Three Kingdoms.
event history of Shu-Han 蜀漢
 


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Liu Bei 劉備 redraw to the region of Yizhou 益州 (modern Sichuan Prov.

) in 211 and was supported by Guan Yu 關羽 (later venerated as the red-faced god Duke Guan 關公) and Zhang Fei 張飛 after he lost the region of Jingzhou 荊州 (middle Yangtse area) to the kingdom of Wu.

He always saw himself as righteous successor of the old Han-Dynasty, also because he had the same surname (Liu 劉) like the house of Han.

In 221 he called himself emperor of Shu (name of an old state of the Sichuan region).

After the critical battle of Yiling 夷陵 (near modern Yichang 宜昌/Hubei Prov.)

that was lost by Liu Bei – who shortly afterwards died (now called Han Zhaoliedi 漢昭烈帝 - see titles of emperors), the Shu empire was given into the hands of the minor ruler Liu Shan 劉禪 (a character otherwise read “chan”).

Liu Shan, Liu Bei’s son, ruled his remote empire with the assistance of the wise chancellor Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮.

Already in 207, Zhuge Liang had made a contract with Sun Quan 孫權 from the Wu empire to create a united front against the northern “usurper” Cao Cao 曹操.

During the next decades, it was possible to hold a relatively stable frontier against the Cao-Wei empire in the region of Hanzhong 漢中 (mountainous area between modern Sichuan and Shaanxi Prov.)

and to turn the attention to domestic policies.

The Liu dynasty, residing in Chengdu 成都, had to rely on the local gentry (haozu 豪族) of the Sichuan Basin who was granted offices and territory.

During a short peaceful period, the territory of Shu-Han was expanded to the south, covering the region of the modern provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan, during the so-called southern campaign (zheng Nanzhong 征南中).

To facilitate the expansion of agriculture and wealth, southern Non-Chinese people of the mountaineous area were resettled as workforces in the fertile Sichuan basin.

From 227 on, Zhuge Liang undertook several military campaigns against the Cao-Wei empire, without obtaining any satisfactory results.

After Zhuge Liang’s death, Jiang Wan 蔣琬 and Fan Yi 費禕 overtook the role of political advisors for Liu Shan, while the late chancellor (“Zhuge Chengxiang” 諸葛丞相) was more and more venerated as an unapproachable saint.

The last attempts of Jiang Wei 姜維 and Huang Hao 黃皓 to attack the Cao-Wei empire should end in the conquest of Shu by the generals Deng Ai 鄧艾 and Zhong Hui 鍾會,and the subsequent capitulation of Liu Shan in 263.