Comments | fightingvirtue: Accidental post: The river aflame

fightingvirtue

Accidental post: The river aflame

Jan 31, 2010 00:23

[As the feed clicks on, Ryuubi is at the riverfront, crouching by the water. The river is mostly frozen, but some distance from the shore, a large pile of wood and flammable material has been set ablaze and burns steadily despite the snow. There's a jagged gap in the ice, and the deep dark water shows through ( Read more... )

an old soul, the past speaks, event: flash-freeze, fire is chinese for strategy, battle of red cliffs, to never know peace, emperor Zhāoliè

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the5thdragon January 31 2010, 01:27:41 UTC

... Who are you? Playing at Chinese history... Cao Cao loses the fight, and yet in his way wins the war.... But it is in the history of China that no one should reign forever.

fightingvirtue January 31 2010, 06:32:35 UTC

[He glances at the device, and smiles a profoundly sad smile.]

Playing? No - remembering rather. It's true, Cao Mengde has his hour, and then the Sima clan... but allow an old man to indulge in his one grand victory.

the5thdragon January 31 2010, 07:59:34 UTC

...

[shocked expression]

Were you THERE?

fightingvirtue January 31 2010, 14:19:41 UTC

Not on the field, to my regret, Southland swords had struck the blow. But the true victory was Kongming's, and mine.

the5thdragon January 31 2010, 17:31:15 UTC

wait... how old are you?

[doing math, which really doesn't matter seeing as people can be taken from any place in time and space.]

fightingvirtue January 31 2010, 17:59:20 UTC

In the flesh, twenty-two. But you aren't asking about the flesh, are you.

My memory reaches back two thousand and five hundred years.

the5thdragon January 31 2010, 18:06:46 UTC

... good lord, you can remember when you were reincarnated?

I'm envious, you got to live through the most amazing period of Chinese history.

fightingvirtue January 31 2010, 18:20:51 UTC

No, you are not envious. You're very young, and don't know what you are hoping for.

Twenty-five hundred years, and every time - this inferno, then Jingzhou, the Riverlands, Hanzhong... and inevitably, Yiling. Yunchang falls to his own pride, Yide to his own temper, and I, to grief. I gain my kingdom in fire, and lose it in fire. But there is never another way.

the5thdragon January 31 2010, 18:41:14 UTC

To have a first person perspective on such a large chunk of human accomplishment and struggle!?

I'd trade anything for such a gift... I've all the suffering in the world and yet still nothing to show for it.

fightingvirtue January 31 2010, 18:50:21 UTC

[The sad smile is back.]

Do you know what I died of? What Cao Cao died of, since you know your history?

the5thdragon January 31 2010, 18:53:38 UTC

Why don't you tell me, since while I might know the history, I haven't LIVED it.

my account would simply fall short.

fightingvirtue January 31 2010, 19:08:34 UTC

As you wish. Cao Cao, King of Wei, died of a brain ulcer, an old man in bed. Me, as well: forty years of accomplishment and struggle, as you call it, and in the end I died of stomach cramps. Stomach cramps! And there goes Liu Xuande, Emperor Zhāoliè. And one overworked strategist and idiot son later, there goes Shu-Han.

It wasn't accomplishment and struggle. It was blood and dirt and politics and sleepless nights and more and less idealistic fools grinding ourselves to dust against each other. From where you stand, time makes it all into history, and history is always beautiful at a distance. I haven't the respite of time. I see this fleet and its smoke is still in my eyes. And that burns, let me tell you. That burns.

the5thdragon January 31 2010, 19:42:48 UTC

And had they lived any other life, would their ends have been so much better, or even different? Nothing could have been done about your death, or Cao Cao's death either way, but that did not mean that your accomplishments meant nothing, they lived far beyond their mortal creators.

If those do not matter, then perhaps NOTHING matters.

fightingvirtue January 31 2010, 19:57:43 UTC

Life matters, my friend. Justice and honor matter, friendship... brotherhood matters. To avenge my brothers' deaths - no, to prevent their deaths altogether, to allow Kongming his peace, Lady Sun her love... these are the only accomplishments I'd be proud of. That is the lesson of the Three Kingdoms, if you want it from me.

the5thdragon January 31 2010, 20:03:33 UTC

All of those are virtues, but what of the great kingdoms... There is a vast teeming mass of people who need something better as well, and dreaming won't make it so.

Dreaming, waxing poetic and diligent study can never make it so...

fightingvirtue January 31 2010, 22:13:58 UTC

Ah, yes - of course, there is that.

Well, that really winds down to have much virtue do you think one man can have.

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