Shu Strategist
Zhuge Liang, the Sleeping Dragon
諸葛亮181 to 2345 star
In short
Zhuge Liang (181 to 234) was the strategist and chancellor of Shu. In 207 he gave Liu Bei the plan that created the Three Kingdoms: take Jing and Yi, ally with Sun Quan, and wait. He made the alliance that won at Red Cliffs, ruled Shu as regent from 223, and led five campaigns against Wei. He died in camp at the Wuzhang Plains in 234.
| Lived | 181 to 234 |
|---|---|
| Name in Chinese | 諸葛亮 |
| Courtesy name | Kongming |
| Served | Liu Bei, then Liu Shan |
The history
Zhuge Liang was born in Langya and orphaned young. He grew up in Jing Province and farmed at Longzhong, near Xiangyang, where he compared himself to the great ministers of antiquity and few took him at his word.
Liu Bei went to his door three times in 207. Zhuge Liang, at twenty six, told him the north was Cao Cao’s and could not be fought for, and the lower Yangtze was Sun Quan’s and could only be befriended. Jing and Yi provinces were held by weak men. Take both, he said, make peace with the peoples of the south and west, ally with Sun Quan, and march north on two roads when the moment comes. This is the Longzhong Plan.
The next year, with Cao Cao’s army coming down the river, he went to Sun Quan and argued him into the alliance that won at Red Cliffs. He governed the rear while Liu Bei took Yi Province. When Liu Bei lay dying in 223 he left Zhuge Liang his son and the state, and told him to take the throne himself if the boy proved unfit. Zhuge Liang wept and served Liu Shan for the rest of his life.
He restored the alliance with Wu, settled the south in 225, and from 228 marched north five times. The first campaign failed when Ma Su lost Jieting, and Zhuge Liang had him executed and demoted himself. The last ended with his death.
Chen Shou says he ruled with strict law and open rewards, and that the people feared him and loved him.
The novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms turns the minister into a magician. He reads the stars, calls the wind, borrows a hundred thousand arrows with boats of straw, and captures the southern king Meng Huo seven times. The seven captures have a source in the annotations. Most of the rest does not.
Zhuge Liang in the game
In Warlords of the Three Kingdoms Zhuge Liang is the Sleeping Dragon: a 5 star strategistof Shu. The game's line for him: “Liu Bei called at his cottage three times, and was given the Longzhong Plan and the next twenty-seven years.”
| Kingdom | Shu |
|---|---|
| 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 Shu fields him 10% stronger, as every General of their own Kingdom. Wei, Shu or Wu has what the choice changes.
Book of the Heart is his signature: holding it raises his attack and defense by 15%.
Five star is where he starts. Duplicates become shards, shards add stars, and each star adds a tenth to both numbers.
Questions
What is Zhuge Liang famous for?
The Longzhong Plan of 207, which foresaw a China divided in three, and his loyalty as regent of Shu. In China his name is a byword for intelligence.
Did Zhuge Liang really borrow arrows with straw boats?
That is the novel. So are the east wind he summons before Red Cliffs and the Empty Fort. The history's Zhuge Liang is an administrator and lawgiver first, and Chen Shou thought quick stratagems were not his strength.
How did Zhuge Liang die?
Of illness in the autumn of 234, aged fifty three, in camp at the Wuzhang Plains after a hundred days facing Sima Yi. He was buried at Mount Dingjun, as he asked, in a plain grave.
Did Zhuge Liang invent the repeating crossbow?
He improved it. The history says he redesigned the multiple bolt crossbow, and that he built the transports called the wooden ox and the gliding horse to carry grain over the mountains.
How do you get Zhuge Liang 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 Zhuge Liang on Wikipedia.
Written by Gitkonek Studio, .
Keep reading
- Guan Yu, the Saint of WarHe cut down Yan Liang amid ten thousand men at Baima, and later ages raised temples to him as a god of war.
- Zhao Yun, the Dragon of ChangshanAt Changban he carried Liu Bei's infant son through Cao Cao's whole army and out the other side.
- Huang Zhong, the Veteran of DingjunPast sixty when he cut down Xiahou Yuan at Dingjun Mountain, he took it as proof that he was not yet old.
- Liu Bei, the Imperial UncleA sandal seller of royal descent who lost nearly every battle he fought and still founded an empire.
- Ma Chao, the SplendidAt Tong Pass he chased Cao Cao so hard that the chancellor cut off his own beard to pass unrecognized.