Zhuge Liang

Zhuge Liang; not yet appeared in the action; named in passing in an authorial aside foreshadowing his future significance.

Introduced by Xu Shu's parting speech - Master Sleeping Dragon of the ridge in Nanyang, superior to his own models Guan Zhong and Yue Yi, 'the talent to measure the heavens and mete the earth' - and then met in the flesh for one sharp moment: told Liu Bei is coming, he shakes out his sleeves at Xu Shu - 'so you have made me a victim of the world's sacrifice' - and walks out.

Zhuge Liang; not directly met yet. The chapter sketches him through his friends and family - Cui Zhouping, Shi Guangyuan, Meng Jian - and through his own brother and father-in-law. Each conversation deepens the portrait without revealing the man.

Zhuge Liang's introduction in person - the famous Third Visit. Found napping in his thatched cottage at the foot of the ridge. After Liu Bei waits respectfully for hours, Zhuge Liang wakes, exchanges the formal greetings, and lays out the Longzhong Plan: hold Jingzhou and Yizhou, ally with Sun Quan, restore the Han. Joins Liu Bei at twenty-seven.

Zhuge Liang's first command - designs the Bowang Slope fire ambush against Xiahou Dun's 100,000-strong invasion. Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun execute it; the Wei van is annihilated. Zhang Fei admits 'Zhuge Liang is really a fine strategist' - the chapter that wins his brothers' trust.

Zhuge Liang; designs the second Xinye fire ambush - burns Cao Cao's vanguard with floods of pitch and oil arrows. Coordinates the southward exodus with the brothers across multiple guards. The chapter's headlining stratagem.

Burns the boats behind the Fancheng crossing, points the march at defensible Jiangling, and - when no word comes back from Guan Yu - rides for Jiangxia himself with Liu Feng and five hundred troops. His own family he has already spirited to the Three Gorges, to Cao Cao's fruitless disgust.

His dispositions unfold like clockwork: Guan Yu pre-placed at Hanjin, Liu Qi's fleet sent to the crossing, his own boats mustered from Xiakou. When Lu Su's sail appears he laughs 'It is done!' - coaches Liu Bei into strategic ignorance, dangles the fictitious refuge with Wu Ju until Lu Su begs him to come south, and boards the little boat to 'set north and south at each other's throats.'

Zhuge Liang at Chaisang debates Sun Quan's pacifist scholars one by one - Zhang Zhao, Yu Fan, Lu Ji, Bu Zhi, Xue Zong, Yan Jun, Cheng Bing - and demolishes their case for surrender. The chapter's set piece argument.

Sits smiling through the Zhou Yu-Lu Su wrangle, agrees sweetly with 'surrender', then springs the trap: Cao Cao's whole expedition wants only two women - and he recites the Bronze Bird ode with 'he would have the two Qiaos, these beautiful ladies of Wu' planted in it. The feigned apology seals it. Next day he sends Zhou Yu back to dissolve Sun Quan's last doubt about the numbers - reading the lord's heart so exactly that Zhou Yu privately marks him for death.

Reads the Iron Pile Mountains errand as a death warrant and accepts it anyway, teases Zhou Yu into cancelling it with a street-rhyme about one-direction talents, peers into the banquet tent and relaxes at the sight of Guan Yu behind his lord's chair - and leaves Liu Bei with the chapter's quietest bombshell: on the twentieth of the eleventh month send Zhao Zilong to the south bank, 'when the southeast wind begins, I shall return.'

Signs the three-day arrow warrant in front of the whole assembly, idles two days, then sails twenty straw-lined boats into the fifth-watch fog and lets Cao Cao's ten thousand archers fill both sides of every dummy - 'we thank you, Sir Prime Minister, for the arrows!' Back ashore he matches palms with Zhou Yu on the word 'Fire', reads the Cai brothers' false desertion at a glance, and knows the beating of Huang Gai for a ruse while pretending resentment like everyone else.

Zhuge Liang; off-stage in the chapter; called for at chapter's end by the prostrate Zhou Yu - only Zhuge Liang knows what's wrong.

