Liu Shan: Encyclopedia II - Liu Shan - Reign

Liu Shan - Reign

Liu Shan - Zhuge Liang's regency

During the early years of his reign, Liu Shan was not an unwise ruler. While Zhuge Liang was alive, Liu Shan treated him as a father, allowing the chancellor to handle all state affairs. Zhuge Liang recommended many trusted officials, including Guo Youzhi (郭攸之), Fei Yi (費禕), Dong Yun (董允) and Xiang Chong (向寵) into key positions. Also under Zhuge's advice, Liu Shan entered into an alliance with Eastern Wu, helping both states to survive against the much larger Cao Wei. During Zhuge's regency, the government was largely efficient and not corrupt, allowing the relatively small state of Shu Han to prepare itself for military campaigns.

In 223, Liu Shan married the daughter of his father's friend, Zhang Fei, as empress.

In the aftermaths of Liu Bei's death, the southern non-ethnic-Han people had peeled away from Shu Han dominion. In 225, Zhuge headed south and was able to, by both military victories and persuasion, reintegrate the southern region into the empire. For the rest of Zhuge's regency, the southern non-Han people would be key contributors to Shu Han's campaigns against Cao Wei.

Starting 227, Zhuge launched five campaigns against Cao Wei, but all except one were military failures (albeit not military disasters) in that Zhuge's forces ran out of food before they were able to inflict significant damage on Cao Wei and therefore had to withdraw. It was during one of Zhuge's campaigns that the only real political crisis during Zhuge's regency would occur. In 231, unable to supply the troops sufficiently, Li forged an edict by Liu Shan, ordering Zhuge to retreat. When Zhuge discovered this, he recommended, and Liu Shan accepted the recommendation, that Li be removed from his office and put under house arrest.

In 234, while Zhuge was on his final campaign against Cao Wei, he grew seriously ill. Hearing about Zhuge's illness, Liu Shan sent his secretary Li Fu (李福) to the front line to visit Zhuge and to request Zhuge to leave instructions on important state matters. Among other things, Zhuge recommended that Jiang Wan succeed him, and that Fei Yi succeed Jiang. Zhuge refused to answer Li's next question -- who should succeed Fei. Zhuge died soon thereafter. In the aftermaths of Zhuge's death, his generals Wei Yan and Yang Yi, in conflict over who should succeed Zhuge (not knowing that Zhuge had appointed Jiang), each accused the other of treason, leading to a battle in which Yang prevailed. To Yang's disappointment, his attempt to succeed Zhuge failed regardless, as Liu Shan followed Zhuge's instructions and installed Jiang was the new regent.

Liu Shan - Jiang Wan's regency

Jiang Wan was a capable administrator, and he continued Zhuge's domestic policies, leaving the government largely efficient. He was also known for his tolerance of dissension and his humility. However, not having military aptitude, he soon abandoned Zhuge's policy of waging war against Cao Wei, and indeed in 241 withdrew most of the troops from the important border city of Hanzhong (漢中, in modern Hanzhong, Shaanxi) to Fu (涪縣, in modern Mianyang, Sichuan). From that point on, Shu Han was generally in a defensive posture and no longer posed a threat to Cao Wei. (This was in fact misinterpreted by many Eastern Wu officials as a sign that Shu Han was abandoning the alliance and entering into a treaty with Cao Wei, but was correctly read by Eastern Wu's emperor Sun Quan as merely a sign of weakness, not an abandonment of the alliance.)

In 237, Empress Zhang died. That year, Liu Shan took her younger sister as a consort, and in 238 created her empress.

In 243, Jiang grew ill and transferred most of his authority to Fei and Fei's assistant Dong Yun (董允). For example, in 244, when Cao Wei's regent Cao Shuang attacked Hanzhong, it was Fei who led the troops against Cao Shuang and dealt Cao Wei a major defeat. However, Jiang remained influential until his death in 245. Soon after Jiang's death, Dong also died -- allowing the eunuch Huang Hao, a favorite of Liu Shan's, whose power Dong had curbed, to start aggrandizing his power. Huang was viewed as corrupt and highly manipulative in domestic matters, and the governmental efficiency that was achieved during Zhuge's and Jiang's regencies began to deteriorate.

Liu Shan - Fei Yi's regency

After Jiang Wan and Dong Yun's deaths, Liu Shan named Jiang Wei as Fei's assistant, but both were largely involved only in military matters, as Liu Shan gradually became more self-assertive in non-military matters. It was also around this time that he became more interested in touring the countryside and increasing the use of luxury items, both of which added stress on the treasury, albeit not cripplingly so. Jiang Wei was interested in resuming Zhuge Liang's policies of attacking Cao Wei aggressively, a strategy that Fei partially agreed with -- as he allowed Jiang to make raids on Cao Wei's borders, but never gave him a large amount of troops, reasoning that Shu Han was in no position for a major military confrontation with Cao Wei.

In 253, Fei was assassinated by the general Guo Xun (郭循) -- a former Cao Wei general who had been forced to surrender but who secretly maintained his loyalty to Cao Wei. Fei's death left Jiang Wei as the leading official of the empire, but with a power vacuum in domestic matters, as Jiang continued to be on the borders, conducting campaigns against Cao Wei, while at court, Huang Hao's influence increased greatly as a result.

