Liu Bei

Descended from Prince Sheng of Zhongshan but selling straw sandals and weaving mats when the Yellow Turban call comes. At 28 he reads the Zhuo volunteer notice and sighs at his helplessness - the sigh that draws Zhang Fei in. Initiates the Peach Garden oath, leads his first 500 troops to crush Cheng Yuanzhi, ambushes the rebels besieging Qingzhou, and joins Lu Zhi at Guangzong before being sent on to Yingchuan.

After the Yellow Turbans are broken, Liu Bei is appointed magistrate of Anxi but is barely settled before the petty inspector arrives demanding a bribe. Refuses to abandon his ideals, restrains Zhang Fei after the whipping, and hangs his official seal on the inspector's neck before leaving with his brothers.

Joins the coalition from Pingyuan under Gongsun Zan's wing and is seated last among the lords for his imperial blood. At Tiger Trap Pass he rides in with his twin swords to complete the three-against-one melee against Lü Bu - the triangle of steeds that finally makes the halberd waver.

Takes Tiger Trap Pass with his brothers when Zhao Cen abandons River Si, then follows Gongsun Zan out of the dissolving coalition and is left in command at Pingyuan.

Arrives with his brothers and Gongsun Zan's troops at the Pan River; their charge breaks Yan Liang and Wen Chou's encirclement and saves Gongsun Zan. Meets Zhao Yun for the first time; the two part reluctantly when the emperor's truce envoy ends the campaign.

Marches from Pingyuan with three thousand men and his brothers to break the Beihai siege - 'and does he know there is a Liu Bei in this world?' - then borrows two thousand troops and Zhao Zilong from Gongsun Zan for Xuzhou. He cuts through to the city, writes the letter that (with Lü Bu's help) lifts the siege, and three times refuses Tao Qian's offered governorship, settling instead at little Xiaopei to stand watch.

Liu Bei; relieves Xuzhou with the help of his brothers and is finally pressed by Tao Qian into accepting the governorship at his deathbed. Takes the seal of office only after Tao Qian's third dying request, and brings the city under his control - the foundation of his independent career.

Receives the fugitive Lü Bu with full honors over Mi Zhu's objection and - to his brothers' horror - offers him the seal of Xuzhou outright. When the guest-host friction turns dangerous he lodges Lü Bu at Xiaopei, keeping both his honor and his province.

Handed the Xuzhou protectorship and a lordship by Cao Cao's own memorial - with a private note ordering him to kill Lü Bu. He shows Lü Bu the letter instead, seeing through the 'Rival Tigers' ruse; but the follow-up 'Tiger against Wolf' edict he obeys, marching on Yuan Shu - and while Guan Yu duels Ji Ling at Xuyi, Xuzhou and his own family fall to Lü Bu behind him. 'Success is not worth rejoicing; failure is not worth grieving.'

Liu Bei; back at Xuyi after fleeing the night raid; held off Lu Bu's pressure and ultimately accepted Chen Gong's compromise to settle at Xiaopei as Lu Bu's nominal subordinate.

Saved once by the halberd shot and besieged anyway over Zhang Fei's horse raid, he abandons Xiaopei by moonlight and throws himself on Cao Cao - who, over Xun Yu's and Cheng Yu's urgings to kill him, calls him brother, gives him troops and grain, and has him made Imperial Protector of Yuzhou.

First to welcome the grand army - presenting the heads of Han Xian and Yang Feng, whose plundering he ended with a dropped cup at his own banquet. He fights on the southern face at Shouchun and is then planted at Xiaopei: Cao Cao's 'pitfall for the tiger', with secret orders to heed only the two Chens.

Exposed by his intercepted reply to Cao Cao, he shuts Xiaopei's four gates - himself at the south, Sun Qian north, Guan Yu west, Zhang Fei east, the Mi brothers guarding the family - sends Jian Yong for help, and marches out to camp when Cao Cao's fifty thousand approach. The chapter ends with Lü Bu, Gao Shun, and Zhang Liao each taking one brother.

