Zhuge Liang was a famous statesman and military strategist in the Shu Han Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period. When Liu Bei visited the thatched cottage three times, he proposed the famous "Longzhong Pair". This "Longzhong Pair" also became the strategic policy of the Liu Bei Group. After Zhuge Liang was invited by Liu Bei to leave the mountain, he worked hard for the Liu Bei Group. With his efforts, Liu Bei Group has achieved rapid development.
First analyze Zhuge Liang's strength.
At the most difficult moment of the Liu Bei Group, Cao Cao defeated Liu Bei's main force at Changban in Dangyang. When Zhuge Liang was in danger, he personally went to Soochow to persuade Sun Quan and formed an alliance between Sun and Liu. He defeated Cao Cao in the Battle of Chibi and laid the foundation for three points in the world.
After Liu Bei had the foothold of the four Jiangnan counties in Jingzhou, Zhuge Liang also governed the three counties of Lingling, Guiyang, and Changsha to adjust their taxes to enrich the army. Under Zhuge Liang's excellent governance, Jingzhou has provided a solid material foundation for Liu Bei's rapid development and growth. Liu Bei was able to build a powerful army and entered Sichuan and captured Xichuan.
Before and after Liu Bei entered Sichuan, Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu first guarded Jingzhou. Later, he joined Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun to Sichuan to support Liu Bei. After the capture of Xichuan, Zhuge Liang immediately began governance in Xichuan. When Liu Bei and Cao Cao were fighting for the battle of Hanzhong, Zhuge Liang was in Chengdu. He obeyed the suggestions of his subordinates and fully supported Liu Bei's military operations. He had enough soldiers to ensure Liu Bei's victory.
Because of Zhuge Liang's superhuman talents and outstanding achievements, in the Liu Bei Group, he naturally became the head of civil servants. After Liu Bei assumed the throne, Zhuge Liang became the prime minister of the Shuhan regime. In the subsequent battle of Yiling, the Shu army led by Liu Bei suffered a crushing defeat. Liu Bei was also worried and angrily, and died of illness in Baidi City. Before his death, Liu Bei was lonely with Zhuge Liang and asked him to do things later.
After Zhuge Liang took over the burden of the country, he took the restoration of the Han Dynasty as his mission. He organized and trained the new army, developed the economy, rectified the governing line, and united the monarchs and ministers. He did his best to do everything he could. With his efforts, Shuhan has passed through the turbulent years and stabilized again.
Zhuge Liang first launched the Southern Expedition and put down the southern rebellion. Then, he went to Liu Chan's "List of Masters" and launched the Northern Expedition against Cao Wei. However, Zhuge Liang launched a total of five Northern Expeditions to Cao Wei, but they failed to achieve their goals. In the end, Zhuge Liang also fell seriously ill during the Fifth Northern Expedition and died in Wuzhangyuan's army.
Zhuge Liang was praised as a perfect person in ancient China. In his time, his spirit of supporting and protecting the mountains and mountains of Shuhan has been praised by the world. When Cao Ruituo was alone with Sima Yi, he also hoped that Sima Yi could protect Cao Wei's country like Zhuge Liang. However, Sima Yi launched a coup in Gao Pingling and usurped Cao Wei's power.
Chen Shou's evaluation of Zhuge Liang.
It can be seen that it is extremely difficult to be a man to achieve Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang's noble character is a precious asset of the Chinese people. In "Three Kingdoms", Chen Shou also wrote an independent biography for Zhuge Liang and made a detailed commentary on his life. In "Three Kingdoms", there are very few people who can pass on independently, which shows that Chen Shou attaches great importance to Zhuge Liang.
In Chen Shou's "Three Kingdoms", he praised Zhuge Liang for his talents, but some people were dissatisfied with Chen Shou's "Zhuge Liang Biography" and thought that Chen Shou had belittled Zhuge Liang's talent. And also found out that the main reason why Chen Shou depreciated Zhuge Liang was mainly because of the private grievances between his family and Zhuge Liang.
