Zhuge Ke

Zhuge Ke , major name Yuanxun (* 203 , † 253 ), was the son of Wu Minister Zhuge Jin and the nephew of Shu Minister Zhuge Liang . He became chancellor after Lu Xun's death and regent after Sun Quan's death for his successor Sun Liang .

Life

The three kingdoms around 262.

Rise under Sun Quan's rule

After the founder of the Wu dynasty, Sun Quan, appointed his son Sun Deng to be crown prince in 221, he filled his staff with the sons of the highest officials and other capable young administrators. The four most prominent were Zhuge Ke, Zhang Zhao's son Zhang Xiu, Gu Yong's son Gu Tan, and Chen Wu's son Chen Biao. Sun Deng treated them more like friends than subordinates, and they grew up together, serving as advisors to the Crown Prince. When Sun Deng had his secretary write a comment about her, he considered Zhuge Ke to be the most intelligent and skilled of his generation. Because of this quality, Zhuge Ke quickly gained a reputation for being ruthless. Both his father and uncle frequently reprimanded him for this. Zhuge Jin once said, "This child will either bring great honor or ruin to my house."

Campaign against the Yue

When Zhuge Ke was serving as commander of the Capital Guard in 234, he proposed to Sun Quan a plan against the Yue people in the strategically valuable Danyang headquarters. Most officials, including Zhuge Jin, found this plan to be careless and costly. However, Zhuge Ke insisted that his plan would succeed, so Sun Quan appointed him governor of Danyang and gave him the necessary powers to carry out his plan. When the rice was ready to be harvested, he quickly had it harvested and collected. The Yue were hungry until they submitted, and Zhuge Ke treated them with dignity. By 237, Danyang was completely under the control of the Wu and became a productive commandant for troops and supplies. Sun Quan was impressed and made Zhuge Ke Marquis.

Attack on Shouchun

In 243, Zhuge Ke planned a major attack on the important Wei city of Shouchun and prepared his army. The prominent Wei general Sima Yi opposed him, and Sun Quan ordered Zhuge Ke to withdraw. But even Zhuge Ke's careless will to oppose Sima Yi worried Lu Xun, so he wrote Zhuge Ke a warning. Since he had to submit to the veteran, Zhuge Ke wrote back an apology. After Lu Xun's death in 245, Sun Quan entrusted Zhuge Ke to his important post in Wuchang.

Designation as regent

As Sun Quan's death approached in 251, he sought a regent for his young son and heir, Sun Liang. His personal assistant, Sun Jun , suggested Zhuge Ke, and he also seemed very capable to the people. Sun Quan was concerned about Zhuge's arrogance and overconfidence, but at Sun Jun's request, he designated him as regent and removed him from Wuchang. When Zhuge got to the capital, the veteran general Lü Dai intercepted him and, knowing his ruthlessness, said to him, "What you are going to do is difficult. Before you act, think ten times." Zhuge disrespectfully replied (unlike Lu Xun): “When Ji Wenzhi (a disciple of Confucius ) thought three times before the act, Confucius advised him to think twice. Now you are telling me, Lord, to think ten times. Doesn't that mean you are calling me stupid? ”Lü could not answer and the people thought he had spoken improperly, but later historians considered this to be a sign of Zhuge Ke's increasing arrogance and recklessness. This got worse during his time as regent: Zhuge Ke ordered that all important matters should be decided by him first (except life and death cases) and that all other officers bowed to him.

After Sun Quan's death in 252, Sun Liang became emperor and Zhuge Ke served as regent as desired.

As regent for Sun Liang

When he became regent, Zhuge Ke relaxed some of the strict laws from Sun Quan's later reign and lowered taxes. The people were delighted, and wherever he went they surrounded him in great numbers.

In 252, Zhuge Ke had the Donxing Dam rebuilt, which Sun Quan 230 had built, but which was destroyed in 241 for a reservoir at Lake Chao. He wanted to use it on the one hand as a bulwark against the Wei, on the other hand as a naval base. So the Wei regent Sima Shi launched a massive campaign against the Wu and attacked the Dongxing Dam with his main force. Zhuge Ke and his general Ding Feng surprisingly attacked and crushed the Wei.