Liu Bei; rides with Cao Cao to Xiapi. On the scaffold, reminds Cao Cao 'remember Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo' - the line that seals Lu Bu's death sentence.

Certified the Emperor's uncle by the Books of the Genealogies and made General of the Left Army, Lord of Yicheng. He drops a hare with his first arrow at Xutian, then saves everything by waving back Guan Yu's drawn blade when Cao Cao usurps the imperial cheers - 'when you throw stones at a rat, beware of the vase.' Ma Teng's finger lands on his name as the chapter ends.

Survives Cao Cao's heroes test by pretending fear of thunder; uses the Yuan Shu-versus-Yuan Shao march as cover to leave Xuchang with 50,000 troops, then slays Che Zhou and retakes Xuzhou. The escape that begins his anti-Cao Cao career.

Liu Bei; receives Sun Qian's news that Yuan Shao has agreed in principle to an alliance after Zheng Xuan's letter; sets the brothers to picket the Cao Cao probe and welcomes the relief alliance.

Liu Bei; off-stage in this chapter at Xuzhou; awaiting Yuan Shao's intervention.

Defeated by Cao Cao's overwhelming attack on Xuzhou; loses contact with Guan Yu (now in Xiapi), Zhang Fei (fled to Mangdang Hills), and his wives. Flees alone north to Yuan Shao via Mi Zhu and Sun Qian.

Grieving and rootless at Jizhou, he tips Yuan Shao into war - 'you are failing in your duty if you do not attack' - and begs the doomed Tian Feng into mere imprisonment. Then Baima's survivors describe his brother's saber-work, and the chapter ends with lictors leading him out to die.

Talks his head off the block twice - 'is every red-faced man with a beard named Guan Yu?', then 'Cao Cao arranged it all to make you kill me' - and glimpses his brother's Hanshou banner across the river at Yenjin. His letter of loving reproach, carried by Chen Zhen, brings Guan Yu out of Xuchang.

Already gone from Yuan Shao's court: reading the jealous quarrels around him, he and Sun Qian contrived his departure, and he waits now with Liu Pi at Runan - the destination Sun Qian turns the carriage toward.

Reunites with both brothers, Zhao Yun, Mi Zhu, Mi Fang, and Sun Qian at Gucheng - a council that returns the brothers to Runan to begin again under Liu Pi and Gong Du.

Recites the Girdle Mandate to Cao Cao's face at the Rang Mountains and wins the first day - then loses both brothers to relief missions, is ambushed by night, and flees alone into the hills. Saved by Liu Pi's death and Zhao Zilong's spear, he reaches the Han River with a thousand men, offers to release his followers, and instead takes Sun Qian's counsel: refuge with his kinsman Liu Biao, who welcomes him into Jingzhou - the start of the long exile.

Sent out by Liu Biao to make the first resistance at the Xiping front; when Cao Cao suddenly decamps north he smells a ruse, lets the retreat go unmolested, and takes himself back to Jingzhou.

Counsels Liu Biao against helping Yuan Tan - nothing to gain, and a loophole handed to Cao Cao - and proposes answering both brothers as a gracious peacemaker instead; the letters end Yuan Tan's southern hopes.

Liu Bei; at a banquet for the Jingzhou notables overhears Cai Mao plotting his death; flees the city on his horse Dilu (the 'unlucky steed'), is cornered at the Tan Torrent and makes the famous leap - Dilu clears the gorge at a single bound. The novel's most-quoted miracle escape.

After leaping the Tan Torrent and pausing at the recluse Sima Hui's hut, Liu Bei is told the famous prophecy 'when Sleeping Dragon or Young Phoenix is yours, the empire is yours.' Returns to Xinye and meets Shan Fu (Xu Shu) on the road - the start of his strategist's life.

Liu Bei; wins his first major engagement under Shan Fu's strategy at Xinye; loses Shan Fu to the forged letter; sets out toward Sleeping Dragon Ridge after Xu Shu's recommendation.

