Shu-Han's last great general, twenty-five years at war with the north. Held Zhong Hui's main army at Jiange, took his own emperor's order to surrender, and then tried to turn the conquerors against each other; died in the mutiny at Chengdu in 264.
Bear, Your Majesty, the humiliation of a few days; I am attempting to turn peril into safety.Jiang Wei's secret memorial to Liu Shan before the mutiny, 264; Sanguozhi, Shu shu 14, Biography of Jiang Wei
Appears in
Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 3Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 4Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 5Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 6Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 14Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 16
Relations
- Zhuge Liang heir at war — Inherited his northward purpose and spent twenty-five years on it, mostly aimed at Longyou rather than the Central Plains itself.
- Deng Ai opponents — A decade on the western border, ending at Tazhong in 262 with the defeat that sent him to farm where the war of 263 found him.
- Zhong Hui enemy turned co-conspirator — Held him at Jiange undefeated, then surrendered on his emperor's order; they plotted the rebellion together and died in the same streets.
Myth vs record
The story you may know
He launched nine campaigns into the Central Plains — the novel's famous number.
What the sources say
The number nine belongs to the Romance. The record gives the campaigns one by one, about eleven over twenty-five years (238–262), almost all small affairs aimed at Longyou, Wei's western frontier, with one great victory at Taoxi in 255. Whether his last plot truly meant to restore Shu, or only to survive, the sources do not settle.