He lived in seclusion in Longzhong in his early years. Later, Liu Bei took care of Mao Lu and asked Zhuge Liang to be a strategist. Because Zhuge Liang was very young at that time, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others looked down on Zhuge Liang. Liu Bei said to them, "Only Kongming is like a fish getting water." Guan Yu and others will not say anything after listening. In 208, Cao Cao went south and defeated Liu Bei. Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu were defeated by Cao Cao in their escape. Xu Shu then defected to Cao Cao. After Zhuge Liang arrived in Jiangxia, entrusted by Liu Bei, he went to Soochow to lobby and unite Wu against Cao. After Liu Bei entered Sichuan, Zhuge Liang guarded Jingzhou, and Zhuge Liang's political talents initially appeared at this time. After Pang Tong was shot with an arrow, Zhuge Liang went to Sichuan with Zhao Yun as a second-class reinforcement. Since then, Liu Bei has basically led the troops abroad, and Zhuge Liang has been staying in Chengdu. Because of his outstanding political ability, surprisingly, the economy has been greatly restored. This achievement was not only praised by everyone in Shu, but also praised Zhuge Liang's political talents many times by Zhong You and Dong Zhao of Wei in their memorials to Cao Cao. Cao Cao also wrote a letter to Zhuge Liang and sent some gifts. Of course, all this is in vain. After the war in Hanzhong, Liu Bei proclaimed himself the king of Hanzhong and named Zhuge Liang the general of the military division. 22 1 year, Liu Bei proclaimed himself emperor and Zhuge Liang became prime minister. Liu Bei tried to attack Wu, but Zhuge Liang's earnest persuasion was useless and Liu Bei was defeated.
In 223, Liu Bei's Baidi City was entrusted to orphans. In order to limit Zhuge Liang's power, Liu Bei put Li Yanlai in charge of grain and grass to restrict Zhuge Liang. Later, Zhuge Liang went south, defeated Meng Huo, and the south was pacified. Then Zhuge Liang went north and collected Jiang Wei. Then Zhuge Liang asked Ma Su to guard the street pavilion. Andy defeated Ma Su and occupied Jieting, and the Shu army was defeated. Later, Zhuge Liang attacked Wei several times and successfully got rid of Li Yan. However, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was successfully defeated by Cao Zhen and Sima Yi, and eventually the national strength of Shu became weaker and weaker. In 234, Zhuge Liang broke down from overwork and died in Wuzhangyuan. He was an official of the marquis of Wuxiang and the prime minister of Shu Han. Sima Yi called Zhuge Liang "a genius in the world" when he inspected the camp of Shu army. But Zhuge Liang's death doomed the demise of Shu.
Zhuge Liang's achievements in his life can be roughly divided into three stages. The first stage is from mountain to Sichuan. At this stage, Zhuge Liang mainly demonstrated his diplomatic skills. In particular, his lobbying in Battle of Red Cliffs made Sun Liu form an alliance. Of course, from the later stage, there are still many people in Shu who have such diplomatic ability, such as Deng Zhi, Ying Zheng and others. However, Zhuge Liang's talk about the subtlety of war in front of Sun Quan coincides with Zhou Yu, the governor of Soochow at that time, Lu Su, a captain who joined the army, etc., which shows that Zhuge Liang still saw the war clearly and Zhuge Liang was a strategist. In the second stage, Zhuge Liang went to Sichuan Tuogu Baidi City. At this stage, Zhuge Liang mainly showed his outstanding political talent. It can be said that the survival of Shu after Zhuge Liang's death is related to Zhuge Liang's governance of Xichuan during this period. At this stage, Liu Bei stationed troops in public security and Yangpingguan successively, and all the internal affairs in Chengdu were handed over to Zhuge Liang. Different from the romance, Zhuge Liang did not participate in the battle of Hanzhong and the previous battle of Dingjun Mountain. He has been staying in Chengdu. The third stage is from Liu Bei's death to Zhuge Liang's illness. At this stage, Zhuge Liang's energy has shifted from internal affairs to military affairs. However, judging from Zhuge Liang's several northern expeditions, Zhuge Liang was good at running the army and lacked military strategy. During the Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang also invented the wooden ox and flowing horse for transporting grain and grass (note that the wooden ox and flowing horse here are two kinds of tools, which are also driven by human power, unlike what is said in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms), and created the Eight Arrays map (the Eight Arrays map has been lost today, but the Eight Arrays map is more a formation method when the two armies are at war than the Stone Arrays map mentioned in the Romance). From this point of view, Zhuge Liang is more suitable to be in charge of logistics work in the war. He is really not the person who can command the three armed forces. What I want to say here in particular is that Zhuge Liang's biggest mistake was his handling of the aftermath. Zhuge Liang's funeral was handled in this way: Sun Tzu's Art of War was passed on to Jiang Wei, the army belonged to Yang Yi, and the position of Prime Minister was inherited by Jiang Wan (since Liu Chan, the late Lord, never set up a Prime Minister, Jiang Wan only became a general). This kind of funeral treatment can only lead to civil strife in Shu and Han dynasties, because Yang Yi is difficult to accommodate people, and Jiang Wan and Jiang Wei have already completed the opposite attitude towards the Northern Expedition. This shows that Zhuge Liang is much worse than Liu Bei in knowing people. Finally, due to the influence of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, many people like to say the word "Zhuge Shi Jun", but in fact Zhuge Liang was never a real strategist of Liu Bei (Zhuge Liang was a general and a corps commander, but this was not a real strategist). Zhuge Liang's position under Liu Bei is similar to that of Yu Xun under Cao Cao, and they are both key figures guarding the rear. Of course, the deification of Zhuge Liang has never been reliable. As far as the legendary things are concerned, Zhou Yu belongs to the first three countries, Sima Yi belongs to the last three countries, and Zhuge Liang belongs to the three countries in the world. There is no comparability between them.
Zhuge Liang in the novel:
The novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a collection of past legends, unofficial history, operas, local stories, official taboo stories, spoken scripts and stories of Zhuge Liang in folklore. He is described as the embodiment of wisdom, which is quite different from Zhuge Liang in the history of the Three Kingdoms, and his deeds are also different, such as burning Wang Bo and Xinye, and Zhuge Liang has not yet become the official Liu Bei; Three visits to the thatched cottage, seven arrests of Meng Huo, and six visits to Qishan (in fact, five northern expeditions, only the first and fourth visits to Qishan) are all exaggerations and plots. In history, Zhuge Liang's achievements in using troops are not as dazzling as his achievements in governing Shu. The Confucian debate, the grass boat borrowing arrows, the Dongfeng borrowing arrows, Zhou Yu's intellectual stimulation, Sanyu and the empty city plan are all fictitious or will replace trees with flowers. But these stories have become household names, and some plots in the novel describe Zhuge Liang as a Taoist, such as offering sacrifices to the wind at the seven-star altar and prolonging life with seven-star lanterns. In A Brief History of China's Novels, Lu Xun criticized Zhuge Liang in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms as "a wise man approaching a demon". He deified Zhuge Liang, who has always been a legalist, into a perfect figure with brilliant wisdom, super ability and mastery of military and strategic planning.