Liu Shan - Jiang Wei's semi-regency

After Fei's death, Jiang assumed command of Shu Han's troops and began a number of campaigns against Cao Wei -- but while they were troubling to Cao Wei's de facto rulers Sima Shi and Sima Zhao (who had rendered Cao Wei's emperors figureheads after succeeding their father Sima Yi), the attacks largely iinflicted no real damage against Cao Wei, as Jiang's campaigns were plagued by one problem that had plagued Zhuge Liang's -- the lack of adequate food supply -- and largely had to be terminated after a short duration. These campaigns instead had a detrimental effect on Shu Han, whose government no longer had the efficiency that it had during Zhuge and Jiang Wan's regencies, and therefore was unable to cope with the drain of resources that Jiang Wei's campaigns were having.

In 253, Jiang made a coordinated attack on Cao Wei, along with Eastern Wu's regent Zhuge Ke (the son of Zhuge Liang's brother Zhuge Jin, but was eventually forced to withdraw after his troops ran out of food supplies -- allowing Sima Shi to concentrate against Zhuge, dealing Eastern Wu forces a devastating defeat that eventually caused so much resentment that Zhuge was assassinated. (This was the last of only two coordinated attacks by Shu Han and Eastern Wu on Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period -- the first was Zhuge Liang's last campaign in 234, which Sun Quan had joined by attacking Cao Wei on the eastern border.)

In 255, on one of Jiang's campaigns, he dealt Cao Wei forces a major defeat, nearly capturing the important Cao Wei border city Didao (狄道, in modern Dingxi, Gansu), but in 256, as he tried to again confront Cao Wei forces, he was instead dealt a defeat by Deng Ai, and this was a fairly devastating loss that left Jiang's standing with the people weakened. Many officials now openly questioned Jiang's strategy, but Liu Shan took no actions to stop Jiang. Further, in 259, under Jiang's suggestion, Liu Shan approved a plan where the main troops were withdrawn from major border cities to try to induce a Cao Wei attack, with troops positioned in such a way as to intend a trapping of the Cao Wei troops -- a strategy that would be used several years later, in 263, when Cao Wei troops did attack, but which would prove to be a failure.

By 261, Huang Hao's power appeared paramount. Among the key domestic officials, only Dong Jue (董厥) and Zhuge Liang's son Zhuge Zhan were able to maintain their posts without flattering Huang. In 262, Huang would in fact try to remove Jiang and replace him with his friend Yan Yu (閻宇). Jiang, upon hearing this, advised Liu Shan to execute Huang but the emperor denied the request, saying that the eunuch was but a servant who ran errands. Fearing retaliation, Jiang left Chengdu to garrison troops at Tazhong (沓中, northwest of present day Zhouqu County, Gansu).

According to the Eastern Wu ambassador Xue Xu (薛珝), who visited Shu Han in 261 at the order of Sun Xiu, the status that Shu Han was in at this point was:

Liu Shan - Shu Han's destruction

In 262, aggravated by Jiang Wei's constant attacks, Cao Wei's regent Sima Zhao planned to carry out a major campaign to terminate the Shu Han threat once and for all. Upon hearing rumors of this plan, Jiang submitted a request to Liu Shan, warning him about the mustering of Cao Wei troops under the generals Zhong Hui and Deng Ai near the border. However, Huang Hao, who believed in fortunetellers who disavowed the likelihood of a Cao Wei attack, persuaded Liu Shan to take no actions on Jiang's requests for battle preparedness.

In 263, Sima launched his attacks, led by Zhong and Deng. Liu Shan followed Jiang's previous plans and ordered the border troops withdraw and prepare to trap Cao Wei forces, rather than to confront them directly. However, the plan had a fatal flaw -- it assumed that Cao Wei forces would siege the border cities, which, instead, Zhong and Deng ignored, and they advanced instead on Yang'an Pass (陽安關, in modern Hanzhong, Shaanxi), capturing it. Jiang was able to meet their troops and initially repel them, but Deng led his force through the almost unpassable mountains and deep into Shu territory and launched a surprise attack on Jiangyou (江油, in modern Mianyang, Sichuan). After defeating Zhuge Zhan there, Deng had virtually no Shu Han troops left between him and the capital Chengdu, Faced with the prospect of defending Chengdu against Deng's troops with no defenses left, Liu Shan took the advice of Secretary Qiao Zhou (譙周) and promptly surrendered. While the surrender was criticized by many, Wang Yin (王隱) in his Records of Shu (蜀記) described the move as a policy that placed the welfare of the people on top.

In 264, the ambitious Zhong would carry out an attempt to seize power -- which Jiang, who had surrendered to Zhong, tried to take advantage of to revive Shu Han. He advised Zhong to falsely accuse Deng of treason and arrest him, and, with their combined troops, rebel against Sima. Zhong did so, and Jiang planned to next kill Zhong and his troops, and then redeclare Shu Han's independence under Liu Shan, and had in fact written Liu Shan to inform him of those plans. However, Zhong's troops rebelled against him, and both Zhong and Jiang were killed in battle. Liu Shan himself was not harmed in the disturbance, although his crown prince Liu Xuan (劉璿) was killed in the confusion.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Reign", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki