Liu Bei

Liu Bei
Family name :	Liú
First name :	Bèi
Major Age Name (Zi):	Xuándé (玄德)
Posthumous title : (complete)	Zhāoliè (昭烈)
Reign:	221-223
Era names :	Zhāngwǔ (章 武; 221–223)

Liú Bèi ( Chinese  劉備  /  刘备 , IPA ( standard Chinese) [ [li̯oʊ̯35 b̥ɛɪ̯51] ], * 161 in Zhuo District, today's Hebei and Beijing area , † June 10, 223 in Baidicheng) was the founder of Shu Han State (221–261 ) in southern China during the " Three Kingdoms " era . He was the brother-in-arms of Tiger Generals Guan Yu and Zhang Fei .

The founder of the Shǔ Hàn dynasty Liú Bèi claimed to be a relative of the Han imperial family . However, it remains doubtful whether this was true, as Liú Bèi's family lived in simple circumstances in the late Han period. What is certain is that his grandfather, Liu Xong, was a district magistrate and his father, Liu Hong, was a local government official. After the father's death, the mother provided for the family by selling straw sandals. Liú Bèi was sent for further training as an academic Lu Zhi, where he made the acquaintance of Gongsun Zan and befriended him.

Liú Bèi opted for a military career relatively early on. He met Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who swore their loyalty to him. In general, Liú Bèi seems to have seemed quite charismatic, as two rich merchants also gave him gold, which he used to raise troops. Liú Bèi distinguished himself in 184 through his participation in the fight against the uprising of the Yellow Turban and gained recognition. In 187 he fought against the rebels Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju and soon afterwards against other rebels, where he distinguished himself and was accordingly assigned new posts. In 191 he supported Gongsun Zan and won a victory against Yuan Shao . He was one of the numerous warlords who wanted to take advantage of the decline of the Han dynasty and established their own rule. State structures collapsed more and more and military commanders either obeyed local rulers or acted on their own account.

Liú Bèi joined the governor Tao Qian in 192 , who provided him with troops, but he died in 194. Liú Bèi succeeded him as governor of the province of Xu, acting not on behalf of the imperial court, but of the influential local forces. In 196 the warlord Yuan Shu (a relative of the aforementioned Yuan Shao) attacked him. Liú Bèi was awarded the title of general and a title of nobility by the influential warlord Cao Cao at this time , but Liú Bèi was forced to come to an understanding with General Lü Bu for the time being and relinquish the supreme governor's title to him due to the attacks by Yuan Shu . Lü Bu and Yuan Shu also came to an understanding, however, so that Liú Bèi was again exposed to enemy attacks. Lü Bu played a double game in this regard, as he wanted to prevent one of his rivals from gaining too much power. On his behalf, the generals Gao Shun and Zhang Liao attacked Liú Bèi in 198, arrested his family and forced him to flee north, where Cao Cao became increasingly powerful. Liú Bèi and Cao Cao jointly took action against Lu Bu and beat him to the ground; he was subsequently executed.

Liú Bèi was rewarded with titles, but seems to have conspired against Cao Cao. In the meantime, his old enemy, Yuan Shu, was severely weakened. Liú Bèi could finally destroy him in 199 and now rose openly against Cao Cao. He moved to the city of Pei in Xu Province as his residence. At the beginning of the year 200, however, Cao Cao unexpectedly attacked, so that Liu Bèi was forced to flee to Qing Province, with his wife and children falling into enemy hands again. Liú Bèi now allied himself with Yuan Shao, who was defeated by Cao Cao in 201. He had to flee again, this time to the governor of Jing Province, Liu Biao. He stayed there for seven years.

In the fall of 208, Cao Cao marched south. By this time, Liu Biao had passed away and Liú Bèi was forced to flee further because his power base in Jing was insufficient. He gathered up the remains of his troops, but they were insufficient to stop Cao Cao. With the support of his advisor Zhuge Liang , however, he was able to build an alliance with Sun Quan (181-252) and stop the expansion of Cao Cao in the famous Battle of Chibi . But his role in the fighting was rather marginal.

Cao Cao was still a threatening power factor that continued to achieve some success in the following years. From 212 to 214 Liú Bèi (not least thanks to capable generals) operated quite successfully against Cao Cao, which in turn made Sun Quan suspicious. In 215, Sun Quan demanded the return of occupied territories (such as Jing Province) and a conflict broke out between the two warlords, which at the same time continued to conflict with Cao Cao. In 217 Liú Bèi attacked the Hanzhong held by Cao Cao and in 219 won a great victory against one of Cao Cao's generals. In the same year he proclaimed himself King of Hanzhong. Cao Cao was stopped, but in the winter of 219, Sun Quan regained Jing Province. When Cao Cao died in 220 and his son Cao Pi deposed the last Han emperor, Han Xiandi, in December of the same year and proclaimed himself emperor, Liú Bèi immediately followed suit and also proclaimed himself emperor in 221.

Basically, however, this was only an acknowledgment of the factual political situation, since in the power struggles of recent years the emperor as head and state unity had been an illusion. In this context, Liú Bèi did not behave better or worse than the other warlords operating at this time, although he is portrayed as romanticized in Chinese tradition.

He named his state Han. Since various dynasties called themselves Hàn in Chinese history, this state is now commonly referred to as Shu Han ( 蜀漢 ) (after the place of the state, 蜀 , Shǔ is another name for Sìchuān, after the state of the same name Shu of the Zhou dynasty ) . In the south, Sun Quan proclaimed himself King of Wú . Liú Bèi took action against this in his last years to recapture the lost provinces of Húnán and Húběi. The campaign that had begun in 221 ended catastrophically when Army 222 was repulsed. Liú Bèi died in 223 on the way to his capital, whereupon his son Liú Shán became emperor. Zhuge Liang had been commissioned by Liu Bei to support his son in all matters.

literature

• Rafe de Crespigny : A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2007, pp. 478-484.

Web links

Commons : 刘备  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ^ Rafe de Crespigny: A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Leiden / Boston 2007, p. 478.
2. ^ Rafe de Crespigny: A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Leiden / Boston 2007, p. 479.
3. ^ Rafe de Crespigny: A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Leiden / Boston 2007, p. 479 f.
4. ^ Rafe de Crespigny: A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Leiden / Boston 2007, p. 480.
5. ^ Rafe de Crespigny: A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Leiden / Boston 2007, p. 481.
6. ^ Rafe de Crespigny: A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Leiden / Boston 2007, p. 482.
7. ^ Rafe de Crespigny: A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Leiden / Boston 2007, p. 483.
8. ↑ See Rafe de Crespigny: A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23–220 AD). Leiden / Boston 2007, p. 483.

predecessor	Office	successor
Xian from Han	Emperor of China (Southwest) 221–223	Liu Shan