Liao Li 廖立

Liao Li, courtesy name Gongyuan, was a native of Linyuan County in Wuling Commandery. When the First Sovereign, Liu Bei, also took up the post of Governor of Jing Province, he summoned Liao Li as an Attendant Officer and, before Liao Li was thirty, promoted him to Administrator of Changsha. Records, Shu 10 §33

When the First Sovereign entered Shu and Zhuge Liang was holding the territory of Jing Province, Sun Quan sent an envoy to Zhuge Liang to establish friendly relations and asked which of the scholars were the ones who shared in ordering the state with him. Zhuge Liang answered, 'Pang Tong and Liao Li are fine talents of Chu, men who will help raise up the great enterprise of the age.' In the 20th year of Jian'an (215), when Sun Quan sent Lü Meng to make a surprise attack on the three southern commanderies, Liao Li escaped with only his life and fled, returning to the First Sovereign of his own accord. Records, Shu 10 §33

Because the First Sovereign had long known and valued him, he did not reprimand him severely and made him Administrator of Ba Commandery. In the 24th year of Jian'an (219), when the First Sovereign became King of Hanzhong, he summoned Liao Li to be a Palace Attendant, and when the Later Sovereign, Liu Shan, succeeded to the throne, Liao Li was moved to Colonel of the Changshui. Records, Shu 10 §34

Liao Li considered that his talent and reputation ought to make him second only to Zhuge Liang, but instead he drifted through idle posts below Li Yan and others, and so he constantly harbored discontent. Later, when Li Shao, Clerk to the Chancellor, and Jiang Wan came to see him, Liao Li took them to task, saying that since the army was about to set out on a distant campaign they had better look carefully into the matter. In the past, he said, the First Sovereign had not taken Hanzhong but had gone to contend with the men of Wu for the three southern commanderies, in the end handing the three commanderies over and merely wearing out his officers and soldiers in vain; and after Hanzhong was lost, Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He had penetrated deep into Ba, and a whole province had nearly been lost. Records, Shu 10 §35–36

Liao Li went on to say that Guan Yu had died with not a single man left alive and Shangyong had collapsed, losing a whole region, because Guan Yu relied on his reputation for valor and handled the army without method, just as he pleased. Xiang Lang and Wen Gong, he said, were ordinary, vulgar men: Wen Gong had kept no order as Headquarters Officer, and Xiang Lang, who had once revered the Ma Liang brothers as sages, had now become Chief Clerk. Guo Yanchang, Gentleman of the Household, was a man who merely followed others, yet he had become a Palace Attendant; in an age of weakness it was wrong to entrust affairs to these three, and Wang Lian had exhausted the people with harsh exactions. Records, Shu 10 §36–37

When Li Shao and Jiang Wan reported his words in full to Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Liang submitted a memorial. It said that Liao Li, Colonel of the Changshui, exalted himself and passed reckless judgments on the officials, openly said that the state employed vulgar functionaries rather than the worthy, called the generals who commanded ten thousand men mere boys, slandered the late emperor and disparaged the ministers. When someone remarked that the state's troops were well trained and their ranks in good order, Liao Li raised his head, looked up at the roof and cried, 'What is that worth mentioning!' The memorial said that even one sheep that throws the flock into disorder does harm, so how much more Liao Li, who occupied a high position. Records, Shu 10 §38–39

Liao Li was thereupon deposed to commoner status and moved to Wenshan Commandery. He personally led his wife and children in farming to support himself, and on hearing that Zhuge Liang had died he shed tears and sighed, 'In the end I shall become a barbarian who folds his robe to the left!' Later, when the Army Supervisor Jiang Wei passed through Wenshan leading a detached force, he visited Liao Li and said that Liao Li's spirit had not declined and that he talked just as before. Liao Li died in the place of his exile, and his wife and children returned to Shu. Chen Shou's main text does not record the year of his death. Records, Shu 10 §39

In his assessment Chen Shou said that Peng Yang and Liao Li were promoted on the strength of their talent, and that Li Yan, Wei Yan, Yang Yi and Liu Yan were all likewise honored and valued, but that when one examines their conduct and the rules they kept, the disaster they brought on themselves and the blame they incurred all came from themselves. Records, Shu 10 §74