Records of the Three Kingdoms
Lü Meng, courtesy name Ziming, was from Fupi in Runan. As a youth he attached himself to his brother-in-law Deng Dang. After a breach of the law Sun Ce spared him and kept him close. Under Sun Quan he earned a string of commands. In 208 he joined the campaign against Huang Zu and then the defeat of Cao Cao at Red Cliffs and Wulin.
Sun Quan pressed him, and Jiang Qin, to study. When Lu Su later passed Xunyang and talked strategy with him, he was startled by the change. A line in the Jiangbiao zhuan, copied into Pei Songzhi’s notes, is the source of the proverb that three days’ separation calls for new eyes.
After Lu Su died, Lü Meng held Lukou. In 219, while Guan Yu attacked Fan, he asked to take Jing Province, pleaded illness, and left the post to Lu Xun. Once Guan Yu had committed his troops north, Wu moved up the river. Mi Fang and Fu Shiren surrendered Gong’an and Nanjun. Guan Yu fell back on Maicheng, was captured by Ma Zhong, and was executed. Lü Meng sickened before he could enjoy the reward. Sun Quan came to his bedside. He died that winter at forty-two. Chen Shou credits him with courage and a clear sense of timing.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The novel introduces him as the unread “A’meng of Wu.” Sun Quan shames him into study, and Lu Su later admits he must look at him with new eyes.
The seizure of Jing becomes a full scheme: a feigned illness, a flattering letter from Lu Xun, and soldiers in white clothes working the oars like merchants so the beacon stations let them pass. Fu Shiren and Mi Fang open the cities. Guan Yu dies after Maicheng. The novel also gives Lü Meng a banquet plot against Guan Yu that fails, and a deathbed scene in which Sun Quan hunts for a doctor. The crossing in disguise and the fall of Maicheng are the episodes this page is known for in the Romance.
Reference: Wikipedia · Lü Meng