Writes Zhou Yu's diagnosis in sixteen characters - 'all are in your wish, but wind from the east' - and prescribes himself: the nine-span Altar of the Seven Stars, three ascents a day, and at the third watch the southeast wind rises. He is already gone when the assassins reach the altar, Zhao Zilong's boat carrying him home to issue the night's dispositions: Zhao Zilong to the Black Forest, Zhang Fei to Hulu Valley, Liu Qi to Wuchang - and Guan Yu, bound by a written pledge, to the Huarong Road where the stars say Cao Cao must pass and must not die.

Congratulates Guan Yu with a cup of wine for 'removing the empire's worst foe' - the gentlest possible spring of the trap - then hears the confession he predicted and orders the execution the written pledge demands, staging the mercy that will rebalance the brothers.

Coaches Liu Bei's every word of the wager, then harvests Zhou Yu's victory whole: as the night raid breaks, Zhao Zilong takes emptied Nanjun; Chen Jiao's captured seal forges the orders that march the Jingzhou garrison and Xiahou Dun's Xiangyang force off to 'rescue' Cao Ren - and Zhang Fei and Guan Yu walk into both cities. Three cities without one southern casualty avenged.

Produces the living Liu Qi to silence Lu Su's demand and concedes only 'should he die'; on campaign he plays the bait himself - the four-wheeled carriage and feather fan drawing Xing Darong through the parted ranks to Zhang Fei - spares the captured champion to turn him, reads the counter-ruse, and takes Lingling with two ambushes. He then settles the Guiyang command by lot and endorses Zhao Zilong's three reasons for refusing the widow.

Briefs Guan Yu on the sixty-year-old 'warrior of a thousand' and is scorned for it; sends Liu Bei after him with supports, reads the black flag and the thrice-croaking crow as Changsha taken and a great leader mastered - and, when the falling star announces Liu Qi's death, has the answer ready for the claim that must follow: 'I will have somewhat to say to anyone who comes.'

Demolishes the rendition claim - the empire is the Liu estate, and where was Zhou Yu without the southeast wind? - then concedes the paper that concedes nothing: temporary occupation until Yizhou falls, with Lu Su maneuvered into signing as guarantor. When the marriage bait arrives he smells Zhou Yu, consults the oracle behind the screen, and packs Zhao Zilong off with three silken bags: 'let Zhou Yu employ all his ruses - his calculations will always fail halfway.'

The author off-stage until the last page: the three bags play out exactly as sealed, and he is waiting in the hold of the twentieth boat in Daoist dress - 'my lord, again you see Zhuge Liang; he has waited a long time.' He lands the party, springs Guan Yu, Huang Zhong, and Wei Yan on the pursuing marines, and sends the four foolish generals home with a message: tell Zhou Yu not to use the Fair Damsel Trick again.

Directs Liu Bei's tears from behind the screen and answers Lu Su with the unanswerable: Liu Zhang is my lord's blood - attack him and bear the world's blame, yield Jingzhou first and have nowhere to rest. When the borrowed-road offer arrives he nods Liu Bei into accepting it, then names the ruse - 'Borrow a Road to Destroy the Host' - and sets the hidden hook: 'if Zhou Yu is not killed, he will be nine-tenths a corpse.'

His letter kills the western expedition and, the poem implies, its author; reading the falling star he smiles 'Zhou Yu is dead' - then sails to Chaisang under Zhao Zilong's guard and delivers the threnody that converts the hostile mourners: 'people lied when they said these two were enemies.' On the shore Pang Tong clutches his arm; he answers with a letter of introduction to Liu Bei - and later has to explain why the transcendent drink themselves through paltry posts.

Answers the southern alarm with one sentence - 'I can prevent Cao Cao from even daring to look southeast' - and does it by post: the letter that points the grieving Ma Chao at Tong Pass. Three hundred thousand men turn around without a battle.

Zhuge Liang; sees the Yi-Province opening and counsels Liu Bei to march.

