Zhuge Dan 諸葛誕

Zhuge Dan, courtesy name Gongxiu, was a man of Yangdu County in the state of Langya and a descendant of Zhuge Feng. At first, as a Gentleman of the Imperial Secretariat, he became Prefect of Xingyang, and then entered the court as Gentleman of the Ministry of Personnel. He openly employed those who had been recommended to him and later put their merits and faults to public discussion, so that officials became careful in their recommendations. After several transfers he became Palace Assistant Imperial Clerk and Imperial Secretary, and being on good terms with Xiahou Xuan, Deng Yang and others, he won a name at court. Records, Wei 28 §29

When critics said that Zhuge Dan, Deng Yang and others cultivated vain show and gathered empty fame, Emperor Ming came to dislike this and dismissed Zhuge Dan. The Biography of Lu Yu records that Zhuge Dan, Deng Yang and others, pursuing reputation, were mocked as the 'Four Windows and Eight Openings.' After Emperor Ming died, at the beginning of Zhengshi, he again became Palace Assistant Imperial Clerk and Imperial Secretary, then went out as Inspector of Yang Province with the added title of General of Illustrious Martial Might. Records, Wei 28 §30Records, Wei 22 §100

When Wang Ling plotted, the Grand Tutor Sima Xuanwang secretly led an army east and made Zhuge Dan General Who Guards the East, granted the tally, and Commander of All Military Affairs in Yang Province, enfeoffing him as Marquis of Shanyang Village. In the 12th month of the 4th year of Jiaping (early 253 CE), when Zhuge Ke of Wu began works at Dongguan, Zhuge Dan led several armies against him but fared badly in the fighting. On his return he exchanged posts with Guanqiu Jian and, as General Who Guards the South, commanded Yu Province. Records, Wei 28 §31 · 19Records, Wei 4 §34

In the 1st month of the 2nd year of Zhengyuan (255), when Guanqiu Jian and Wen Qin rebelled and sent an envoy to Zhuge Dan to rally the officials and people of Yu Province, Zhuge Dan beheaded the envoy and issued a proclamation making known to the realm that the two were wicked rebels. When the General-in-Chief Sima Jingwang campaigned east, Zhuge Dan led the troops of Yu Province across the Anfeng Ford towards Shouchun, and when Guanqiu Jian and Wen Qin were defeated he was the first to reach Shouchun. The more than one hundred thousand people of Shouchun, fearing execution, broke open the city gates and scattered or fled to Wu. Records, Wei 4 §54Records, Wei 28 §32

Since Zhuge Dan had long been in Huainan, he was again made General-in-Chief Who Guards the East with honours equal to the Three Excellencies and put in command of Yang Province. Sun Jun, Lü Ju, Liu Zan and others of Wu came to Shouchun bringing Wen Qin, but fled because Zhuge Dan's forces had already arrived, and Zhuge Dan sent his general Jiang Ban in pursuit, who beheaded Liu Zan. He was advanced to Marquis of Gaoping with a fief of 3,500 households and transferred to General-in-Chief Who Conquers the East. Records, Wei 28 §33Records, Wei 4 §55–56

Zhuge Dan was very close to Xiahou Xuan, Deng Yang and others, and when Wang Ling and Guanqiu Jian were exterminated one after the other, he was afraid and could not feel at ease. He emptied his storehouses to give away wealth and bind men's hearts to him, and generously kept several thousand of his close followers and the bold adventurers of Yang Province as men sworn to die. In the winter of the 1st year of Ganlu (256), when Wu was about to move towards Xu'e, he asked for a further one hundred thousand men to guard Shouchun and proposed building a city on the Huai River, but inwardly he meant to seize and hold Huainan. Records, Wei 28 §34