Liu Bei; the famous Three Visits to Sleeping Dragon Ridge begin. First visit: Zhuge Liang isn't home - encounters Zhuge Jun. Second visit through deep snow: still not home; meets Zhuge Liang's father-in-law Huang Chengyan and brother Zhuge Jun, and learns to wait patiently. The arc spans the chapter.

Third Visit chapter: he answers his brothers with Prince Huan and King Wen, walks the last quarter mile on foot, and stands through the sage's nap and another hour besides. The Longzhong Plan unrolls before him on a map - Jingzhou first, the River Lands next, the empire in trinity - and his tears at 'what will become of the people?' win what gifts could not.

Declines Jingzhou to its owner's face - 'he has always been most kind; I could not take advantage of his weakness' - stages the colic that sends Zhuge Liang into Liu Qi's ladder trap, and answers his brothers' jealousy with 'I have him as if the fish has got into the water again.' At Bowang he hands over sword and seal, plays the retreating bait himself, and watches the fire prove the young strategist to everyone.

Refuses twice - Zhuge Liang's urging to seize failing Jingzhou ('I would rather perish than do what is wrong') and Yi Ji's plan to grab Liu Zong at the mourning - after promising the dying Liu Biao to guard his orphans. He releases the captured envoy, evacuates every soul of Xinye to Fancheng by boat, and watches the fire plan from a hilltop, drinking under umbrellas in Xu Chu's furious view.

Marches at the people's pace - three or four miles a day, a hundred thousand souls - weeping at the crossing until he must be held back from the river, praying at Liu Biao's tomb, refusing twice to abandon the crowd ('the success of every great enterprise depends upon humanity'). Overtaken at the fourth watch by the picked horsemen, he loses wives, son, and officers in the dark - and still stakes his own judgment on the loyalty of the vanished Zhao Zilong.

Flings his rescued son to the ground to honor the man who saved him, schools Zhang Fei on why the broken bridge invites pursuit, and is cornered against the Great River - saved by Guan Yu's ambush, Liu Qi's fleet, and Zhuge Liang's boats in turn. At Jiangxia he plays his part in the coaching: know nothing of Cao Cao's numbers, and let Lu Su beg for the man who does.

Liu Bei; at Jiangxia; awaits the outcome of Zhuge Liang's embassy.

Liu Bei; off-stage at Jiangxia.

Sails to Zhou Yu's camp with one boat and twenty men, laughing through a banquet staged for his assassination - the dropped-cup signal never comes because Guan Yu stands sword in hand behind his chair. Only in the boat does Zhuge Liang tell him how close it was; he leaves with the strange instruction about the twentieth day and the southeast wind.

Liu Bei; off-stage at Jiangxia.

Liu Bei; off-stage at Jiangxia.

Waits at Xiakou scanning the river until the single sail appears; then takes his own strange assignment - sit calmly in a high tower at Fankou and watch Zhou Yu's great scheme burn - voicing the one doubt Zhuge Liang confirms: Guan Yu will let Cao Cao pass, and is meant to.

Camps at Youkou with congratulations and gifts - and plays his coached line: Cao Ren may be too much for the South Land, so 'should you not take it, then we will occupy it.' The wager witnessed, he waits while the armies bleed each other, doubting aloud until Zhuge Liang whispers the design; by chapter's end Nanjun, Jingzhou, and Xiangyang all fly his banners.

Fends off Lu Su's restitution demand behind Liu Qi's living body, takes Ma Liang's four-commandery plan, and marches on Lingling - sparing Xing Darong to use him, forgiving Liu Xiang, and reappointing the surrendered Liu Du. At Guiyang he draws the lesson from Zhao Zilong's refusal of the widow: 'you are indeed right honorable.'

Follows his over-confident brother with supports, enters Changsha to the tale of the two mercies, and goes in person to the house where Huang Zhong sits behind a plea of illness - the visit that wins the veteran. He makes Huang Zhong and Wei Yan Van Leaders, gives Changsha to Liu Pan and Wuling to Gong Zhi, renames Youkou to Gongan - and wails at the news of Liu Qi, knowing the promise that death matures.

