Zhuge Liang - The Master Strategist
Known for his unparalleled ability to predict his enemy’s plans
Zhuge Liang is almost as famous as Guan Yu in Chinese culture. He has long been considered one of the great military strategists in Chinese history. An anecdote from 400 AD states: When someone is comparing your father to Zhuge Liang, there is really nothing more that you can say (meaning: this is very high praise - A New Account of Tales of the World, pg. 451). When I was visiting Kyoto, an admonition to the Tenno of Japan (Emperor) quoted a letter written by Zhuge Liang to his ruler, Liu Shan. Even in Japan, Zhuge Liang is considered one of the great men in history.
There is a significant difference between Zhuge Liang’s reputation in comparison to his historically documented accomplishments. In the historical record, Zhuge Liang is capable chancellor and, in general, he made good decisions. However, other chancellors of his time were even more capable and successful (specifically Sima Yi and Zhou Yu, though officially neither man was a chancellor).
Zhuge Liang in History
Born in 181 AD, in Shandon, Liang’s father was a minor official in the decaying Han government. Both his parents died fairly young, leaving five children orphaned. Zhuge Liang’s older brother ended up as a mid-level official for the state of Wu. His sisters married into moderately important families.
Zhuge Liang spent his early life reading and living in a somewhat out-of-the-way house in the north of Jing province, with his wife, at least one child, and a couple of servants. He was recruited by Liu Bei in 207 AD. The story is Liu Bei came to visit Zhuge Liang three times before he succeeded in convincing the younger man that he - Liu Bei - was worthy of Zhuge’s support. Zhuge Liang became Liu Bei’s chief advisor, diplomat, and military strategist.
Liu Bei was forced to retreat out of Jing Province due to a successful invasion of Jing by Cao Cao’s army in the spring of 208. Following the advice of Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei traveled downstream along the Yangtze River and made an alliance with Sun Quan, the ruler of Wu Kingdom. The commander in chief of Wu Kingdom was Zhou Yu, aided by his friend, Lu Su. The allied army fought Cao Cao in the most famous battle in Chinese history in the winter of 208: The Battle of the Red Cliffs. Zhuge Liang seems to have helped plan the strategy for this campaign. The result is known: Cao Cao suffered a total defeat and had to retreat back to his lands in the north of China.
Liu Bei was able to capitalize on Cao Cao’s defeat by retaking the southern half of Jing Province. A few months later, Liu Bei’s army advanced upriver into Szechuan and thanks to Zhuge Liang’s diplomacy, Liu Bei’s army was able to take over the northern part of Szechuan, ostensibly to protect the province from Cao Cao’s expected attack. A year after that, Liu Bei turned on the governor of Szechuan and laid siege to the capital, Chengdu. After a month, the governor of Szechuan surrendered and so Liu Bei had control of two of the largest and most prosperous provinces in China.
Zhuge Liang became the chief official controlling Szechuan, under Liu Bei’s direction. He managed the province quite well. Two years later, the Wu government demanded the Liu Bei hand Jing province over to them. Diplomacy failed and Wu Kingdom marched into the eastern half of Jing province, taking control. Open war was avoided, and Liu Bei agreed, grudgingly, to the division of the province.
Zhuge Liang spent several years reorganizing the province and building up Liu Bei’s army. At the same time, Cao Cao conquered the province due north of Szechuan (Hanzhong, in 215). In 218 Liu Bei invaded Hanzhong but the attack was unsuccessful. The next year, he renewed his offensive and this time he defeated Cao Cao’s army and captured the province of Hanzhong. However, while he was engaged in this war, Sun Quan sent his army into the western half of Jing province. Guan Yu, the general in charge of Jing province, made a catastrophic mistake and tried to fight off the army of Wu with just his personal bodyguard. Outnumbered 100 to 1, Guan Yu’s small cavalry force was captured and he was executed.
His enemy, Cao Cao, died in 220. With is death, Liu Bei had the option of attacking Shaanxi but instead he choose to invade Jing province and retake it from the Wu kingdom. This effort was unsuccessful and he died in early 223, still fighting against the Wu army in Jing province.
During this period of time (214 to 223) Zhuge Liang’s strategic brilliance is not much in evidence. A very clever man would have maintained a firm alliance with the Kingdom of Wu. For Liu Bei to attack Hanzhong while leaving Jing province with only a small army defending it was a massive failure, because Hanzhong was small and poor, while Jing was far more valuable. Cao Cao was too strong to be defeated by an army operating out of Szechuan. Only a combined attack by both Wu and Liu Bei’s Shu Han kingdom had any hope of success. Since the alliance with Wu had fractured, Liu Bei should never have risked sending his army north into Hanzhong.
