Shishuo xinyu and the death of Cao Zhang.

• Author: Cutter, Robert Joe
• Position: Viewpoint essay - Reprint

Having just enjoyed a fine meal prepared by anonymous hands from ingredients of unknown provenance, I thought it might be nice to talk a bit about death--more specifically, about food and death. But when we wish to talk about food and death in premodern China, we find ourselves in need of taxonomy. Food can be linked with death to make a moral point, as in Mengzi's famous passage on fish and bear paws. There is, of course, death by starvation, as in the cases of Bo Yi [??] and Shu Qi [??]; there are the savory foods rhetorically displayed to lure back departed souls, as in "Zhao hun" [??] and similar pieces, as well as those laid on for funerals, as in Tao Qian's [??](365? -427) "Xing ying shen" [??]; there are the foods found in tombs and even in the gastrointestinal tracts of their occupants--the 138.5 muskmelon seeds discovered in the innards of the presumed Lady Dai of Mawangdui Tomb No. 1, for example. (1) And then there are the treacherous foods, lovely perchance to behold and delicious to eat, that may transport us to another world not by their sweetness on our plates but by virtue of the microbes or viruses they harbor--possibly the fate of Meng Haoran [??] (689-740), who may have been done in by a bit of raw fish. (2) But none of these will concern us here, nor, fortunately, will another area of consumption and mortality--Robber Zhi [??] may have enjoyed a nice pate of human liver now and again, but there is absolutely no place in a post-prandial talk for even the slightest mention of cannibalism. That would be tasteless. Poison, or more precisely, an instance of poisoned food, on the other hand, fits the occasion nicely.

Before embarking on this little disquisition, I would like to associate myself with the remarks made by Dr. D. J. Macgowan (d. 1893) in the American Journal of Science in 1858: "An investigation of Chinese toxicology would require much time, and special study, which we despair of being able to devote to that interesting subject. In default of presenting anything of value to the scientific inquirer, we submit for the perusal of the general reader the limited information we possess on Chinese poisons." In fact, I will only be discussing one case of poisoning, and the actual poison is not named, nor can it be deduced.

Dr. Macgowan, by the way, was a man of broad interests. He was a surgeon for the Union during the Civil War, and both before and after the war, he spent a good deal of time in China as a medical missionary. (3) I cannot refrain from providing an example of the information contained in his aforementioned essay. In the tensions between foreigners and Chinese in the late 1850s, there was anxiety in the foreign community that sleeping gas would be used against them. Having observed that the difficulty is often in knowing where to find a neutralizer, the good doctor proceeds to tell his reader what to do if an intruder tries to stupefy him by means of fumigation with "somnolent pastiles."

It is assumed that you are wide awake at the time, for if you are caught napping there is no remedy. In the first place then, take care that you do not open your mouth; but holding your breath, rush at the intruder and seize his cue in your left hand, while with the thumb and index finger of the right, you lay hold of his nose just above the alae with a firm grip; a bolus will drop out of each nostril, with which you are to plug your own nasal passage (be not fastidious) and you may then commence breathing (your mouth still closed)--for these medicated pledgets possess the property of decomposing the somnolent gas. If successful in these manipulations you will have the gratification of seeing your foe gasp and tumble over hors de combat in the pit he had prepared for you. Now, to turn to our immediate subject, which takes us back to early medieval China. In the section entitled "You hui" [??] [Error and Regret], the fifth-century Shishuo xinyu [??] [??] contains this account:

Emperor Wen of Wei [r. 220-226] hated that his younger brother the King of Rencheng was valiant and strong and took advantage of their playing go together in Empress Dowager Bian's chambers while eating jujubes. Emperor Wen, having put poison in the stem ends of some, picked out the edible ones and ate them. Unaware of this, the king then ate the jujubes at random. Once he was poisoned, the empress dowager looked for water to save him, but the emperor had ordered his minions to break the pottery bottles and jugs beforehand, and when the empress dowager rushed barefoot in vain to the well, there was nothing with which to draw water. In a short while, the King of Rencheng died. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. (4) Readers of the account know that Emperor Wen of Wei is Cao Pi [??] (187-226), son of Cao Cao [??] (155-220) and Lady (later Empress Dowager) Bian. The King of Rencheng is Cao Zhang [??] (d. 223), Empress Bian's second son, whose birth fell between those of his more famous brothers Cao Pi and Cao Zhi [??] (192-232). (5) We can get some inkling of Cao Zhang's character from his biography in San guo zhi [??], which says this about his early life:

When he was young he was good at archery and horsemanship, and his physical strength exceeded that of others. Barehanded he fought wild beasts, and he did not flee danger or difficulty. He went along time and again on military campaigns and expeditions, and his determination and will were passionate. Cao Cao once restrained him, saying, "You neither care about studying nor admire the ways of the sages and instead enjoy riding warhorses and engaging in sword fighting. These are the skills of a [mere] soldier. How are they worth valuing?" He set Zhang the task of reading the Classic of Poetry and the Classic of Documents, but Zhang said to those around him, "A real man is like Wei [Qing] or Huo [Qubing], (6) leading a hundred thousand cavalrymen to gallop across the desert and drive out the barbarians, (7) establishing merit and making a name. How can he be a scholar?" Cao Cao once asked all of his sons what they were fond of and had each of them speak of his ambition. Cao Zhang said, "I would like to be a general." Cao Cao said, "If you were a general, what would you do then?" [Cao Zhang] replied, "I would put on stout armor and hold a sharp weapon; (8) facing danger, pay no heed; go forth before the troops. (9) Rewards would be carried out without fail; punishments would be made good without fail." (10) Cao Cao laughed heartily. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. (11) Works quoted in Liu Xiaobiao's [??] (462-521) commentary to Shishuo xinyu imply possible motives for Cao Pi's putative murder of Cao Zhang. The Wei lue [??] by Yu Huan [??] reports that Cao Zhang was "staunch and bold" (gang yong [??]) and that after his victory over the Wuwan [??] (or Wuhuan [??] in Dai commandery [??] in 218, Cao Cao remarked, "This brown-bearded lad of mine is really capable!" [??] (12) Sun Sheng's [??](fl. ca. 350) Wei shi chunqiu [??] cited in Liu Xiaobiao's commentary as the Wei zhi chunqiu [??] refers to Zhang's having at the time of Cao Cao's death inquired about the seal and ribbons of office, which is generally read as a sign of disloyalty to Cao Pi and to signal Cao Zhang's intention to try to enthrone Cao Zhi as King of Wei. (13) Thus, the common denominators of royal courts everywhere--jealousy, mistrust, and the threat of...