Fifty and grizzled, he sails into the enemy's capital with ten ships, five hundred gala-dressed guards, and three silken bags he cannot read: the public shopping spree makes the engagement irreversible, the Dowager takes one look and claims him, and his kneeling appeal - 'if you would slay me, let it be here' - turns her wrath on the assassins. He splits the boulder on a secret prayer, matches Sun Quan gallop for gallop on the slope, and walks through the red torches into a bridal chamber hung with spears.

A year of fair women, silk, and music nearly does what armies could not - until Zhao Zilong's invented invasion wakes him. He weeps his way to the truth twice: the ancestor-sacrifice fiction that wins the Dowager's blessing, and the third bag's full confession at the roadblock - 'you were the bait with which to hook me' - that turns his bride into his shield. At Loving Shore, despairing on an empty river, he finds twenty boats and a smiling Daoist waiting.

Weeps on cue - covering his face when Lu Su names the rendition, beating his breast as Zhuge Liang's speech peaks - and agrees to the borrowed-road offer on his adviser's rapid nod, understanding none of it until the ruse is named for him afterwards.

Judges the Young Phoenix by his unbowed salutation and ugly face and posts him to Leiyang - then, when Zhang Fei returns amazed and Lu Su's letter surfaces ('beware of judging him by his looks'), goes out to meet him and apologizes at the foot of the steps. With both Sleeping Dragon and Young Phoenix in service - 'surely the Hans will rise again.'

His letter raises the west: recalling the Girdle Edict he shared with Ma Teng, he calls Ma Chao to attack from one side while Jingzhou blocks the retreat - 'you cannot let the same sky cover you and your father's murderer.' The letter is Zhuge Liang's device to abort Cao Cao's southern expedition without moving a man.

Stage-manages the courtship of Zhang Song — Zhao Yun at the border, Guan Yu at the guest-house, three days of banquets never once mentioning the west — until the parting tears draw out the offer of Yizhou and the map from Zhang Song's sleeve. Refuses Pang Tong's assassination scheme at Fucheng ('he is a brother of my house'), but marches west with fifty thousand troops.

Refuses the assassination again and breaks up the sword-dance at the Fucheng banquet with a drawn sword — 'this is no Hongmen Banquet' — then marches to Jiameng Pass at Liu Zhang's request to hold off Zhang Lu, winning the people by strict discipline while events unfold at home without him.

Tears up Liu Zhang's stingy letter and picks Pang Tong's middle scheme: lures Yang Huai and Gao Pei to a farewell, has the hidden daggers found on them, and takes River Fu Pass without a drop of blood. Drunk at the victory feast he drives Pang Tong from the table ('the success of King Wu of Zhou was celebrated with music'), apologizes at dawn in full ceremony — then shadows his quarrelling generals to Luocheng and pockets the empty camp himself, flying the amnesty flag for every West River soldier who yields.

Shaken by dream and warning letter, he still lets Pang Tong talk him forward — and gives him the white horse that draws the ambush's every arrow. Beaten back to River Fu Pass, he turns his face west and mourns, then holds the Pass on the defensive and sends Guan Ping to fetch Zhuge Liang: the campaign has cost him 'an arm.'

Nearly dies in Zhang Ren's sortie — one man whipped over the hills ahead of a whole company until Zhang Fei appears — then gives Yan Yan the golden chain mantle, spares and wins the surrendered, and grieves for the irreconcilable Zhang Ren, burying him with honor beside the Golden Goose Bridge.

Restrains Zhang Fei all morning, calls the gongs twice, and ends the torchlit duel with a knight's word — 'I will not take advantage of your repose' — that plants the seed of Ma Chao's respect. Receives Liu Zhang weeping, hand in hand ('I am the victim of circumstances'), enters Chengdu to incense and lamps, protects the holdouts Huang Quan and Liu Ba, and takes the Protectorship of Yizhou — dissuaded from confiscating the people's lands by Zhao Zilong.

