Shu 蜀

At the end of Emperor Ling's reign Liu Bei led his followers against the Yellow Turbans and so entered official service; he attached himself to Gongsun Zan and to Tao Qian, and after Tao Qian died he governed Xu Province. After Lü Bu seized Xiapi from him and he was badly defeated by Cao Cao in the 5th year of Jian'an (200), he went by way of Yuan Shao to take refuge with Liu Biao, who had him garrison Xinye. As more and more of the heroes of Jing Province came over to him by the day, Liu Biao secretly guarded against him. Records, Shu 2 §6–11 · 12 · 16–17 · 19

Zhuge Liang, whom he met at Xinye after visiting three times, told him to take both Jing and Yi Provinces and hold their natural defenses, to make friends with Sun Quan abroad and put government in order at home, and, when the realm saw upheaval, to have one general lead the troops of Jing Province toward Wan and Luoyang while Liu Bei himself led the host of Yi Province out to Qinchuan. When Liu Biao died and his son Liu Cong surrendered to Cao Cao, Liu Bei led his followers south, but at Changban in Dangyang he was overtaken by Cao Cao's elite cavalry and fled, abandoning his wife and children. Records, Shu 5 §4 · 7–8Records, Shu 2 §20–22

From Xiakou Liu Bei sent Zhuge Liang to join hands with Sun Quan, and together with the tens of thousands of naval troops under Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu and others sent by Sun Quan, he crushed Cao Cao at the Red Cliffs. He then received the surrender of the four commanderies of Wuling, Changsha, Guiyang and Lingling, and when Liu Qi died of illness he became Governor of Jing Province at the urging of his ministers, making Gong'an his seat. Sun Quan gradually came to fear him and gave him his younger sister in marriage. Records, Shu 2 §23–24

In the 16th year of Jian'an (211), when Cao Cao was about to attack Zhang Lu of Hanzhong, Liu Zhang, Governor of Yi Province, listened to Zhang Song and sent Fa Zheng to invite Liu Bei in. Liu Bei entrusted Jing Province to Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu and others, entered Yi Province with tens of thousands of infantry, and won the people's hearts at Jiameng by bestowing favors. The following year Zhang Song's plot was exposed and he was executed, and when the passes were closed to him Liu Bei beheaded Liu Zhang's general Yang Huai and took Fu County; after attacking Luo County for nearly a year he broke the city of Luo in the summer of the 19th year of Jian'an (214), besieged Chengdu for several dozen days and received Liu Zhang's surrender. Records, Shu 2 §27–29 · 31–33

Again holding the post of Governor of Yi Province, Liu Bei made Zhuge Liang his limbs, Fa Zheng his chief strategist, and Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Ma Chao his claws and fangs, and he placed in high positions men whom Liu Zhang had employed, such as Dong He, Huang Quan and Li Yan, and even Peng Yang, whom Liu Zhang had shunned. In the 20th year of Jian'an (215) Sun Quan demanded Jing Province and sent Lü Meng to seize three commanderies, but when Cao Cao pacified Hanzhong, Liu Bei made peace with Sun Quan, assigning Jiangxia, Changsha and Guiyang to the east and Nan, Lingling and Wuling to the west. Records, Shu 2 §33–35

In the spring of the 24th year of Jian'an (219) he had Huang Zhong behead Xiahou Yuan at Mount Dingjun, and, holding out without engaging Cao Cao, who had come in person, he took Hanzhong in the summer. That autumn 120 of his ministers submitted a memorial to the Han emperor proclaiming him King of Hanzhong, and an altar was set up at Mianyang where the royal crown was placed on his head. Liu Bei returned to govern from Chengdu and had Wei Yan guard Hanzhong, but soon afterward Sun Quan attacked and killed Guan Yu and seized Jing Province. Records, Shu 2 §38–40 · 47 · 54

In the 25th year of Jian'an (220), when Emperor Wen of Wei proclaimed himself emperor and a rumor spread that the Han emperor had been killed, Liu Bei put on mourning and conferred the posthumous title Emperor Xiaomin. After a succession of writings reporting auspicious omens, he ascended the imperial throne in the 4th month of the 26th year of Jian'an (221) and changed the era name to Zhangwu, made Zhuge Liang Chancellor, and established an ancestral temple where Emperor Gao and his successors were worshipped together. In the 7th month he attacked Wu, but in the summer of the 2nd year of Zhangwu (222) he was badly defeated by Lu Xun at Xiaoting and returned to Yong'an, and he accepted Sun Quan's request for peace. When he died at the Yong'an Palace in the 4th month of the 3rd year of Zhangwu (223), he entrusted his orphan to the Chancellor Zhuge Liang and made Li Yan his deputy. Records, Shu 2 §55 · 60 · 65 · 68 · 70–73