Chen Shou’s father served as Ma Di’s army when Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition. At that time, Ma Di did not obey Zhuge Liang's temperance, causing the fiasco of Jie Ting, and Zhuge Liang had to withdraw to Hanzhong. After the incident, Zhuge Liang beheaded Ma Di and his two generals to thank the world. He also demoted himself to third class, and punished the responsible generals in the army accordingly.
Chen Shou's father was punished by the torture. Chen Shou himself also served under Zhuge Liang's son Zhuge Zhan, and Zhuge Zhan did not have a good attitude towards Chen Shou. Therefore, when Chen Shou wrote "Three Kingdoms", his evaluation of Zhuge Liang and his son was not high.
Actually, we can see that Chen Shou's evaluation of Zhuge Liang is still very high when we look at the "Biography of Zhuge Liang" written by Chen Shou. The only thing that criticized Zhuge Liang was in terms of military capabilities. Chen Shou believes that Zhuge Liang's political skills must exceed his military skills. He also believed that Zhuge Liang should learn from the ancient Guan Zhong and promote people with outstanding military abilities to take on the important task of war.
How to treat Zhuge Liang's comprehensive ability correctly.
This is actually Chen Shou's criticism of Zhuge Liang's self-competition Guan Zhong Leyi. Chen Shou believes that Zhuge's appearance is comparable to Guan Zhong, but there is a gap compared to Le Yi. This has aroused the opposition of many Zhuge Liang admirers. Not to mention that the image of Zhuge Liang who uses soldiers like a god in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In ancient times, countless admirers of Zhuge Liang openly opposed this evaluation. Some emperors even sent Zhuge Liang to the martial arts temple and made him become the "ten philosophers of the martial arts temple" to show his attitude.
So, is Chen Shou's view of Zhuge Liang fair? This issue is actually a personal opinion, and it cannot be unified. When we look at the notes of "Zhuge Liang's Biography," we can see that there were many mythological stories about Zhuge Liang at that time. The most famous of these are the several famous cases described by Guo Chong, such as the empty city plan, the people of Hebaxi City, the replacement of rest and reorganization, and so on. These things are refuted in the commentary as pure fiction. However, to this day, there are still people who believe that things happened in reality.
In this case, subjective will replace the objective situation, it is difficult to see the true colors of the matter. However, if we look at Zhuge Liang's career, he did not have any military experience before accepting Tuogu. Although he is better than Guan Zhong Leyi, Liu Bei uses him more in administrative work.
Zhuge Liang was in Liu Bei's camp at the time, and he was actually dispatching the taxes and grains of various places, so that Liu Bei could eat enough soldiers. His role is actually Xiao He under Liu Bang, the emperor of Han Dynasty. Therefore, Zhuge Liang's military capabilities have never been given the opportunity.
After Zhuge Liang took control of the Shuhan regime, he began to personally command the battle. During the Southern Expedition, he revealed his talents and successfully put down the rebellion. However, in the Northern Expedition, lack of experience and shortcomings restricted Zhuge Liang's performance.
In the first Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang rejected Wei Yan's suggestion and started the war according to his plan. However, due to lack of experience, Zhang Yun was easily defeated. Zhuge Liang summed up his experience and began to step up the training of the army to improve his tactics. We can see that Zhuge Liang's military abilities are improving with the increase in the number of Northern Expeditions.
At the time of the last Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang's military command had reached a new height. He can already use tactics proficiently and dare to take the initiative to fight with Sima Yi. Although Sima Yi was old and cunning, after suffering several losses, he never fought Zhuge Liang again. It is a pity that Zhuge Liangtian is not on holiday, and Zhuge Liang, who is seriously ill, finally failed to achieve his ideal.
Zhuge Liang’s military abilities have been improving along with his military career. However, when Liu Bei was alive, he was not given a chance to exercise, which made his actual combat experience too little and affected his performance. This is why Chen Shou said that his political talents surpassed military talents.
However, if Zhuge Liang can live longer, we believe that his military capabilities will be improved. Unfortunately, history cannot be changed. Zhuge Liang left the world with regret that his aspirations were not paid. However, the spirit of his dedication and death remains forever in the annals of history.
