Wei Strategist
Sima Yi, the Wolf Who Looks Back
司馬懿179 to 2515 star
In short
Sima Yi (179 to 251) was a strategist and general of Wei who served four generations of the Cao family. He stopped Zhuge Liang's northern campaigns by refusing battle, destroyed the Gongsun state in Liaodong in 238, and in 249 took control of Wei in a coup at the Gaoping Tombs. His grandson Sima Yan ended Wei, founded the Jin dynasty, and reunified China in 280.
| Lived | 179 to 251 |
|---|---|
| Name in Chinese | 司馬懿 |
| Courtesy name | Zhongda |
| Served | Cao Cao, Cao Pi, Cao Rui, Cao Fang |
The history
Sima Yi came from a family of officials in Wen county, Henei. He is said to have feigned paralysis to avoid Cao Cao’s first summons and to have come at the second, around 208, under threat of arrest. He became an adviser to the heir, Cao Pi, and rose with him.
His reputation as a commander was made late. In 228 he covered twelve hundred li in eight days to take Xincheng and kill the defector Meng Da before help could arrive. From 231 he faced Zhuge Liang on the western front. At the Wuzhang Plains in 234 he would not come out to fight, even when Zhuge Liang sent him a woman’s dress, and the Shu army went home when its chancellor died. In 238 he marched to Liaodong and ended the Gongsun family’s state in a single season.
Cao Rui died in 239 and left a child emperor with two regents, Sima Yi and Cao Shuang. Cao Shuang pushed him aside, and for years Sima Yi played the sick old man. In 249, while Cao Shuang was outside the capital at the Gaoping Tombs, he closed the gates of Luoyang, promised him his life, and then executed him with his whole faction.
He died in 251. The state was his family’s from that day, in everything but name.
The novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms makes him Zhuge Liang’s one worthy opponent, always a step behind and aware of it. The Empty Fort is the novel’s. The saying that a dead Zhuge scared off a living Zhongda is older: the history has the people of the region repeating it after the retreat from the Wuzhang Plains.
Sima Yi in the game
In Warlords of the Three Kingdoms Sima Yi is the Wolf Who Looks Back: a 5 star strategistof Wei. The game's line for him: “He outwaited Cao Cao, outlasted Zhuge Liang, and left his grandsons an empire that had not been his.”
| Kingdom | Wei |
|---|---|
| Role | Strategist |
| Rarity | 5 star |
| Base attack and defense | 42 and 58 |
| Where from | Summoned at the Imperial Summon, for Jade. The odds are shown before every summon. |
A warlord sworn to Wei fields him 10% stronger, as every General of their own Kingdom. Wei, Shu or Wu has what the choice changes.
Five star is where he starts. Duplicates become shards, shards add stars, and each star adds a tenth to both numbers.
Questions
Did Sima Yi defeat Zhuge Liang?
He never beat him in a decisive battle, and never had to. At the Wuzhang Plains in 234 he kept to his camp for a hundred days until Zhuge Liang died of illness and the Shu army withdrew.
Did Sima Yi become emperor?
No. He died in 251 as regent of Wei. His sons Sima Shi and Sima Zhao kept the power he had taken, and his grandson Sima Yan took the throne in 266 and named him Emperor Xuan of Jin after his death.
What was the Empty Fort Strategy?
A scene in the novel in which Zhuge Liang, with no troops, opens the city gates and plays the zither, and Sima Yi suspects a trap and retreats. It is not in Chen Shou's history, and the annotator Pei Songzhi rejected the anecdote it comes from.
How do you get Sima Yi in Warlords of the Three Kingdoms?
Summoned at the Imperial Summon, for Jade. The odds are shown before every summon.
Sources
The history follows Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms, written in the third century, with Pei Songzhi's annotations of the fifth, and Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han for the years before the Han court fell apart. What the page calls the novel is Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, of the fourteenth century. Where the two disagree, the page says which is speaking. For more on him, see Sima Yi on Wikipedia.
Written by Gitkonek Studio, .
Keep reading
- Zhang Liao, the Terror of HefeiAt Xiaoyao Ford his eight hundred broke Sun Quan's host, and in Wu his name was used to quiet crying children.
- Dian Wei, the Guard at WanchengHe held the camp gate at Wancheng with a halberd in each hand so that his lord could reach the river.
- Guo Jia, the Demon TalentCao Cao's favorite strategist, whose counsel won the north and whose death, Cao Cao said, lost Red Cliffs.
- Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed GeneralStruck in the eye by an arrow, he pulled it out and ate the eye, saying he would not waste a gift from his parents.
- Xu Chu, the Tiger FoolCao Cao's bodyguard, who once dragged an ox backward by its tail for a hundred paces.