Guan Yu’s possession of Lü Meng

Guan Yu’s possession of Lü Meng is the supernatural climax of Sun Quan’s celebration after the capture of Jingzhou: at the moment Lü Meng is publicly honored, he speaks as Guan Yu, condemns Sun Quan’s ambush, and declares that the dead warrior’s spirit will not rest. Lü Meng’s sudden death turns victory into fearful reckoning and makes the political consequences of Guan Yu’s execution impossible to ignore.

Victory and the Feast

With Guan Yu removed, Sun Quan faces no remaining obstacle to taking control of the Jingzhou region. He marks the campaigns’ principal victory with a feast and rewards Lü Meng for his service. At the height of the celebration, Sun Quan presents Lü Meng with the cup of honor. The ceremony appears to affirm the new political order: the conqueror rewards the commander whose success helped secure it.

Instead, Lü Meng throws the cup to the ground, seizes Sun Quan, and speaks in Guan Yu’s voice. He accuses Sun Quan of having brought him down through an ambush and identifies himself as Guan Yu, whose spirit, he says, will find no peace. The change is abrupt: an honor bestowed for victory becomes the occasion for the defeated opponent’s accusation.

The Possession and Its End

The episode presents Lü Meng not simply as recalling Guan Yu or repeating his grievances, but as possessed by Guan Yu’s spirit. Speaking as the dead warrior, he invokes a long history of fighting the Yellow Headband rebels and casts his death as the outcome of Sun Quan’s trap. He then climbs onto the throne, physically reversing the ceremony’s hierarchy: the honored commander takes the ruler’s seat, while the ruler is thrown down.

Sun Quan and those present are stunned and terrified. They bow as if in prayer; then Lü Meng falls to the ground and dies. His death ends the possession, but it does not restore the feast’s celebratory meaning. The scene has made the conquest appear vulnerable to a moral and supernatural judgment that military success cannot silence.

Political Consequences

Even after the funeral and the ensuing confusion subside, Sun Quan remains deeply troubled by his role in Guan Yu’s execution. Zhang Zhao makes the danger explicit: because of the oath Xuande, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei took in the Peach Orchard, Xuande is bound to seek revenge; and Xuande now commands the substantial forces of Shu. The spirit’s appearance thus points beyond private fear toward a renewed political and military threat.

Sun Quan’s anguished question about what should be done marks the reversal at the episode’s center. The feast was meant to celebrate the removal of an obstacle to control of Jingzhou; instead, it leaves the victor confronting the cost of that victory and the loyalty binding Xuande to Guan Yu. The possession gives that cost a dramatic form, making the dead commander’s grievance erupt within the very ceremony intended to honor his conqueror.