Liu Bei

Liu Bei the Chinese warlord and statesman of the late Han and Three Kingdoms period (161-223 AD), who rose from humble beginnings to found the state of Shu Han and claim the imperial title on the strength of his descent from the Han imperial house. He is remembered for his perseverance, his benevolence and his devotion to his advisers and allies.

Early Life and Humble Origins

Liu Bei was born in 161 AD in Zhuo Commandery in the region of present-day Hebei, into a poor branch of the imperial Liu clan. His father died when he was young, and he and his mother earned a living by making and selling straw sandals and woven mats. His humble circumstances were to become a celebrated contrast with the imperial dignity to which he later laid claim.

He was a large, reserved and gregarious young man who gathered friends and followers from an early age. By his own account his ambition was to win a reputation, and he took part in the suppression of the Yellow Turban rebellion, the great popular rising that shook the Han in the 180s. His modest military successes won him a first taste of office, though he lost it soon afterwards.

His claim to descent from the Han imperial family gave him a title and a legitimacy that his rivals lacked, but for many years it brought him little else. He served under one patron after another, moved from province to province, and was repeatedly driven out of the small territories he managed to acquire. His career in these years is a record of endurance in the face of repeated failure.

The Long Search for a Base

Liu Bei spent decades seeking a secure power base. He held and lost the province of Xu on several occasions, allied and quarrelled with the warlord Cao Cao and with the family of Yuan Shao, and took refuge with Liu Biao in Jing Province, where he was kept as an honoured guest without real authority. He was respected for his generosity and his treatment of subordinates, but he remained weak.

The turning point came when he sought out the scholar Zhuge Liang. The famous Three Visits, in which he called repeatedly until the recluse agreed to meet him, led to the grand strategy that Liu Bei had lacked. Zhuge Liang advised him to take Jing and Yi Provinces as his base and to ally with Sun Quan against Cao Cao, and this plan guided him for the rest of his career.

The alliance with Sun Quan bore fruit at the battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD, where their combined forces shattered Cao Cao's attempt to conquer the south. In the aftermath Liu Bei was able to establish himself in Jing Province and then, in 214 AD, to take Yi Province in the west, the fertile basin of Sichuan that became the heartland of his state. At last he possessed a secure and substantial territory.

Founding the State of Shu Han

In 221 AD, after the usurpation of the Han throne by Cao Pi, Liu Bei declared himself emperor in succession to the Han house and founded the state known to history as Shu Han, with its capital at Chengdu. He claimed to be the legitimate heir of the dynasty, a claim that gave his state its name and its mission and that set it in opposition to Wei in the north.

His reign as emperor was brief and troubled. In 219 AD his veteran general Guan Yu had been killed and Jing Province lost to the forces of Sun Quan, a disaster that strained the alliance and left Liu Bei determined on revenge. Against the counsel of his advisers he led a campaign eastward against Sun Quan, seeking to recover the lost territory and to avenge his brother-in-arms.

The campaign ended in catastrophe. In 222 AD his army was destroyed by the young commander Lu Xun at the battle of Yiling, and Liu Bei was forced to retreat to Baidi near the eastern frontier of his state. The defeat was the gravest blow of his career, and it left Shu Han weakened and confined to the west.

Character and Reputation

Liu Bei's reputation rests above all on his character. He was celebrated for his benevolence toward the people, his loyalty to his friends and his willingness to treat his advisers with respect and generosity. When he fled south from Cao Cao's advance he was said to have taken the common people with him rather than abandon them, and this image of the compassionate leader became central to his legend.

His relations with his followers were marked by unusual warmth. His bond with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, his companions from his early years, became a byword for brotherhood, and his devotion to Zhuge Liang and the confidence he placed in him were exemplary. These qualities attracted able men to his service and sustained him through decades of adversity.

He was also a practical and at times ruthless leader, capable of abandoning allies and of seizing territory when opportunity offered. Yet the picture that has come down to posterity is dominated by his virtues, and he became in later tradition the very type of the humane and principled ruler, the counterweight to the cunning and ambition of Cao Cao.

Death and Legacy

Liu Bei died in 223 AD at Baidi, at the age of about sixty-two, less than a year after his defeat at Yiling. On his deathbed he entrusted the young heir Liu Shan to the care of Zhuge Liang and urged him to serve the chancellor as he would his own father. His words on this occasion, and Zhuge Liang's response of total loyalty, became one of the most famous exchanges in Chinese history.

He was given the posthumous title of Emperor Zhaolie, and his son Liu Shan succeeded him, though real power lay in the hands of Zhuge Liang for as long as the chancellor lived. Shu Han survived until 263 AD, when it was conquered by the northern state of Wei, but its memory was kept alive as the home of the loyal and the righteous.

In later ages Liu Bei became the hero of the popular accounts of the Three Kingdoms, the just ruler whose virtue was contrasted with the villainy attributed to Cao Cao. The novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms fixed this image in the culture, and the story of the poor seller of sandals who became an emperor gave Chinese tradition one of its most enduring tales of perseverance and virtue rewarded.

See also

• Three Kingdoms
• Shu Han
• Zhuge Liang
• Guan Yu