Sima Guang's description of Zhuge Liang in "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" first appeared in the 57th volume of "Han Chronicles" in the 11th year of Emperor Xiaoxian's Geng Jian'an (note: Bingxu year, 206 AD) , the original text is as follows:
November. . . (I wrote some things about Cao Cao and Sun Quan before, skip it)
In the early days, Zhuge Liang of Langxie lived in Longzhong, Xiangyang, and always compared himself with Guan Zhong and Le Yi. At that time, no one agreed, but Xu Shu of Yingchuan and Cui Zhouping believed in it. Zhou Ping, the son of Lie.
Liu Bei was in Jingzhou and visited Sima Hui in Xiangyang. Hui said: "Confucian scholars and laymen do not know the current affairs. Those who know the current affairs are heroes. There are dragons and phoenix chicks here." When asked who it was, he said: "Zhuge Kongming and Pang Shiyuan." Xu Shu saw Bei Yu in Xinye, and Bei The instrument. The concubine said to Bei: "Zhuge Kongming is a lying dragon. How can the general want to see him?" Bei said: "You are here with me." The concubine said: "This man can be seen, but cannot be surrendered. The general should visit him in vain." "It's because of this that you can see it whenever you go there three times. Yinping people said: "The Han Dynasty is in decline, traitorous officials have stolen their lives, and they do not measure their virtues and abilities. They want to believe in righteousness in the world, but their intelligence and skills are shallow, so they use it rampantly. As of today. However, the ambition is not over yet, and you are planning. Liang said: "Now Cao Cao has millions of people, holding the emperor and commanding the princes. Sun Quan has been in control of Jiangdong for three generations. The country is in danger and the people are attached to it. The virtuous people can use it." This can be used as an aid, but not as a plan. Jingzhou controls Han and Mian, and controls the entire South China Sea. It connects Wuhui to the east and Ba and Shu to the west. This is a country that uses military force, but its master cannot defend it. This is why Tiantian has a general. . Yizhou is a dangerous place with thousands of miles of fertile fields, a land of abundance; Liu Zhang is weak, Zhang Lu is in the north, the people are rich and the country is rich but they don’t know how to save money. The wise general is the king of the emperor, and his loyalty is everywhere. Jing and Yi, protect their rocks, pacify the Rong and Yue, make good friends with Sun Quan, cultivate politics internally, and change the external appearance, then the hegemony can be achieved and the Han Dynasty can prosper." Bei said: "Good!" So he and Liang Qing. Good day. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were displeased, so they prepared an explanation and said: "The solitary one has a bright hole, just like a fish has water. I hope you will stop talking." Yu and Fei stopped.
The above is the original text of "Zizhi Tongjian", in which there is only one sentence about "visiting the thatched cottage three times": Beiyou is a good person, and every time you go there three times, you will see (the rough translation is: Liu Bei then ran to see it in person) Seeing Zhuge Liang asking for advice, he went there three times before meeting Zhuge Liang).
In order to advocate Liu Han's orthodoxy in the novel "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the story was exaggerated to the fullest, adding countless moving and exaggerated artistic plots, and also brought in a bunch of famous and unknown characters to serve as foils. In the end, a popular classic story was formed.