Fei Yi

Fei Yi; recruited into Liu Bei's circle - long-term Shu administrator.

Secretary of the southern expedition.

Asks the obvious question — why not appoint officials and hold the conquered land? — and receives Zhuge Liang's three difficulties: a garrison must be fed, a guard invites calamity among the bereaved, and mutual distrust never sleeps. 'If I do not leave our people, I shall not have to send supplies, which makes for peace.'

Third of the Memorial's three High Ministers, named twice — once among the honest men of the First Ruler's testament, once among those left to give Liu Shan 'a true version of the whole matter'. Stays in the Palace during the expedition.

Argues at court FOR the demotion — 'The ruler must enhance the majesty of the law, for without law how can people support him?' — then carries the edict into Hanzhong and tries three times to soften it. The four northwest counties: 'Success followed by failure is no success.' The acquisition of Jiang Wei: 'What injury to Wei was the loss of Jiang Wei?' A hundred thousand veterans for another attack: the defect was leadership, not numbers. All three rebuffed, and he acknowledges the aptness of it.

Comes from Chengdu carrying the edict that restores Zhuge Liang to Prime Minister, is received with incense and full ceremony, and when Zhuge Liang refuses the honour ('My task is not yet accomplished') it is Fei Yi who talks him into it: 'If you decline this, you flout the desires of the Emperor and also show contempt for the feelings of the army. At any rate accept for the moment.'

Upbraided by Zhuge Liang at the start for not having looked into the eunuchs' slander and set the throne right, and bows his head to it. Later sent from Chengdu into Hanzhong to ask why the army retired, and it is his report of Li Yan's memorial - 'he had sent you supplies and knew not why Your Excellency returned' - laid against Li Yan's letter that exposes the lie. Then intercedes to save the man's life: 'the First Ruler had loved and trusted Li Yan with his son. Please forgive him this time.'

The chapter's courier between three capitals. Arrives at Qishan from Chengdu just after the Beiyuan defeat, accepts the embassy to Wu without hesitation ('Could I possibly decline any task you laid upon me?'), carries Zhuge Liang's letter to Sun Quan at Jianye, and brings back both the promise of three hundred thousand troops on three fronts and Sun Quan's private warning about Wei Yan — which he presses on Zhuge Liang: 'Then Sir, you ought to decide soon what to do with him.'

Arrives at the Wuzhang Hills camp from Chengdu, and what he brings is the blow that finishes Zhuge Liang. The report is complete and all bad: Cao Rui went to Hefei in person, three Wei armies met the three Wu fronts, Wu's stores and war material are burned, its army is sick, Lu Xun's plan was intercepted, and Sun Quan has gone home. 'Zhuge Liang listened to the end; then, without a word, he fell in a swoon.'

Named second in the succession ('And after Jiang Wan?' 'After him, Fei Yi'), and then does the chapter's most delicate errand. Meets Zhao Zhi coming away from Wei Yan's camp and is told the true reading of the horns dream - 'The word for horn is composed of two parts, "knife" above and "use" below, and so means that there is a knife upon his head. It is a terrible omen' - and answers only 'Keep it secret.' Carries the rearguard order to Wei Yan, takes the refusal without arguing it, and buys time with an offer to go back and talk Yang Yi into handing over the command. He does not come back, and that is the point.

Proposes memorialising the throne against Wei Yan before trying to destroy him, and carries the news of the revolt to Chengdu himself. Reports Zhuge Liang's burial wish - 'that he should be buried on Dingjun Mountain, in open ground, without sacrifice or monument' - which is honoured. Made Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Chair of the Secretariat. Then Yang Yi says the unsayable to him, and he reports it, and Yang Yi is finished.

The opposition, and he loses. Chair of the Secretariat, he argues that the government has just lost Jiang Wan and Dong Yun to death and has nobody to spare, and then quotes the textbook at Jiang Wei: 'Remember the saying of the wise Sun Zi: "Know thyself and know thine enemy, then is victory sure." We are not the equals of the late Prime Minister, and where he failed, are we likely to succeed?' The chapter's ending is the answer.