Zhuge Liang; in Jingzhou - receives Liu Bei's reports from the west.

Zhuge Liang; at Jingzhou.

Zhuge Liang; leaves Jingzhou with Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei to reinforce Liu Bei; assigns Guan Yu to hold Jingzhou. The split that will eventually cost Shu the eastern half of its empire.

Zhuge Liang; designs the Luocheng bridge trap that captures Zhang Ren; coordinates the multi-prong assault on the city.

Zhuge Liang; ends the Ma Chao threat by turning him: arranges for Pang De's brother Pang Rou (in Liu Bei's service) to plant a forged letter implicating Zhang Lu's officer Yang Bo. Zhang Lu disowns Ma Chao; Liu Bei welcomes him; Liu Zhang surrenders shortly after seeing Ma Chao's banner at Chengdu's gates.

Zhuge Liang; at Chengdu - receives the Jingzhou diplomatic crisis updates.

Zhuge Liang; at Chengdu.

Zhuge Liang; designs the Hanzhong campaign; deliberately goads Huang Zhong with age-jabs to ensure his energy. The 'goad the old general' technique that he uses again at chapter 71.

Zhuge Liang; directs the whole Hanzhong campaign by remote management - sends Huang Zhong's age-baiting plan, sends Fa Zheng to plant the flags. Spell-perfect.

Zhuge Liang; directs the Han River campaign; Zhao Yun-and-empty-camp routine spooks Cao Cao's army into rout.

Zhuge Liang; orchestrates the kingship petition; lays out the Five Tiger Generals - Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, Huang Zhong. Then orders Guan Yu north to capture Fancheng - the war that will kill him.

Zhuge Liang; in Chengdu; the news of Jingzhou's loss reaches him.

Zhuge Liang; receives Liu Bei's mourning; tries to talk him out of the immediate revenge expedition.

Zhuge Liang; off-stage in Chengdu.

Zhuge Liang; in Chengdu; advises Liu Bei to spare Liu Feng - but Liu Bei has already moved to execute.

Zhuge Liang; leads the petition for Liu Bei's accession; arranges the auspicious omens and ceremonial; appointed Chancellor (Cheng Xiang). The administrative architect of the new dynasty.

Zhuge Liang; argues against the expedition - Cao Pi is the greater threat; vengeance against Wu plays into Wei's hands. Liu Bei dismisses him.

Zhuge Liang; in Chengdu, watching.

Zhuge Liang; in Chengdu when Ma Liang arrives with the camp-map. Tears his beard at the layout - knows immediately Shu is doomed. The Eight Trigrams stone maze at Yufu Gorge was his earlier defensive measure, now traps Lu Xun and saves Liu Bei from total pursuit.

Zhuge Liang; receives the death-entrustment at Baidicheng. From this chapter forward he is effectively the head of state - Liu Shan's regent. Returns to Chengdu and reorganises the kingdom; defuses Cao Pi's five-army invasion through sleight of hand (covered in the chapter's second half).

Zhuge Liang; orchestrates the Wu alliance; planning the southern campaign against Meng Huo.

Zhuge Liang; launches the Southern Campaign. Mobilises personally despite Wang Lian's objections about the dangerous Nanman terrain. Marches the Shu army south against Meng Huo. Takes the first three southern rebel commanders (Yong Kai, Zhu Bao, Gao Ding) one by one; turns Gao Ding to kill Yong Kai for him. Reaches the Nanman frontier.

Zhuge Liang; the second and third captures of Meng Huo. Meng Huo is freed after the first capture; comes back; is captured a second time at the Lu River crossing; freed again; captured a third time when his subordinate Dong Tuna betrays him. Each time Meng Huo refuses to submit on the ground that he was outsmarted, not outfought. Zhuge Liang lets him go each time. The 'win his heart' strategy in slow motion.

