- Zhuge Liang: A clear Milky Way and snaking clouds signal fog is near. If you know how earth, sky, yin and yang change, then the sun, moon and stars, the wind, forest, mountains and fire, become soldiers at your command.
- Liu Bei: Truth and illusion are often disguised as each other, Cao Cao likes to play this game, both with friends and foes.
- [first lines]
- Narrator: The year is 208 AD. After years of civil war, a deathly calm has fallen of northern China. One by one, the rebel warlords have met their end under the sword of Prime Minister Cao Cao. Now, even the Han Emperor bows before his power. Yet from the south, a challenge is heard. Two leaders arise against Cao Cao's tyranny, the aging Liu Bei, and the inexperienced Sun Quan. So Cao Cao petitions the Emperor to brand these men as traitors, and declare a new war against the peaceful Southlands.
- Xiao Qiao: [pouring too much tea] Your Highness. Don't you see your true self reflected in this tea? Your heart is overflowing with ambition. It's too full to let other people in. You've carried this full heart to Red Cliff. Someone here shall pour that heart onto the floor.
- Cao Cao: [subtitle version] When a loser join forces with a coward, what can they accomplish?
- Zhou Yu: I am surprised that such weak strands of grass can become so strong after you weave them together.
- Cao Cao: I never guessed I'd loose to a gust of wind.
- Zhou Yu: Because you don't understand the will of heaven.
- Cao Cao: I never dreamed I'd be defeated by a cup of tea.
- Zhou Yu: [surveying the battle field] There is no victor here...
- Cao Cao: [subtitle version] I trust those who are of use to me.
- Cao Cao: [subtitle version] Now we can be tigers that swim!
- Cao Cao: General Cai, I see many grammatical errors here, I hope your military strategies are not as poor as your command of literature.
- Zhuge Liang: [subtitle version] That's right. To surrender is not so bad. For the cowardly, in fact, the earlier the better. That everyone can stop worrying.
- Sun Quan: If that is the case, then why didn't Liu Bei surrender?
- Zhuge Liang: Confucius spoke of giving oneself to justice, and Mencius spoke of sacrificing for righteousness, surrendering is not a matter of victory or defeat, but rather one of virture! Cao Cao, the self-proclaimed Prime Minister controls the Han Emperor, and fabricated His Majesty's commands. If he conquers the Southland, he will surely usurp the throne. If we surrender to Cao Cao, then we would be aiding a tyrant. Lord Mayor Liu Bei is of His Majesty's Royal Family. His wisdom is known to the world and respected by the people. If a noble man, who has been loyal to the Han court all his life, failed to succeed, then that is fate. But, how could he surrender to Cao Cao? That would be an unbearable shame!
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