Seven captures and seven releases

Seven captures and seven releases is Kong Ming’s campaign-long method of repeatedly capturing Meng Huo and releasing him, making submission an outcome of persuasion rather than permanent imprisonment. The phrase names both a concrete pattern of action and its political principle: the Man tribes would be won over through kindness and moral authority, not force alone.

Principle and Purpose

When his commanders question why he keeps letting Meng Huo go, Kong Ming says he can capture him whenever he wants, but that the Man tribes will join Shu only if their hearts are won, not merely their bodies. The strategy therefore distinguishes military control from lasting allegiance. The commanders are not pleased by the repeated releases, but Kong Ming treats their impatience as secondary to the goal of ending resistance through consent.

This approach belongs to a larger struggle over rule and legitimacy. Elsewhere, Kong Ming argues that Cao Cao controls the emperor and the north, while Sun Quan has support among the people south of the river; his proposed course is to build power through strategic relationships as well as force. Later, after Xuande’s victories in Hanzhong, Kong Ming urges him to accept the imperial title by appealing to benevolence, restored peace, and the will of Heaven and the people. In the southern campaign, the same political emphasis appears on a local scale: authority is to be secured by conduct that can earn people’s willing loyalty.

Repeated Captures and Releases

The campaign’s pattern is explicitly counted: despite Kong Ming’s attacks on the southern peoples, Meng Huo is given his liberty seven times. The repetition makes release a deliberate instrument rather than a single act of leniency. Each return gives Meng Huo another opportunity to renew the conflict, while also testing whether military defeat and clemency can change his judgment.

After one release, Meng Huo tells his people that he escaped from a tent by killing guards and stealing a horse. His account delights them, and his reputation as a warrior grows; more than a hundred thousand men rally to him. He then withdraws the boats to the south bank, builds a fortified wall and watchtowers, and waits for the Shu army in the summer heat. The episode shows why capture alone is insufficient: Meng Huo’s returns can restore his following and prolong resistance. It also gives the repeated contest a public dimension, as every apparent escape becomes part of his standing among his people.

A poem sums up the paradox: “And yet despite his attacks on the Man liberty is given seven times!” Its compressed contrast turns the campaign’s repeated action into a memorable refrain. The refrain emphasizes that Kong Ming’s mercy is not passivity: attacks continue, but victory is measured by what happens after the enemy is captured.

Meng Huo’s Submission

At the end of the sequence, Meng Huo is released once more and told that Kong Ming will not see him again, so that he can leave and gather another army. This time he does not go. In tears, he acknowledges that being captured seven times and released seven times is unheard of, and says that although he is a barbarian, he understands morality and righteousness. He and his followers crawl to Kong Ming’s tent; Meng Huo bares his upper body and kneels, using the gesture to show that he is ready for punishment.

Instead, he declares that Heaven has ensured the southerners will never rebel again. Asked whether he now submits, he answers through tears that generation after generation will remain grateful for having been spared, and that submission follows from that gratitude. Kong Ming and Meng Huo celebrate together late into the night, and Meng Huo is appointed ruler over lands conquered by Shu. The Man people rejoice, leaping and dancing. The campaign thus ends not with Meng Huo’s removal but with his recognition as a ruler under the new order.

Meaning of the Expression

The expression’s force lies in the difference between a captive who cannot resist and a leader who chooses to submit. Seven captures display Kong Ming’s ability to prevail militarily; seven releases show that he refuses to treat victory as complete while allegiance remains unearned. Meng Huo’s final words and the rejoicing of his people give the method its stated result: the southern resistance yields to a relationship framed in gratitude, morality, and righteousness.

The repeated phrase also suits the novel’s episodic, performative storytelling. The book uses poems that recap recent action, sometimes in the manner of a performer’s summing-up, and the sevenfold pattern offers a memorable structure for recounting a long campaign. Here repetition is not merely a tally: it lets each return sharpen the contrast between Kong Ming’s continuing military advantage and Meng Huo’s eventual change of allegiance.