Zhuge Liang; the fourth and fifth captures. The Tuhua Spring of poisonous water nearly kills the Shu army (the four lethal springs: Dumb Spring, Mute Spring, Black Spring, Hot Spring) until Meng Jie - Meng Huo's elder brother - gives Zhuge Liang the cure (the *xiè yè cǎo* leaves). Then defeats King Mulu of the Bana Cave with his fire-breathing beasts using engineered wooden carved beasts that out-roar the originals. Meng Huo's wife Lady Zhurong is captured and exchanged. By chapter's end Meng Huo has been taken and released five times.

Zhuge Liang; the sixth and seventh captures. Burns the rattan-armoured army of King Wutugu of Wuge Cave in a sealed valley - the dreadful 'mulberry-coffin moment' when Zhuge Liang weeps as he watches 30,000 rattan-armoured men burn alive: 'My contribution to Heaven will be reduced because of this.' Captures Meng Huo a seventh and final time; this time, finally beaten in every category, Meng Huo prostrates himself and swears eternal loyalty. The whole south pacified. Zhuge Liang declines to garrison the territory - leaves the southern lands self-governing in the famous Han-Yi settlement that holds for the rest of the novel.

Zhuge Liang; submits the famous *Chu Shi Biao* (Memorial on Setting Out) to Liu Shan and launches the First Northern Expedition. The memorial - one of Chinese literature's most-quoted documents - exhorts Liu Shan to govern well and recommends the men around him by name. The Shu army crosses Hanzhong; Xiahou Mao is named as the Wei commander in front of them. The North-South war begins.

Zhuge Liang; manoeuvres around Xiahou Mao; takes Nan'an, Anding, and (in the chapter's centerpiece) is set up to take Tianshui - except for the young Wei prefect Jiang Wei, who sees through every plan and counters them. Zhuge Liang resolves to capture Jiang Wei rather than just defeat him.

Zhuge Liang; recruits Jiang Wei. Then advances to confront Cao Zhen's army. The chapter's climax is the famous oration in which Zhuge Liang debates the elderly Wei minister Wang Lang from the saddle in front of both armies - calling Wang Lang a faithless old man who has betrayed the Han three times; Wang Lang dies of apoplectic fury on the spot, falling dead from his horse. The book's most iconic verbal kill.

Zhuge Liang; presses the campaign - takes the Qiang king's army into Shu's alliance when the Qiang king Cheliji invades Wei from the west on Zhuge Liang's request; defeats Cao Zhen's army at Chang'an. Sima Yi's emergence offstage will undo all of it.

Zhuge Liang; the empty fort. With Sima Yi advancing on Xicheng where Zhuge Liang has only a handful of clerks (all his fighting men committed elsewhere), Zhuge Liang opens the city gates wide, has the gates swept clean by old men, and sits on the wall playing the qin with two boys beside him. Sima Yi arrives, suspects a vast ambush behind the calm, and withdraws. The novel's most famous bluff. Then orders the army home and prepares to court-martial Ma Su.

Zhuge Liang; the Jieting reckoning. Court-martials Ma Su despite their close friendship; executes him with weeping eyes - the famous *huī lèi zhǎn Mǎ Sù* ('weeping over the execution'). Pensions Ma Su's family. Then memorialises Liu Shan demoting himself three grades for the failure. Wei Yan, Wang Ping, and the rest receive promotions for sound performance. Ends preparing the Second Northern Expedition.

Zhuge Liang; submits the *Second Memorial on Setting Out* (the *Hou Chu Shi Biao* - sometimes attributed to him, sometimes considered later) and launches the Second Northern Expedition. Besieges Hao Zhao at Chencang. Hao Zhao holds out brilliantly through every assault: cloud-ladders burned with fire-arrows; mantlets crushed with millstones; tunnels countermined with cross-tunnels. Zhuge Liang fails to take the city; falls back when Wei relief approaches.

Zhuge Liang; the Third Northern Expedition. Receives news of Hao Zhao's death; sends Wei Yan and Jiang Wei to take the now-undefended Chencang. Takes Wudu and Yinping commanderies. Then word arrives: Sun Quan has formally declared himself Emperor of Wu - the Three Kingdoms are now three formal monarchies. Zhuge Liang advises Liu Shan to ratify diplomatically rather than break the alliance.

