Chapter 17 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms marks a turning point in the fragmentation of the Eastern Han dynasty, where ambition, legitimacy, and survival collide in the wake of Yuan Shu’s fateful decision to declare himself emperor.
In the year 198 AD, the turbulent struggle for dominance in central China reached a critical juncture with the collapse of Lü Bu’s short-lived power in Xuzhou (Xu Province). Once a feared warrior who had twice driven Liu Bei from Xuzhou and nearly toppled Cao Cao in Yan Province, Lü Bu now faced the…