Spurred on by his success in Dongxing, Zhuge Ke prepared a major attack on the Wei. He relied on the fact that Sima Shi (only one year in office, but already 45 years old) was "young and inexperienced". Zhuge Ke used a strategy that had been elaborated long before: he gathered all of Wu's young men who were fit for the attack, against the opposition of many officials, and agreed with the Shu regent Jiang Wei , who distracted the Wei troops with an attack . But because he deviated from his goal Shouchun and pulled against Hefei, he failed because of his strong defense and was finally forced to retreat. Instead of returning to the capital Jianye and apologizing for his terrible mistake, he stayed away from the capital for some time and did not apologize.

When he finally returned to Jianye, he continued to sternly deny all allegations. He punished those who contradicted him and even planned another attack against the Wei. Sun Jun decided to kill Zhuge Ke. He claimed in front of Sun Liang that Zhuge Ke was plotting treason and set a trap for Zhuge at an imperial feast at which he killed him and executed his kin.

After Sun Jun and his cousin Sun Lin died , Emperor Sun Xiu Zhuge Ke buried again with imperial honors, but refused to erect a memorial for him.

Lore

Zhuge Ke's life provided the material for some anecdotal passages in Luo Guanzhong's classic 14th-century novel The Tale of the Three Kingdoms .

An anecdote about Zhuge Ke in his childhood and adolescence mentions a banquet. Zhuge Jin's face was a common joke among top Wu officials because it looked like a donkey. To tease Zhuge Ke, Sun Quan brought in a donkey with a sign with the two characters "Zhuge Ziyu" on it. (Ziyu was the court name Zhuge Jins.) Then Sun Quan turned to Zhuge Ke and ordered him to add any two characters. Zhuge Ke quickly chose "Zhi Lu" (The donkey from ...) and asked that the donkey be given to his father. This impressed Sun Quan.

At another banquet, Sun Quan asked Zhuge Ke, “Who is better, your father or your uncle (Zhuge Liang)?” Zhuge Ke replied quickly, “My father.” And he reasoned: “My father knows how to be the right emperor serve, my uncle don't. That's why my father is better. ”Sun Quan was impressed by the subversive flattery and allowed Zhuge Ke to pour wine for the senior officials, which was a great honor for young officials. When he came to the venerable Zhang Zhao, he refused the wine because of its age, but Zhuge Ke insisted and compared it to Jiang Ziya (the legendary Prime Minister of the Zhou Dynasty ), which impressed Zhang and Sun Quan again.

On another occasion, a Shu ambassador appeared with a gift of horses for Sun Quan. Sun knew Zhuge Ke as a good rider and called him to reward him with a horse. When Zhuge Ke arrived, he suddenly knelt down and thanked for the honorary gift. Sun Quan was surprised at how Zhuge knew what he was being called to do, and Zhuge Ke declared, "Shu Han only serves Your Majesty's stable, and the ambassador is certain to offer tribute to horses." This remark belittled and flattered Shu Sun Quan.

Source studies

The most important source for the life of Zhuge Kes are the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms of Chen Shou (233-297), who served as an officer of the Shu Han until 263 and later under the Jin Dynasty as a historian his views and experiences about the time of the three Rich put down in writing.

In the 11th century, the historian Sima Guang created an extensive history work for the time from 403 BC with his summarized Zeitspiegel to aid the government . Chr. To 959 AD. For the time of the three kingdoms he made particular use of the chronicles of Chen Shou.

literature

• Bo Yang (ed.): Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian. Modern Chinese Edition . Taipei 1982-1989.
• Rafe de Crespigny : The Three Kingdoms and Western Jin. A history of China in the Third Century AD ( Memento from April 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: East Asian History ( ISSN  1036-6008 ), The Australian National University , Canberra no.1 (June 1991), internet publication last revised November 2003

Web links

• Biography based on the story of the Three Kingdoms on Kongming.net (English)