Liu Shan 劉禪

The Records call him "the Later Sovereign" (Houzhu). According to the Biography of Empress Gan, Lady Gan followed the First Sovereign to Jing Province and gave birth to Liu Shan there. When Cao Cao's army caught up with the First Sovereign at Changban in Dangyang, the First Sovereign abandoned Lady Gan and Liu Shan and fled south, but Zhao Yun personally carried the infant Liu Shan in his arms and protected Lady Gan, so that both escaped harm. Records, Shu 3 §1–2Records, Shu 4 §3Records, Shu 6 §39

In the 24th year of Jian'an (219), when the First Sovereign became King of Hanzhong, he was made heir apparent to the king, and in the 5th month of the 1st year of Zhangwu (221), when the First Sovereign took the imperial throne, he became Crown Prince and received the seal and ribbon from the Chancellor, Zhuge Liang. In the spring of the 3rd year of Zhangwu (223), the First Sovereign, gravely ill at Yong'an, entrusted Zhuge Liang with affairs after his death, telling him to assist his son if the son was worth assisting and to take the state for himself if the son lacked ability; to Liu Shan he left an edict telling him to work together with the Chancellor and serve him as a father. When the First Sovereign died in the Yong'an Palace in the 4th month, Liu Shan succeeded to the throne at Chengdu in the 5th month, at the age of seventeen. He declared a general amnesty and changed the era name to Jianxing. Records, Shu 3 §2–4Records, Shu 5 §22

In the 1st year of Jianxing (223), Zhuge Liang, as Marquis of Wuxiang, opened his own office to administer affairs and also served as Governor of Yi Province (Yizhou mu), and all matters of government, great and small, were decided by Zhuge Liang. That year Liu Shan made Lady Zhang his empress and sent the Master of Writing (shangshu) Deng Zhi to Wu to strengthen friendly relations. In the 3rd year of Jianxing (225) Zhuge Liang pacified the four southern commanderies; in the 5th year (227) he went out to garrison Hanzhong, and afterward he sent troops against Mount Qi and Chencang in the 6th year and against Mount Qi again in the 9th year. Records, Shu 5 §23Records, Shu 3 §4 · 6 · 8–9 · 12

In the 8th month of the 12th year of Jianxing (234), Zhuge Liang died on the banks of the Wei River, and Wei Yan and Yang Yi fought for power until Wei Yan was beheaded; Liu Shan then made Jiang Wan, Chief Clerk of the Chancellor's Rear Office, Prefect of the Masters of Writing (shangshu ling) with overall charge of state affairs, and the following year promoted him to General-in-Chief. In the 14th year (236) he went in person to Jian, climbed the Guanban slope to view the flow of the Wen River, and returned to Chengdu after ten days. When Empress Zhang died in the 15th year, he made her younger sister empress in the 1st year of Yanxi (238) and made his son Crown Prince. Records, Shu 3 §15–19Records, Shu 4 §15

During the Yanxi era, Jiang Wan and then Fei Yi went out in turn to garrison Hanzhong. In the 7th year (244), when Cao Shuang of Wei invaded Hanzhong, Wang Ping held him off at Xingshi and Fei Yi went to the rescue, and the Wei army withdrew. Jiang Wan died in the 9th year (246), and in the 1st month of the 16th year (253) Fei Yi was killed at Hanshou by a man who had come over from Wei. After that, Jiang Wei led troops against Wei year after year from the 16th to the 20th year. Records, Shu 3 §19 · 24 · 26 · 28 · 33–37

As Liu Shan grew up, he came to favor the eunuch Huang Hao. The Palace Attendant Dong Yun steadfastly refused to go along with Liu Shan's wish to add to his harem; above, he corrected his sovereign with a stern countenance, and below, he repeatedly rebuked Huang Hao, so that as long as Dong Yun lived, Huang Hao rose no higher than Assistant of the Yellow Gate (huangmen cheng). Chen Zhi, who replaced Dong Yun, worked hand in glove with Huang Hao, and Liu Shan, favoring Chen Zhi, resented Dong Yun more with each passing day. When Chen Zhi died in the 1st year of Jingyao (258), Liu Shan shed tears whenever he spoke of him, and from that year Huang Hao wielded power over the government at will. Owing to Huang Hao's slanders, Liu Shan kept his younger brother Liu Yong at a distance and did not see him at court audiences for more than ten years. Records, Shu 9 §28–29 · 33 · 35–36Records, Shu 3 §38Records, Shu 4 §19

