At the Sweet Dew Temple
'At the Sweet Dew Temple
(Romance of the Three Kingdoms)'
Yangjiabu, Shandong
43 x 30 cm
modern reprint of early 20th century image
When Liu Bei’s wife died, General Zhou Yu arranged for Liu to marry the sister of Sun Quan, king of Wu. In fact this was a trap to lure Liu Bei to Nanxu where he would be captured, but Liu’s adviser Zhuge Liang saw the trap and decided to turn it to his own advantage. Liu Bei proceeded to Nanxu with great ceremony and visited the State Patriarch Qiao, who in turn went to congratulate the Empress Dowager on the marriage of her daughter. Because she had not been informed of the plot the Empress was furious with her son, first for arranging the marriage without her knowledge, and then for using her daughter in a ruse. The Empress summoned Liu Bei to Sweet Dew Temple for an audience and overturned the plot by granting Liu Bei permission to marry her daughter.