With Cao Cao’s death in 220, trying to retake Jing province instead of attacking Shaanxi was a poor choice. The claim is that Zhuge recommended against attacking Jing, but he was unable to persuade Liu Bei to follow his plan. The result was the Shu Han army lost its best men fighting uselessly again the Wu Kingdom army for two years.
Zhuge As the Chancellor
Liu Bei died in early 223 and his heir, the fat, lazy, and singularly unmotivated Liu Shan, left all government affairs in the hands of Chancellor Zhuge Liang. Liang spent the next ten years waging wars. First, he defeated and pacified the tribal peoples of what was called Nanzhong (the mountainous southern part of modern Szechuan province).
Note: The details of this campaign are unbelievable. Supposedly Zhuge Liang captured and then released the leader of one of the tribes, Meng Huo, seven times before Meng Huo finally decided that he could not beat the army of Shu Han and became peaceful. Defeating, capturing and releasing a tribal leader once is plausible. Twice is unlikely. Seven times? It defies imagination to think that in a single year, a tribal leader could lose a battle, be captured, be let go, and then collect a new band of warriors and then be defeated and captured again six more times! This must be an exaggeration.
The net result was that 10,000 families from Nanzhong were brought to Chengdu where the men formed a new military force for Shu Han’s army.
From 228 to 234, Zhuge Liang led the Shu Han army in Hanzhong against the Wei army in Shaanxi. The war was inconclusive as battles were won and lost against the Kingdom of Wei. Cao Cao’s son and heir Cap Pi died after just six years (in 226) so the new king of Wie was Cao Cao’s grandson. However, the main leader of Wei was the very capable Sima Yi.
That’s the historical record for Zhuge Liang. It’s not spectacular. However, this is not the story which 99% of Chinese people know.
Zhuge Liang - As the Chinese Know Him
For the vast majority of Chinese, Zhuge Liang is genius, a man who can predict the outcome of future events perfectly. Liang is given most of the credit for the victory of the Wu kingdom over Cao Cao at the battle of the Red Cliffs. Liang is given much of the credit for Liu Bei’s reconquest of Jing Province. Liang is credited for planning the capture of Szechuan. Liang is given credit for a number of brilliant stratagems in his six year war with the kingdom of Wei.
Here are some of the famous stories of Zhuge Liang:
Before the battle of the Red Cliffs, the Wu kingdom’s army was short on arrows. Zhuge Liang came up with a scheme of covering ten or fifteen boats with bales of hay. Then, at night the boats sailed up to Cao Cao’s camp along the Yangtze and incited Cao Cao’s army to fire arrows at the boats. The boats, now covered with arrows like pin cushions sailed back to the Wu camp with a great supply of free arrows.
Immediately before the Wu Fleet launched their big attack on Cao Cao’s fleet, Zhuge Liang built a large outdoor temple and he prayed for three days. Then the winds shifted, blowing upstream, and so the Wu fleet was able to ride the wind upstream and set fire to Cao Cao’s fleet, destroying it. In the Saga of the Three Kingdoms, it is said that Liang knew that the winds typically changed around that time of year so he performed the ceremony of summoning the winds based on his knowledge of the normal weather pattern for this part of China.
Following the defeat of Cao Cao’s fleet at the Battle of the Red Cliffs, Zhuge sent soldiers to various locations along what he suspected would be Cao Cao’s line of retreat. Cao Cao kept running into these road-blocks just as Liang had predicted. At the end, Cao Cao ran into Guan Yu’s elite cavalry and he was certain to be killed or captured, except Guan Yu let him escape - in what is perhaps the single most interesting decision made by a Chinese man in it’s long history.
In Zhuge Liang’s first campaign against the Wei Kingdom (227 AD), the city where he had his headquarters was threatened by an army under the command of Sima Yi. Unfortunately, the garrison of the city was very small. Facing near certain defeat, Liang ordered the main gate of his small city opened and he kept his soldiers off the walls. Instead, he sat above the main gate and played an instrument (the guqin). When the Wei scouts rode up, they observed the oddly peaceful scene and then they reported back to their commander. Sima Yi then ordered his army to retreat as he suspected an ambush. Zhuge Liang later admitted his strategy only worked because of his reputation as careful strategist who rarely took risks.
There are other anecdotes about Zhuge Liang which are in same vein. Liang is able to predict what his enemies will do with a high degree of accuracy. He outthinks everyone. Unlike the many famous European commanders who were also great warriors (Alexander the Great, Richard the Lionhearted, Gustavus Adolfus), Zhuge Liang is not known to have personally killed anyone. As a result, Liang represents the ideal Confucian military commander.
Like his ally, Guan Yu, Zhuge Liang was later worshipped in the Wu Mieo (武庙) - the official temple dedicated to the men with the greatest martial virtue. Thus, for the Chinese, Zhuge Liang has been worshiped as a Shen (a living spirit) since at least 720 AD.