Zhuge Liang; the Fourth Northern Expedition continues. With Cao Zhen ill and Sima Yi commanding the Wei front, Zhuge Liang fights a chain of engagements - captures Wei officers; bests Sima Yi on the Wei River; advances on Qishan. The two great minds' set-piece manoeuvring.

Zhuge Liang; the Fourth Expedition closes. A rumour planted in Chengdu by the eunuch Gou An - bribed by Sima Yi - makes Liu Shan recall Zhuge Liang home on a manufactured pretext. Zhuge Liang must withdraw mid-campaign with battle finally going his way. On the retreat he tricks Sima Yi into thinking the Shu army has been reinforced (the lit-and-doused camp-fires); pulls his army out intact. Returns to Chengdu, clears his name, exposes Gou An. The lost opportunity that Liu Shan's court has handed Wei.

Zhuge Liang; the Fifth Northern Expedition. Impeaches and demotes Li Yan for his falsified supply reports. Marches north again. The chapter's centerpiece: ambushes and kills Zhang He at Mumen Gorge with concealed crossbowmen on the cliffs above the road. Zhang He - the last great Wei field general from Cao Cao's generation - caught in the open and shot full of arrows.

Zhuge Liang; the Sixth Northern Expedition. Inventories the famous wooden-ox-and-flowing-horse logistic devices - articulated wooden pack-animals that move along mountain roads, with internal locking pins that immobilise them on tilt; Shu uses them to outflank Wei attempts to seize the supply trains. Reaches Qishan. The chapter ends with Sima Yi cementing his refusal-to-engage; Wei dug in, Shu encamped opposite, the stage set for Wuzhang Plains.

Zhuge Liang; the chapter's two great Zhuge-Liang showpieces. (1) The Shangfang Valley fire-trap - lures Sima Yi and his two sons into a narrow valley loaded with mines and brushwood; lights the fuses; Sima Yi and his sons embrace and weep, expecting death - when a sudden thunderstorm douses the fire and saves them. Zhuge Liang weeps: 'Man proposes, Heaven disposes.' (2) The 'woman's clothes' provocation - sends Sima Yi a parcel of women's robes and a letter calling him 'an old woman who hides behind walls.' Sima Yi pretends to laugh and accepts; the Wei army's morale is shaken but Sima Yi doesn't move.

Zhuge Liang dies. The chapter's heart. At Wuzhang Plains, exhausted from years of overwork (eating only a handful of rice a day, attending to every detail of administration personally), falls ill. Attempts the seven-day prolongation ritual with seven candles arranged in the Northern Dipper pattern - Wei Yan rushes in to report Wei movements and accidentally extinguishes the main lamp; Zhuge Liang accepts the omen. Sends final orders: Yang Yi to lead the army home; Ma Dai to kill Wei Yan if he rebels; Jiang Wei to inherit the strategic legacy. Writes his last memorial to Liu Shan with simple instructions for governance. Dies. The 'fallen star' moment - a great red star streaks across the heavens as he passes; the chapter closes with the iconic image of his army withdrawing under his command even after death (the wooden effigy of him sitting in the carriage that fools Sima Yi into believing he is still alive - the famous 'dead Zhuge Liang frightens off live Zhongda').

Zhuge Liang; named throughout in the post-mortem assessments; his tomb at Dingjun Mountain is established.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing in the recap.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing in the recap.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing in the recap of Shu's lost golden age.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing - his spirit haunts Zhong Hui who visits his shrine on the road.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing throughout the Zhuge-clan death sequence.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing in the dynastic elegy.

Zhuge Liang; named throughout in the final elegies - the spirit that haunts the unmade Shu restoration.

Zhuge Liang; named in passing in the closing elegy that ends the novel: 'Of the three contending heroes only their names remain; rivers and hills as before, but the kingdoms gone like a passing dream.'