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March 8, 2014
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1 Introduction
Zhuge Liang

Wikipedia

 
Zhuge Liang (181 - 234) was one of the greatest strategists of post-Han China, as well as a statesman, an engineer and a scholar. Zhuge is an uncommon two-character compound Chinese family name|family name.



Chinese family name|Family name and Chinese name|given name
  • Traditional Chinese characters: 諸葛亮

  • Simplified Chinese characters: :诸葛亮

  • Pinyin: Zhūge Li?ng

  • Wade-Giles:Chuko Liang


Courtesy name
  • Chinese characters: 孔明

  • Pinyin: Kǒngm?ng

  • Wade-Giles: K`ung-ming


Other names
  • Crouching Dragon Xiansheng 臥龍先生 or The Crouching or Sleeping Dragon 臥龍

  • Pinyin: W?l?ng Xiānsheng or W?l?ng

  • Wade-Giles:Wo-lung Hsien-sheng





Zhuge Liang was born in Yangdu County in Longya Commandry, at present-day Yishui County, Shandong Province. He was the second of three brothers and orphaned early; his mother died when he was nine, and his father when he was twelve. His uncle raised him and his siblings. 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 Commandry (in present-day Hubei province) with his elder brother Zhuge Jin in a simple peasant life - farming by day and studying by night. He got to know a group of friends among the intellectuals of the area. His reputation soon grew, and he was named the Crouching (or Sleeping) Dragon, wise among his peers in many areas. At the meantime, he married the daughter of another renowned scholar Huang Chenyan. His wife's name is rumored to be Huang Yue Ying. The Huang Family was also connected to several other well established clans in the region.




The warlord Liu Bei harbored in the neighboring city Xiangyang under his distant relative and the governor of the Jing Region, Liu Biao. Legends recounted that Zhuge Liang joined Liu Bei only after Liu visited him in person three times. In reality, one of Zhuge Liang's works accounted for three visits. We may as well take this as the truth as seeing that he has no reason to lie. Zhuge Liang soon presented his famous Longzhong Plan before Liu, and he travelled in person to the Kingdom of Wu and formed an alliance with its ruler Sun Quan.

His elder brother, Zhuge Jin (諸葛謹), served as a high official in the Kingdom of Wu.

In the Battle of Red Cliff of 208, the allied armies of Liu Bei and Sun Quan defeated Cao Cao, thus enabling Liu Bei to establish his own territories.

The union with Sun Quan broke down when Guan Yu retaliated on the Kingdom of Wu in 219 after the surprise attack of L? Meng. Guan Yu was defeated and decapitated. Liu Bei, infuriated with the execution of his longtime comrade, ignored all arguments of his well-meaning subjects and turned on the Kingdom of Wu, leading a huge army to seek revenge. He was also defeated in the ensuing Battle of Yiling and died in a lone fortress of "Baidi Cheng" (literary meaning: "the White Emperor Fortress") after a hasty and humiliating retreat to his own borders. After the death of Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang became the prime minister under Liu Chen, Liu Bei's son, and renewed the alliance with Sun Quan.





Before Zhuge Liang would embark on his Northern Expeditions he would face
great opposition. He had to repel 5 armies of approximately 100,000 which marched against him after Yiling. These armies belonged to Wei and a new threat in the South, the Nanman people. Here are the armies that Zhuge Liang held off:


1.) 100,000 troops from Wei marched to attack Yangping Pass

2.) 100,000 troops under Meng Huo a Nanman army attacks Southern Shu

3.) 100,000 troops from Wei attack Hanzhong

4.) 100,000 troops of the Qiang tribe attack Xiping

5.) 100,000 troops from Wu come after the battle of Yiling


All these invasions were countered however Zhuge Liang saw the attack in the South as a threat. Zhuge Liang felt that in order to march North he would first have to unify Shu completly. If he fought against the North while the Nanman people rebelled than the Nanman people would march further and perhaps even press into areas surrounding the capital. So rather than embarking on a Northern Campaign, Zhuge Liang sent a large force of 500,000 men to pacify the south first.


Ma Su (Ma Liang's brother) proposed the plan that Zhuge Liang should work toward getting the rebels to join him rather than killing all of them and he took this plan. Zhuge Liang defeated the rebel leader, Meng Huo, seven different times. During this campaign he got sick from the poison marshes in the area (according to the novel). Luckily he was healed to good health. Finally Meng Huo agreed to join Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Liang made Meng Huo king of the area again so he could govern it and the people would be happy. After this Zhuge Liang made his moves North.




Zhuge Liang persuaded Jiang Wei, a general of Kingdom of Wei, to defect to the Kingdom of Shu. Jiang would be one of the important generals to continue to carry on Zhuge Liang's ideals and fight for the Kingdom of Shu after Zhuge Liang's untimely death in 234.

In his latter years, he launched invasion of the Kingdom of Wei|Wei six times, but all failed. On the seventh time, he died of overwork and illness in an army camp in Battle of Wuzhang Plain.




His name is synonymous with wisdom in Chinese language|Chinese. He was believed to be the inventor of the landmine and a mysterious automatic transportation device described as a "wooden ox and floating horse" (木牛流馬). He is credited with the invention of a repeating crossbow which is named after him, called Zhuge Nu. He is also credited for inventing the wheelbarrow. A kind of hot air balloon used for military signalling is named after him.

Some books rumored to be written by Zhuge Liang can be found today, for example the Sixteen Strategies of Zhuge Liang, and Mastering the Art of War are two that can be bought.

He was also the subject of many Chinese literary work. A poem by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, was written in remembrance of Zhuge Liang:

THE TEMPLE OF THE PREMIER OF SHU


Where is the temple of the famous Premier? ?

In a deep pine grove near the City of Silk,

With the green grass of spring colouring the steps,

And birds chirping happily under the leaves.

...The third summons weighted him with affairs of state

And to two generations he gave his true heart,

But before he could conquer, he was dead;

And heroes have wept on their coats ever since.


Pai Chung-hsi, 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.

Category:Heroes of the Three Kingdoms



  • Three Kingdoms

  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms

  • Sanguo Zhi|Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms


de:Zhuge Liang
ja:諸葛亮
zh:诸葛亮

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Zhuge Liang".


Last Modified:   2005-03-10


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