A Concise History of China-Pangu to Puyi - Part 5

Laszlo Montgomery (0:00)

Welcome back, everyone. Laszlo Montgomery here with another China History Podcast episode, the fifth one in this series that presents Chinese history to you from mythical times to the modern age.

We left off last time on the eve of the Battle of Redcliffe, the chirpy Zhejiang. After defeating the progeny of Yuan Shao and consolidating his control of northern China, as I mentioned last time, Cao Cao sought to recreate the military feat of Yíngzhèng more than four centuries before, to unify the fractured land into one nation.

To achieve this goal, there were two political and military powers he had to vanquish first, and in the year 208, he set out to do just that. Cao Cao left his northern base in command of a massive army. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Ming dynasty novel that made this time in the early 3rd century such a popular historical age, called the number 800,000 troops, but it was much smaller than that. Cao Cao's master plan called for his army to march south towards the Yangzi River and to launch a massive flotilla of ships, sail down river and bring the fight straight into the Wu heartland. With Wu's defeat, that would leave only Shu in the west. Once Cao Cao put them away, only then could he taste victory and join the emperors of Qin and Han as an imperial dynasty founder.

But first he had to take Qing province. Remember Liu Biao, the former governor and warlord of Qing as well as benefactor of Liu Bei? Well, he had just died. And with the succession having the usual bumps in the road, Cao Cao saw Qing ripe for the taking.

Look on a map of China. This province, mostly today's Hubei, is right in the center of China. To get to the Yangtze River from the north, you had to pass through Jing. It had been Liu Bei who faced Cao Cao's troops first. He was living in Jing province at the time. Cao Cao's troops came in fast and hard from the north. And this clash that reached its climax at the Battle of Changban wasn't the king of Shu's finest hour. It was a poor first outing against Cao Cao. Liu Bei wasn't yet fully established. An early victory would have made all the difference, but it wasn't meant to be. He remained a kind of refugee warlord still who, unlike Cao Cao and Sun Quan, lacked a solid territorial base.

But the battle did yield one great story concerning Liu Bei's sworn brother, Zhang Fei. As Cao Cao's army bore down on Liu Bei's retreating soldiers, Zhang Fei and 20 horsemen, as the legend goes, held off the advancing cavalry.

Zhang Fei was famously said to have taunted the Cao Wei soldiers, saying, I am Zhang Yī De of Yan. Come forward and meet your doom. Yī De was his purdacy name. His bravery was enough to hold back Cao Cao's attack, and this allowed Liu Bei to escape and live to fight another day. If you read the San Guozhi, the record of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou, it mentions Zhang Fei's defense of Liu Bei's rear guard. Luo Guanzhong, on the other hand, took many liberties with this bit of history from 208 Zhang Fei was a historical figure, that's for certain, but the literary version of his story was sort of amplified to the who at Isle of Wight levels. Zhang Fei went way back with Liu Bei, and both of them came from around Zhuozhou.

He spent the rest of his years on the battlefield and was a serious warrior. Zhang Fei left the scene early in 221, and killed, it's said, by his own subordinates.

Seeing how things were with Cao Cao, intent on conquering both Liu Bei and Sun Quan, it led these two leaders to consider their options. And this is where Zhuge Liang entered the picture. Let me move on to one of the biggest names in Chinese history, Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang was born in 181 in Shandong province. He came from another one of those families of accomplished scholars who fell on hard times. He moved south with relatives to Longzhōng, near Xiangyang in Jing province. Today that's northern Hubei.

There in Longzhōng, where the Daoist-rich Wudang mountains rise up from the plain, Zhuge Liang lived the idyllic life of a recluse scholar-farmer. It's said he spent his days studying Confucianism, the classics, including the military classics, as well as astronomy and geography. Recluse he may have been, but Zhuge Liang gained a reputation as the Wulong, or sleeping or crouching dragon, a hidden genius waiting to be discovered.

The traditional depiction of Zhuge Liang in paintings and drawings displayed his unique sartorial style. He attired and accessorized himself in a certain kind of way. Always dressed in the robes of a Taoist priest, and he could always be seen carrying a fan made from either the feathers of a crane or a goose. I read two versions.