In the 3rd (260) and 4th (261) years of Jingyao, posthumous titles were conferred on Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, Pang Tong and Huang Zhong, and then on Zhao Yun. In the 5th year (262), when Jiang Wei, defeated by Deng Ai at Houhe, stayed on at Tazhong, Huang Hao sought to put the General-in-Chief of the Right, Yan Yu, in Jiang Wei's place. In the 6th year (263), Jiang Wei memorialized that Zhang Yi and Liao Hua should be sent to the mouth of Yang'an Pass and the Yinping bridgehead to guard against an invasion by Zhong Hui, but Huang Hao, who trusted in shamans and spirits, had Liu Shan shelve the matter, and the other ministers never knew of it. Records, Shu 3 §40–42Records, Shu 14 §43–44

That summer, when Wei sent Deng Ai, Zhong Hui and Zhuge Xu to invade along several routes, Liu Shan sent Zhang Yi, Liao Hua, Dong Jue and others to resist them and changed the era name to Yanxing. In winter Deng Ai defeated Zhuge Zhan at Mianzhu. The ministers proposed fleeing to Wu or going to Nanzhong, but Qiao Zhou, arguing that becoming a vassal of Wu and then of Wei would mean suffering humiliation twice, urged surrender to Wei. Following Qiao Zhou's plan, Liu Shan had Zhang Shao, Qiao Zhou and Deng Liang carry the seal and ribbon to ask for terms of surrender, and the letter was written by Xi Zheng. Records, Shu 3 §43–45Records, Shu 12 §67–70 · 99

That day, Liu Chen, Prince of Beidi, grieving at the fall of the state, first killed his wife and children and then took his own life. When Deng Ai reached the north of the city, Liu Shan, leading the Crown Prince, the princes and more than sixty ministers, bound himself and, with a coffin carried on a cart, went to the gate of the army camp. Deng Ai untied his bonds, burned the coffin, and, exercising authority on the emperor's behalf, appointed him General of Agile Cavalry (piaoji jiangjun). The various garrisons surrendered only after receiving Liu Shan's order, and Jiang Wei, too, went over to Zhong Hui only on receiving the edict. Records, Shu 3 §46Records, Wei 28 §73Records, Shu 14 §47

In the 1st month of the following year Zhong Hui rose in revolt at Chengdu and was killed, after which Liu Shan moved east with his whole household to Luoyang. None of the great ministers of Shu accompanied him; only Xi Zheng and the Palace Guard Commander (dianzhong du) Zhang Tong left their wives and children behind to follow and attend him, and when Liu Shan, guided by Xi Zheng, conducted himself without a single lapse, he regretted having come to know Xi Zheng's worth so late. In the 3rd month of the 5th year of Jingyuan (264) he was enfeoffed as Duke of Anle County with a fief of ten thousand households and received ten thousand bolts of silk and a hundred slaves, and more than fifty of his sons and grandsons became one of the three commandants (sandu wei) or were enfeoffed as marquises. He died in Luoyang in the 7th year of Taishi (271). Records, Shu 3 §47–48 · 52Records, Shu 12 §99

In his assessment, Chen Shou said that the Later Sovereign was a ruler who followed reason when he entrusted affairs to a worthy chancellor but became a benighted sovereign when led astray by eunuchs, and that the saying "white silk has no fixed color; it becomes whatever it is dyed" was true indeed. He also wrote that changing the era name in the very year of succession went against ancient precedent, and that because the state appointed no official historians, much of what was done went unrecorded, as did portents and calamities. He concluded that during the twelve years Zhuge Liang was alive the era name was not changed and amnesties were not granted lightly, but that after his death this system gradually broke down. Records, Shu 3 §53–54