Red Cliff 赤壁
After watching the movie “Red Cliff”, I thought about the famous Battle of the Red Cliff in Chinese history immediately prior to the Three Kingdoms era around the winter of 208/9 AD. The movie is fascinating and entertaining. Several famous actors and actresses from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan worked together to make this movie even more worthy of watching. Probably every Chinese child read Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三 國 演 義, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, can tell you the result of the battle where the movie “Red Cliff” came to an sudden end just before the battle. A small army of Zhou Yu and Zhu Ge Liang defeated a much larger army led by Cao Cao through courage and well-planned strategies. These strategies are enormously witty even today’s business world can use some.
Three well-known people throughout Chinese history were involved in the battle: Zhou Yu 周瑜, Zhu Ge Liang 诸葛亮, and Cao Cao 曹操. While you can find many records on who they were and how they contributed to the Chinese history, I though of Zhu Ge Liang as calm, full of wisdom, and a war and political strategist, Zhou Yu as an excellent army commander and a handsome man who died early, and Cao Cao as a proud man, with no fear, and knew how to use his power and army to his political advancement. Among the three, Zhu Ge Liang is my favorite. Many stories of him captivated my imagination throughout my childhood.
So where is the location of the Battle of the Red Cliff? While it is widely debated and remains uncertain, many believed the location is southeast of Wuhan and Yueyang in Hunan province on the south bank of the Yangtze River. I have not yet visited the place, but for sure someday I would like to see it where the word Red Cliff 赤 壁 is written on a rock standing on the river. You may watch the movie online at this link http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/svoS0m9mx4s/