In the 5th month of the 3rd year of Zhangwu (223) the seventeen-year-old Later Sovereign succeeded at Chengdu and changed the era name to Jianxing. Zhuge Liang opened his own administration, also served as Governor of Yi Province, and decided all affairs of government. When the commanderies of Nanzhong rebelled, he first sent Deng Zhi to Wu to make peace, and in the spring of the 3rd year of Jianxing (225) he campaigned south, pacifying everything by that autumn. Military supplies came from there and the state grew rich. Records, Shu 3 §3–4 · 6Records, Shu 5 §23–24

In the 5th year of Jianxing (227) Zhuge Liang submitted a memorial saying, "Now the realm is divided in three and Yi Province is exhausted," and garrisoned Hanzhong. When he attacked Mount Qi in the spring of the 6th year, the three commanderies of Nan'an, Tianshui and Anding rebelled against Wei and answered him, but Ma Su was badly defeated by Zhang He at Jieting and he withdrew. In the winter he besieged Chencang but returned when his provisions ran out; in the 7th year he pacified the two commanderies of Wudu and Yinping, and in the 9th year he went out to Mount Qi again and shot Zhang He dead. In the 12th year (234) he went out through the Xie Valley and faced Sima Yi at the Wuzhang Plains for more than a hundred days, setting up military farms, and in the 8th month he died in camp at the age of fifty-four. Records, Shu 5 §24 · 32–33 · 35 · 37–38

After Zhuge Liang's death, Wei Yan quarreled with Yang Yi and was killed, and Jiang Wan, as Director of the Imperial Secretariat, took overall charge of state affairs and rose to General-in-Chief and Grand Marshal. In the 7th year of Yanxi (244) Cao Shuang of Wei headed for Hanzhong, but Wang Ping held him off at Xingshi and the General-in-Chief Fei Yi went to the rescue, and the Wei army withdrew. Whenever Jiang Wei wanted to raise a large army, Fei Yi restrained him and never gave him more than ten thousand men, but in the 1st month of the 16th year of Yanxi (253) Fei Yi was killed by a man who had surrendered from Wei. Thereafter Jiang Wei went out on campaign many times, and in the 18th year (255) he crushed Wang Jing, Inspector of Yong Province of Wei, at Taoxi, but in the 19th year (256) Hu Ji failed to arrive at the agreed time, and Jiang Wei was badly defeated by Deng Ai at Duangu, earning the people's resentment. Records, Shu 3 §15–16 · 20 · 24 · 33Records, Shu 14 §35 · 37–38

From the 1st year of Jingyao (258) the eunuch Huang Hao dominated the government. Jiang Wei, defeated by Deng Ai at Houhe in the 5th year of Jingyao (262), stayed at Tazhong and did not return to Chengdu when Huang Hao sought to oust him and set up Yan Yu in his place. In the 6th year of Jingyao (263) Wei sent Deng Ai, Zhong Hui and Zhuge Xu by several routes, and Huang Hao, trusting the words of a shaman, had the memorial Jiang Wei had submitted urging advance defenses shelved. Jiang Wei held off Zhong Hui at Jiange, but Deng Ai came in by a byway from Yinping and defeated Zhuge Zhan at Mianzhu. On the day the Later Sovereign, following Qiao Zhou's plan, sent his letter of surrender, Liu Chen, Prince of Beidi, killed his wife and children and then himself, and the Later Sovereign, with a coffin loaded on a cart and himself bound, went to the gate of Deng Ai's camp. In the 1st month of the following year Zhong Hui raised a revolt at Chengdu and died, and the Later Sovereign was moved to Luoyang and enfeoffed as Duke of Anle County, dying at Luoyang in the 7th year of Taishi (271). Records, Shu 3 §38 · 43 · 46–48 · 52Records, Shu 14 §43–46

In his assessment in the Biography of the First Sovereign, Chen Shou said that Liu Bei had the bearing of Emperor Gaozu and the capacity of a hero, but that in resourcefulness and ability he fell short of Emperor Wu of Wei, and so his territory too was small. In his assessment in the Biography of the Later Sovereign he wrote that the Later Sovereign was a ruler who followed reason when he entrusted affairs to a worthy chancellor but became a benighted ruler when led astray by eunuchs, and that because the state appointed no historians, much of what was done went unrecorded. He also said that for twelve years Zhuge Liang did not change the era name or grant amnesties lightly, but that after his death these practices gradually broke down. Records, Shu 2 §78Records, Shu 3 §53–54