Everything about Zhuge Liang totally explained
Zhuge Liang (181–234) was
Chancellor of
Shu Han during the
Three Kingdoms period of
China. He is often recognised as the greatest and most accomplished strategist of his era.
Often depicted wearing a robe and holding a fan made of crane feathers, Zhuge wasn't only an important military strategist and statesman; he was also an accomplished scholar and inventor. His reputation as an intelligent and learned person grew even while he was living in relative seclusion, gaining him the nickname "The Hidden Dragon" (alternatively translated as "Crouching Dragon" or "Sleeping Dragon"). When
Cao Cao invaded Shandong in 195, his family was forced to flee south, and his uncle soon died of illness.
Although both his sisters married into important families with numerous connections in the area, for ten years he resided in
Longzhong Commandery (隆中; in present-day
Hubei province) If he fought in the north while the
Nanman people rebelled in the south, then the Nanman people would march further and perhaps even press into areas surrounding the capital. So rather than embarking on a northern invasion, Zhuge Liang led an army to pacify the south first.
Ma Su, brother of
Ma Liang, proposed the plan that Zhuge Liang should work toward getting the tribes to join him rather than trying to subdue all of them and he took this plan. Zhuge Liang defeated the rebel leader,
Meng Huo, seven different times, but released him each time in order to achieve his genuine surrender.
Finally, Meng Huo agreed to join Zhuge Liang in a genuine acquiescence, and thus Zhuge Liang appointed Meng Huo governor of the region, so he could govern it as he already had, keeping the populace content, and keeping the southern Shu border secure to allow for the future
Northern Expeditions.
During his first Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang persuaded
Jiang Wei, a general of Cao Wei, to defect to Shu Han.
In the historical novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang attempted to extend his lifespan by twelve years, but failed when the ceremony was disturbed when
Wei Yan rushed in, announcing the arrival of the Wei army. The novel also related a story of Zhuge Liang passing the
24 Volumes on Military Strategy (兵法二十四篇) to Jiang Wei at the eve of his death.
In Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The wisdom and achievements of Zhuge Liang were exaggerated and made popular by
Romance of the Three Kingdoms written by
Luo Guanzhong more than a millennium after the Three Kingdoms era ended. The novel incorporates many popular folklore, pseudohistories, and opera scripts into the character of Zhuge Liang, turning him into an embodiment of intelligence itself. Significant deviations from a historically accurate account include:
Using straw boats to borrow arrows
Before the Battle of Red Cliffs, Zhuge Liang went to visit the Wu camp to assist Wu strategist Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu saw Zhuge Liang as a threat to Eastern Wu and was also jealous of Zhuge Liang's talent. Therefore, he assigned Zhuge Liang the task to make 100,000 arrows in ten days or face execution. Zhuge Liang, however, swore he'd finish this seemingly impossible task in three days. He requested 20 large boats, each manned with many straw men and a few soldiers. Before dawn, Zhuge Liang ordered his soldiers to beat war drums and shout orders, to imitate the noise of an attack.
Zhuge Liang sat with
Lu Su inside one of the boats drinking wine. The Wei soldiers, unable to see in the fog, fired many volleys of arrows at the sound of the drums. The straw men were soon filled with arrows, and Zhuge Liang returned to Wu having fulfilled his promise.
Hence, the Chinese expression "草船借箭" ("Straw boat borrows arrows") refers to the act of using someone's strength against him or her.
Stone Sentinel Maze
In Chapter 84, as Lu Xun pursued the fleeing Liu Bei after the Battle of Yiling, he felt a strong enemy presence near
Baidicheng and cautioned his army for possible ambush. He sent scouts ahead, who reported that the area was empty except for some scattered piles of stones. Bewildered, he asked one of the locals, who answered that
Qi started to emerge from the area after Zhuge Liang had arranged the stones there. Lu Xun himself then inspected the area, and determined that the array was only a petty display of deception. He led a few cavaliers into the array, and as he was about to come out, a strong gust blew. Soon, duststorms were shadowing the sky and the stones became swords, mountainous piles of dirt emerged while the waves of the
Yangtze River sounded like swords and drums. Lu Xun exclaimed, "I fell into Zhuge's trap!" and attempted to exit to no avail.
Suddenly, Lu Xun saw an old man standing before his horse, who then asked if Lu needed assistance out of the array. Lu Xun followed the man and exited the maze unharmed. The old man revealed himself to be Zhuge Liang's father-in-law
Huang Chengyan, and explained that the array is constructed using the ideas of the
Bagua. Huang Chengyan said that Zhuge Liang had predicted that a Wu general would stumble across this maze as he constructed the structure, and asked Huang Chengyan not to lead the general out when that happens. Lu Xun immediately dismounted from his horse and thanked Huang Chengyan, and when he returned to his camp, he exclaimed that he could never top the genius of Zhuge Liang.
Empty Fort Strategy
During the first Northern Expedition, his efforts to capture
Chang'an were undermined by the loss at the
Battle of Jieting. With the loss of Jieting, Zhuge Liang's current location, Xicheng (西城), was in great danger. With the army deployed elsewhere and left with only a handful of civil officers in the city, Zhuge Liang decided to use a ploy to ward off the advancing Wei army.
