Zhuge Liang: The Longzhong Plan, Meng Huo and the Wooden Ox Carts

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Zhuge Liang was orphaned as the Han dynasty collapsed in the late second century, followed his uncle south to Jing Province, and after his uncle died farmed at Longzhong while calling himself the Sleeping Dragon. He read for broad strategy rather than memorizing the classics, and the scholars Sima Hui and Xu Shu recommended him to the warlord Liu Bei. In 207 AD Liu Bei visited his cottage three times before meeting him, and the 26-year-old laid out the Longzhong Plan: avoid Cao Cao's northern cavalry, seize Jing and Yi provinces, and ally with Sun Quan in the east. After Cao Cao routed Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang goaded Sun Quan into alliance, and fire destroyed Cao Cao's fleet at Red Cliffs in 208 AD.

Liu Bei founded Shu Han with Zhuge Liang as chancellor, and dying in 223 AD told him to take the throne if his son Liu Shan proved incompetent. Zhuge Liang wept and refused, serving as regent instead. He set up state control of salt, iron and silk, made Chengdu a silk-exporting city, combined Legalist law with Confucian virtue, and once asked to be demoted three ranks after a failed campaign. He subdued the south, then led five northern expeditions against Wei and Sima Yi. In 234 AD, during a 100-day standoff at the Wuzhang Plains, he fell ill and died at 54, asking to be buried on Mount Dingjun in his ordinary clothes.

• He told Sun Quan to surrender if he lacked the courage to fight, then detailed the weaknesses of Cao Cao's tired northern army at sea.
• He declared his entire personal wealth as 800 mulberry trees and 15 qing of farmland.
• He captured and released the southern leader Meng Huo, by tradition seven times, until Meng Huo pledged the south would not rebel again.
• The Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse were single-wheeled carts with braking systems for hauling grain over the Qinling Mountains.
• He also deployed a repeating crossbow and stone mazes to channel enemy cavalry.