Plays his part in the script: rages at Sun Quan's marriage-theft grievance, lets Zhuge Liang's tears wring out the offer of Changsha, Lingling, and Guiyang — with a warning that Guan Yu's nature 'is as a fierce fire' — and afterwards promises the real answer: Jingzhou after Hanzhong, someday.

Alarmed by Hanzhong's fall and the panic spreading through Yizhou, he approves Zhuge Liang's diversion and sends Yi Ji east with the letters and gifts.

Liu Bei; off-stage at Chengdu.

Off-stage but present in every plan: the conspirators mean to summon 'Liu Bei, the Imperial Uncle' to finish Cao Cao, and his generals have already taken Xiabian Pass.

Frets over Zhang Fei's reported drinking until Zhuge Liang reads it as stratagem, sends the fifty vessels of wine and then Liu Feng; adopts Fa Zheng's advance plan and marches a hundred thousand from Chengdu in the seventh month of AD 218, rewarding the two veterans at Jiameng and commissioning Huang Zhong against Dingjun Mountain.

Crowns his veterans: General Who Conquers the West for the head of Xiahou Yuan, General Who Possesses Tiger Prowess after walking the ground of the empty-camp fight — 'truly, the man is brave all through!' Judges that killing Zhang He would have been worth ten Xiahou Yuans, and laughs off Cao Cao's Xie Valley thrust: 'we shall gain command of the river.'

Wins Hanzhong: welcomes Wang Ping ('I shall surely capture Hanzhong now that you are here'), gives Cao Cao the parley he asked for and a bill of charges with it — Empress Fu, the kingship, the imperial chariot — springs the river-at-back trap, and follows the wreck of the Wei army through Baozhou and Nanzheng, pacifying as he goes.

Prince of Hanzhong at last — refuses the imperial title, refuses thrice more, and takes the princedom on the altar at Mianyang in the seventh month of 219, Liu Shan named heir. His memorial to Xuchang indicts Cao Cao from Dong Cheng to the Empress. Returns to Chengdu to build — palace, guest-houses, four hundred post stations toward Baishui — and, learning of the Cao-Sun treaty, sends Guan Yu his title and the order for Fancheng.

Off-stage in Chengdu — Guan Xing rides to him with the roll of the flood victory's services and the request for promotions.

Off-stage but everywhere: the bounty Mi Fang cannot bring himself to betray, the adoption Meng Da picks apart, the help from the west that never comes.

Marries the sister of Wu Yi on Fa Zheng's counsel and the Duke Wen precedent, and she bears him Liu Yong and Liu Li — then the dread begins: creeping flesh, sleepless nights, the weeping apparition begging 'brother, send your armies to avenge me.' He overhears Zhuge Liang's hidden star-omen, swears by the oath — 'how can I go on living if he is lost?' — and at the final word of both deaths utters a great cry and falls swooning.

Grief without bottom: swoons again at the sight of Guan Xing, fasts three days, weeps until his garments show spots of blood, and swears not to live under the same heaven as Sun Quan — held back only by Zhuge Liang's counsel to mourn, wait, and let Wei and Wu collide first. Decrees mourning for all officials and wails a whole day at the south gate summoning his brother's spirit.

Presides over the reckoning: floats war on Sun Quan, follows the promote-and-separate counsel, lets Peng Yang die in gaol, rages at Meng Da's farewell memorial — and when his adopted son crawls home with a hundred riders, has him expelled and executed: 'you have no more the instincts of a man than an image of clay or wood.' Then learns Liu Feng had torn Meng Da's letter and killed his messenger, and grieves himself ill.

Mourns the Emperor he believes murdered until illness hands the court to Zhuge Liang — then holds out through two deputations ('can I imitate the deeds of such a rebel?') and falls only to the sickbed ruse: his dying strategist's grief springs the hidden officers from behind the screen. Ascends the Mount Wudan altar on the twelfth day of the fourth month, indicts the Caos before Heaven, takes the seal he twice laid down — Manifest Might, year one; Lady Wu Empress, Liu Shan heir — and at his first court vows the whole kingdom against Wu for Guan Yu, until Zhao Yun throws himself down crying 'it may not be so!'

