Son of the calligrapher Zhong You, and the man who planned the conquest of Shu. Led more than a hundred thousand to Jiange and could not pass it; watched Deng Ai win the war; then raised rebellion at Chengdu and died in the mutiny, aged forty.
He wished to take Shu and urged it on Sima Zhao, and warships were built first on the eastern rivers, openly as if against Wu, so that no one would be ready when the real edict came.Sanguozhi, Wei shu 28, Biography of Zhong Hui
Appears in
Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 2Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 3Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 5Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 6Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 14Three Kingdoms 11 · panel 16
Relations
- Deng Ai co-conquerors — Planned the war, commanded the main blade, and could not pass the gate; Deng Ai's remnant did what a hundred thousand could not — and Zhong Hui helped arrest him for it.
- Jiang Wei captor & co-conspirator — Held the gate against him, then handed back his seals and gave him a seat in his own carriage; the two plotted rebellion together at Chengdu and died in the same mutiny.
Myth vs record
The story you may know
A treacherous schemer who stole a conquest only to lose it in a day of madness.
What the sources say
The sources give a deliberate planner: the whole war was his design, right down to the sham shipbuilding against Wu. He took nothing at Jiange, honoured Zhuge Liang's tomb on the way, and when he raised his rebellion he was killed in the streets by his own soldiers in the first month of 264.