The court was vaguely aware that he harboured suspicions, but because he was an old minister it wished to call him in and gauge his mind. In the 5th month of the 2nd year of Ganlu (257), when he was summoned to be Minister of Works, Zhuge Dan grew even more afraid and at last rebelled. He gathered his generals and went out in person to attack and kill Yue Chen, the Inspector of Yang Province, and he also killed the Registrar Xuan Long and the Commander of Retainers Qin Jie, who had firmly remonstrated with him. From the agricultural colonies north and south of the Huai he gathered more than one hundred thousand government troops, and from Yang Province forty or fifty thousand newly attached soldiers, stored a year's grain, and shut the city gates to defend himself. Records, Wei 28 §35Records, Wei 4 §82 · 86

He had his Chief Clerk Wu Gang take his young son Zhuge Jing to Wu to ask for help. Wu was overjoyed and sent Quan Yi, Quan Duan, Tang Zi, Wang Zuo and others with thirty thousand men together with Wen Qin, and made Zhuge Dan Left Protector-General, granted the tally, Grand Minister over the Masses, General of Agile Cavalry and Governor of Qing Province, enfeoffing him as Marquis of Shouchun. The General Who Guards the South Wang Ji surrounded Shouchun, but because the encirclement was not yet closed, Tang Zi, Wen Qin and others used the rugged terrain northeast of the city to get inside. Records, Wei 28 §36Records, Wu 3 §16

In the 6th month the emperor came east as far as Xiang County, and the General-in-Chief Sima Wenwang, leading 260,000 men, encamped at Qiutou. Wang Ji, Chen Qian and others surrounded the city with a double ring inside and out. Zhu Yi of Wu came twice with large armies but was repulsed each time by Zhou Tai and others, and Sun Chen put Zhu Yi to death. As food ran short and no relief came, Zhuge Dan's trusted men Jiang Ban and Jiao Yi went over the wall and submitted. Through Sima Wenwang's stratagem of sowing discord, Zhong Hui forged a letter in the names of Quan Yi's nephews, who had come over to Wei, saying that Wu meant to kill the families of all the generals who had failed to take Shouchun, whereupon Quan Yi and others led several thousand men out through the city gate and surrendered. Records, Wei 28 §37–38 · 99–100

In the 1st month of the 3rd year of Ganlu (258), Zhuge Dan, Wen Qin, Tang Zi and others built great siege engines and attacked the southern ring of the encirclement for five or six days, but the engines were burned and smashed by stone-throwing catapults and fire arrows, and the dead and wounded covered the ground. Food in the city ran out, and those who went out to surrender numbered tens of thousands. Wen Qin proposed sending out all the northerners to save food, but Zhuge Dan would not listen and they quarrelled; the two, who had long been at odds, grew ever more suspicious of each other, and when Wen Qin came to discuss matters Zhuge Dan killed him. Wen Qin's sons Wen Yang and Wen Hu went over the wall and submitted, and Sima Wenwang pardoned them and had them ride around the city calling on the defenders to surrender. Records, Wei 28 §39–41

When Sima Wenwang came to the siege lines himself and his troops mounted the walls to the beat of drums on all four sides, Zhuge Dan broke out through a small gate, riding alone and leading his retainers. The troops of the Major Hu Fen met and attacked him and cut him down; his head was sent to the capital and his three sets of kin were exterminated. Several hundred of his retainers were beheaded for refusing to surrender, and all of them said, 'To die for Lord Zhuge is no regret.' He rebelled in the 5th month of the 2nd year of Ganlu and was destroyed in the 2nd month of the 3rd year. The Biographies of the Three Successor Rulers record that Shouchun fell in the 3rd month and that Zhuge Dan and those around him died fighting. Records, Wei 28 §41–43Records, Wei 4 §88Records, Wu 3 §18

In his assessment, Chen Shou wrote that Wang Ling, Guanqiu Jian, Zhuge Dan and Zhong Hui all won renown and rose to honoured posts, but their ambitions were great and their aims misguided, they did not foresee disaster, rebellion sprang from them like the release of a crossbow trigger, and their clans were crushed into the earth. Of Zhuge Dan he said that he was 'stern, resolute and imposing.' Records, Wei 28 §140