Overrides Zhao Yun's public-before-private plea and Qin Mi's near-fatal candor (death sentence commuted to prison 'until the Army of Vengeance return'), throws Zhuge Liang's memorial to the floor, and marches seven hundred fifty thousand on the tiger day of the seventh month. The meteor tells him before the letter does — 'alas! my other brother is gone!' — and he weeps himself sick between the two white-armored sons of his dead brothers, burns the old seer's grave-drawing as madness, and knots Guan Xing and Zhang Bao into a new sworn brotherhood with a broken arrow.

Camps at Baidicheng through the Kui Pass and turns Zhuge Jin's whole package — Lady Sun, the bound turncoats, Jingzhou itself — into one sentence: 'tell your master to cleanse his neck ready for the blade.' Strings forty camps twenty-five miles from Wukou to Yiling, glories in his nephews ('now that I have such two valorous nephews, I have no fear for Sun Quan') — and lets slip the 'old and useless leaders' remark that sends Huang Zhong storming to the front, smiling at what the old man means to prove.

Wins everything and learns nothing: takes Xiaoting with eight divisions ('the tiger fathers have not begotten curs of sons'), collects the heads of all five men he hated plus his brother's assassins, and sacrifices them at the altars — then refuses Wu's whole concession package: 'the one I would grind to pieces is Sun Quan.' Strings forty camps two hundred miles, scoffs at the 'callow youth' commanding Wu, moves the army into the forest shade against Ma Liang's warning, and plants the Hu Ban ambush he is sure will catch Lu Xun — sending the camp-map to Zhuge Liang only as an afterthought.

The catastrophe: dismisses the fallen standard and the 'reconnaissance,' then watches the night turn red — camp after camp, the trees themselves alight. Chased from Feng Xi's burning camp through Xu Sheng and Ding Feng's pincer to the top of Saddle Hill, brought down at dusk between Guan Xing and Zhang Bao, burning his own soldiers' clothing in the road to slow the hunt — 'This is the end!' — until Zhao Yun cuts through and Zhu Ran dies on his spear. He reaches Baidicheng with about a hundred men.

The end at sixty-three: forgives Huang Quan's surrender ('really, I betrayed him, not he me') and keeps paying the family; is visited by the shades of his brothers — 'ere long, brother, we three shall be together' — and knows his hour. The entrustment: warns Zhuge Liang privately that Ma Su's 'words exceed his deeds,' writes the testament ('do not do evil because it is a small evil...'), and offers the throne itself: 'if my son proves a fool, then take the throne yourself.' Makes his sons bow to the Prime Minister as to a father, charges Zhao Yun by their old dangers, and dies on the twenty-fourth of the fourth month, buried at Huiling as the Glorious Emperor.

Named in passing — 'our First Ruler was not on friendly terms with Wu. But that is all changed.'

Invoked as the debt behind the march — the man who 'came thrice to seek me and doubled my obligation when he confided to me the care of his son.'

The debt behind the campaign and the warning inside it: the poem marches south 'to repay the First Ruler's deference,' and Jiang Wan sees in the forest stockades the very mistake that broke him at Yiling.

Invoked in both of the chapter's prayers — the First Ruler whose confided trust drives the Prime Minister through poison country.

Dead, and the moral centre of the chapter's second half. The Chu Shi Biao is built on him: the great task half-accomplished at his death, the three visits to the humble cot in Nanyang twenty-one years ago, the testament that chose Fei Yi and Guo Youzhi and Dong Yun, the epithet 'capable' he applied to Xiang Chong after testing him, his talk of Emperors Huan and Ling, and the charge confided on his deathbed that makes Zhuge Liang live 'a life of anxiety lest I should fail in my trust and so dim his glory'. Zhao Zilong dates his own service from the day he first joined him.

