Three embroidered bags

Kong Ming’s Three embroidered bags are three ordered, secret instructions given to Zhao Zilong before Xuande’s journey to Nanxu for his marriage to Sun Quan’s sister. Their significance lies in how they make Kong Ming’s strategy unfold at the moment of need: each bag prompts action that reshapes the situation, first around the wedding, then around Xuande’s growing reluctance to leave, and finally during the escape from Sun Quan’s pursuit.

Design and Entrustment

Xuande is uneasy about the marriage plan, suspecting that Zhou Yu intends to have him killed. Kong Ming nevertheless judges the plan auspicious and says he has devised a strategy in three stages. Zhao Zilong, he tells Xuande, is the only man capable of carrying it out. Before the party departs, Kong Ming takes Zhao aside and gives him three small embroidered bags, each containing a document. The instructions must be used in a particular order, and only when the need arises.

The bags translate advance planning into a sequence of timed decisions. Kong Ming does not disclose the documents’ contents to Xuande in advance; Zhao carries them concealed in his clothes, ready to open each one as circumstances change. Their form therefore sustains suspense while giving Zhao a practical role in putting the plan into effect.

The First Instruction and the Wedding

Late in the year AD 209, Xuande sails south with Zhao, Sun Qian, and five hundred soldiers. As their boats arrive at Nanxu, Zhao opens the first bag and reads its secret message. He immediately sends the soldiers into the city with orders, then proposes that Xuande visit Elder Statesman Qiao, father of the wives of Sun Quan and Zhou Yu. The visit is warmly received; conversation turns to the coming marriage and the part Lü Fan has played in arranging it.

Meanwhile, the soldiers buy what is needed for a grand wedding and tell people that Xuande is to marry Sun Quan’s sister. The news spreads through the city. Elder Statesman Qiao carries his congratulations to the queen mother, whose surprise shows that the celebration has transformed private arrangements into public expectation. In this episode, the first bag’s instruction works through coordinated movement and rumor: the soldiers’ purchases make the marriage appear settled before opponents can prevent it.

The Second Instruction and the Delayed Departure

The wedding takes place, thwarting the plot against Xuande. Zhou Yu then advises Sun Quan to surround him with pleasures so that he will forget affairs of state and remain at Nanxu. Sun Quan has the palace redecorated and the gardens landscaped, and sends women musicians and rich gifts of gold, jade, and silk. Xuande settles into this comfortable life; the hardship of earlier years recedes, and thoughts of returning to Jingzhou begin to fade.

As the months pass and the year draws toward its end, Zhao remembers Kong Ming’s direction to open the second bag at this point. After reading the document, he goes to Xuande and reports that Cao Cao has set out with five hundred thousand men to take Jingzhou, carrying a message from Kong Ming that Xuande must return at once. Xuande wants to consult his wife, but Zhao warns that she will urge him not to go and presses for immediate departure. Xuande remains reluctant. The second instruction thus counters the comfort that has weakened his resolve, though the decision to leave still has to be confronted directly.

The Third Instruction and the Escape

Sun Quan realizes only later that Xuande and Lady Sun have escaped. He sends Chen Wu and Pan Zhang after them with five hundred elite warriors; subsequently, Jiang Qin and Zhou Tai are ordered to pursue with a thousand more. Xuande and Lady Sun ride hard toward the border near Chaisang, while Zhao urges them onward and prepares to serve as their rearguard.

Their route is blocked by Xu Sheng and Ding Feng, who have three thousand men, while pursuers close from behind. With troops on both sides, the escape seems nearly over. Zhao then remembers the third bag and opens it. He gives the secret document to Xuande, who reads it and goes to Lady Sun’s carriage to speak with her in confidence. The account establishes the bag’s use at this crisis but does not disclose the document’s contents here; what it does show is the final instruction arriving when the travelers are trapped between forces ahead and behind.

Narrative Function

The bags give a visible, repeatable structure to a plan whose stages depend on changing circumstances. Each opening marks a turn: the first initiates the public wedding campaign, the second recalls Xuande to the danger facing Jingzhou, and the third is used when the escape is physically blocked. The specified order matters, as does Zhao’s memory of when each instruction should be used.

Their power is strategic rather than magical. The documents do not act by themselves: Zhao must recognize the moment, issue orders, and carry the message to Xuande. The embroidered containers make Kong Ming’s unseen foresight tangible, while the gaps between their openings keep the next move undisclosed until the plot reaches its need.