Borrowing the East Wind

Also called: East wind, Seven Stars Altar

A scene invented by a historical novel. It differs from the recorded history.

A scene from chapter 49 of the Romance: with no wind for the fire attack and Zhou Yu sick with worry, Zhuge Liang builds the Seven Stars Altar and prays up three days of southeast wind. The history says only that the wind was strong.

A scene invented by the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. On the winter Yangtze the wind blew from the northwest, so a fire set from the east would burn Wu’s own ships. As Zhou Yu lay sick with worry, Zhuge Liang promised to borrow a southeast wind by building the Seven Stars Altar on Mount Nanping and praying — and on the appointed day the wind came. Then, evading Zhou Yu’s plan to kill him, he slipped away on a boat waiting below.

Zhou Yu’s biography says only that "the wind was fierce", spreading the fire to Cao’s ships and his camps on the shore. There is no tale of Zhuge Liang calling the wind, and he did not fight at the Red Cliffs himself.