Dead, and invoked once at the chapter's emotional peak — Zhao Zilong, rescued and refusing to rest on it, going back out to try for Xiahou Mao 'for the sake of my old lord the First Ruler'. The Dangyang feat Xiahou Mao had thought fabricated is from the same service.

Named once, at the hinge of Zhuge Liang's answer to Wang Lang: 'But happily the design of Heaven is to retain the glorious dynasty. The late Emperor Bei continued the line in the River Lands, and I have been entrusted by the present Emperor with the task of destroying you rebels.' The legitimacy claim the whole oration turns on.

Dead, and quoted twice as the better judge of men. On Zhao Zilong: 'When the First Ruler lived, he never tired of extolling Zhao Zilong's virtues. The First Ruler was perfectly right.' And on Ma Su, the warning at Baidicheng that Zhuge Liang ignored and now weeps over — 'Ma Su's words exceed his deeds. Do not make much use of him.'

The Second Memorial is built on his charge and his words: 'Han and rebels cannot coexist; a ruler's domain cannot be confined.' He assigned the task knowing his minister's powers were inadequate to it, because waiting for destruction was the only alternative. The memorial also tracks his own reversals — defeated in Jingzhou, then taking Wu and Yue's support, Ba and Shu, and Xiahou Yuan's life — as proof that no forecast holds.

Named in passing only, and long dead - but he is Zhuge Liang's whole answer to Sima Yi's demand that he go home: 'Our First Ruler entrusted to me the custody of his orphan son: Think you that I shall fail to exert myself to the uttermost to destroy rebels against his authority?'

Named in passing only, and long dead, but invoked twice as the reason Li Yan keeps his head: Fei Yi pleads that 'the First Ruler had loved and trusted Li Yan with his son', and Jiang Wan that Liu Shan's late father had named him a guardian of his youth. Zhuge Liang's own obligation to him is the chapter's other refrain.

Named in passing only, and long dead, in the salutation of Zhuge Liang's letter to Sun Quan: 'My late master, Emperor Bei, confided a great task to me, and I must exhaust every effort to achieve it.'

Named in passing only, and long dead, but at the chapter's most exposed moment: the prayer to the Seven Stars of the North is addressed on his account - 'But His Majesty, Liu Bei the Glorious Emperor, sought him thrice and confided to him the heavy responsibility of guarding his son. He dared not do less than spend himself to the utmost in such a task.'

Named in passing only, and long dead, but quoted by his widow at the decisive moment of the council: 'The First Ruler used to say that Zhuge Liang knew that treachery lurked in the heart of Wei Yan, and he wished to deal with Wei Yan; he only spared Wei Yan because Wei Yan is a valiant and committed leader.'

Named in passing only, and long dead, but as the explicit model for the scene being played: Cao Rui takes Sima Yi's hand and says 'When Liu Bei lay dying at Baidicheng, he confided his son, so soon to be an orphan, to the care of Zhuge Liang, who labored in this task to the very end and whose devotion only ceased with death.' The comparison is meant as reassurance and reads, after ch107, as the chapter's irony.

Named in passing only, and long dead, in Zhuge Zhan's acceptance of the command: 'My father and I owe too much to the First Ruler's and Your Majesty's kindness for me to think any sacrifice too great to make for Your Majesty.'

Named in passing throughout, and always as the reproach: Liu Chan invokes him three times ('we shall be able to look the First Ruler in the face, unashamed'), dies in his temple, and the closing lament turns on him — 'And the plans of the First Ruler, / Excellent and far-reaching, / Whereby he laid the foundations of a mighty state, / Were brought to nought in one day.' Jiang Wei's map is the one Zhuge Liang gave him before either of them had a kingdom.

Named in passing only, and long dead. The cause he founded ends in this chapter with the deaths of Jiang Wei, his heir apparent and Guan Yu's grandson, and with his son answering 'With such music as this, I forget Shu.'

Named in the closing elegy, where the founding of the three kingdoms is recited backwards from the unified empire - the hero whose thirty-year labour is one line of a poem.