yu Jin
Yu Jin于禁
d. 221 CE
The senior veteran of Cao Cao's frontier wars. The rains drowned the seven armies he brought to Fancheng; he surrendered, and lived to be ashamed of it.

Myth Check

The novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a masterpiece — and not a source. Where its famous scenes depart from the histories, we leave them out of the story and put them here.

The story you may know

Guan Yu released Cao Cao at the Huarong Trail, repaying an old kindness.

What the sources say

The scene is the novel's, and it is in the wrong war: Huarong belongs to the retreat from Red Cliff in 208, eleven years before Fancheng, and Guan Yu is nowhere in the record of it. What the sources give is that Liu Bei reached the trail after Cao Cao had passed, tried to pursue, and missed him; Cao Cao himself is quoted laughing that Liu Bei was his equal but slow to plan.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, ch. 50; Shanyang Gong Zaiji, in Pei Songzhi's commentary to Sanguozhi, Wei shu 1
The story you may know

The single-blade meeting was Guan Yu's feat: he went alone into Wu's camp and overawed them.

What the sources say

The meeting happened in 215, over the commanderies of southern Jing, and the bold one in the histories is Lu Su. It was Lu Su who invited the parley with only the two commanders carrying single blades, and Lu Su who dressed Guan Yu down over the disputed commanderies while the armies sat a hundred paces off. The novel turned the guest into the host of the courage.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, ch. 66; Sanguozhi, Wu shu 10, Biography of Lu Su
The story you may know

Guan Yu loosed the waters himself and drowned the seven armies by design.

What the sources say

The flood is in the record as weather: autumn rains, the Han River over its banks, fathoms of water on the level ground — and Yu Jin's biography says not a word of dams or diversions. What was Guan Yu's was the exploitation: he kept ships, the camps had none, and he attacked the drowned army from the water. The skill needs no sorcery; the record gives it better.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, ch. 74; Sanguozhi, Wei shu 17, Biography of Yu Jin
The story you may know

Hua Tuo scraped the poison from Guan Yu's bone while he played chess.

What the sources say

The bone-scraping is real and in Guan Yu's biography: an arrow wound gone to the bone, an arm cut open, the poison scraped out, and the patient eating and drinking through it. But the physician in the sources is nameless, and Hua Tuo was already dead — killed by Cao Cao years before this campaign. The game of chess is the novel's addition to a scene that needed none.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, ch. 75; Sanguozhi, Shu shu 6, Biography of Guan Yu; Wei shu 29, Biography of Hua Tuo

Sources

Every caption and quotation in this episode traces to one of these. Where scholars disagree, the panel says so.

Next

Before this: Episode 7 · The Heights Above the River (Hanzhong, 217–219 CE). Next: Episode 9 · The Bait at Shiting (Shiting, 228 CE). Or meet the cast, or read the chronology of the age.