Zhuge Liang ordered all the gates to be opened and had civilians sweeping the roads while he sat high up on the gates calmly playing his zither with two children beside him. When the Cao Wei commander and strategist
Sima Yi approached the fort with the Wei military, he was puzzled by the scene and ordered his troops to retreat.
Zhuge Liang later told the bewildered civil officers that the strategy only worked because Sima Yi was a man of suspicion, the latter having personally witnessed the success of Zhuge Liang's highly effective ambushing and misdirection tactics many times before. Furthermore, Zhuge Liang had a reputation as a keen but extremely careful military tactician who rarely took risks. Zhuge Liang's well-known carefulness, coupled with Sima Yi's own suspicious nature, led Sima Yi to the conclusion that entry into the apparently empty city would have drawn his troops into an ambush. It is unlikely the same strategy would have worked on someone else, and indeed Sima Yi's son
Sima Zhao saw through the ruse immediately and counseled his father against retreat.
Legacy
Zhuge Liang's name is synonymous with wisdom in the
Chinese language. He was believed to be the inventor of the
mantou, the
landmine and a mysterious, efficient automatic transportation device (initially used for grain) described as a "wooden ox and floating horse" (木牛流馬), which is sometimes identified with the wheelbarrow. Although he's often credited with the invention of the repeating crossbow which is named after him, called
Zhuge Nu, for example
Zhuge Crossbow, this type of semi-automatic crossbow is actually an improved version of a model that first appeared during the
Warring States Period (though there's debate whether the original warring states bow was semi-automatic, or rather shot multiple bolts at once). Nevertheless, Zhuge Liang's version could shoot further and faster. He is also credited for constructing the mysterious
Stone Sentinel Maze, an array of stone piles that's said to produce supernatural phenomenon, located near Baidicheng. An early type of hot air balloon used for military signalling called the
Kongming lantern is also named after him.
Some books popularly attributed to Zhuge Liang can be found today, for example the
Thirty-Six Strategies, and
Mastering the Art of War (not to be confused with
Sun Tzu's
The Art of War) are two that are generally available. Supposedly, his mastery of infantry and cavalry formation tactics based upon the Taoist
I-Ching were unrivalled. His
Chu Shi Biao, written before the Northern Expeditions, was considered so moving that it was said that if one read it and shed no tears, the reader would be a disloyal person.
He is also the subject of many Chinese literary works. A poem by
Du Fu, one of the most prolific poets from the
Tang Dynasty, was written in remembrance of Zhuge Liang and his unwavering dedication to his cause, against overwhelming odds. Some historians believe that Du Fu compared himself with Zhuge Liang in the poem. The full text is:
| 蜀相 （also 武侯祠 ）
丞相祠堂何處尋？
錦官城外柏森森。
映階碧草自春色，
隔葉黃鸝空好音。
三顧頻煩天下計，
兩朝開濟老臣心。
出師未捷身先死，
長使英雄淚滿襟
|
Premier of Shu (also Temple of the Marquis of Wu)
Where to seek the temple of the noble Premier?
In the deep pine forests outside the City of Silk:
Where grass-covered steps mirror the colours of spring,
And among the leaves orioles empty songs sing.
Three visits brought him the weight of the world;
Two emperors he served with one heart.
Passing ere his quest was complete,
Tears damp the robes of heroes ever since.
|
Bai Chongxi, a
military leader of the
Republic of China and
warlord from
Guangxi province, earned the laudatory nickname "Little Zhuge" due to his tactical decisions in the
Second Sino-Japanese War during
World War II.
Takenaka Shigeharu, a
Sengoku Period samurai who served under the early
Toyotomi Hideyoshi in
Japan, was himself often likened to Zhuge Liang due to his reputation as an exceptional strategist, and due to a fictional account of Hideyoshi gaining Shigeharu's services after visiting him three times in a similar manner to Liu Bei's Three Visits.
Portrayals in popular culture
Games
Zhuge Liang's reputation for being an unparallelled genius is also emphasised in his portrayal in video games. Reflecting his status as the most highly regarded strategist in the novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, games such as
Destiny of an Emperor and
Koei's
Romance of the Three Kingdoms series place Zhuge Liang's intelligence statistic as the highest of all characters.
Zhuge Liang is the protagonist in
Koei's tactical role-playing game
Sangokushi Koumeiden, where he can die at the
Wuzhang Plains, as he did historically, or go on to restore the Han Dynasty under
Emperor Xian. He also appears in Koei's popular
Dynasty Warriors series. For more information, see
List of Dynasty Warriors characters.
Manhwa
In the
manhwa Faeries' Landing, the protagonist of the story in a high-school student named Ryang Jegal, whose life is turned upside-down by a fairy and her heavenly (and not-so-heavenly) peers. Ryang Jegal, or Jegal Ryang in the proper
Asian sequence, is the
Korean translation of Zhuge Liang.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Zhuge Liang'.
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