Benevolence and righteousness

Benevolence and righteousness are both a standard of conduct and a claim to legitimate rule in the narrative. Xuande presents humane government as his answer to Cao Cao’s aggression and guile, and the distinction becomes concrete in Shu: he refuses to murder Liu Zhang, orders his troops to respect local people and their property, and protects conquered territory’s inhabitants from punitive redistribution. But virtue also becomes part of the argument for taking power. As Xuande’s fortunes rise, advisers invoke the people’s welfare and Heaven’s will to justify expansion and, eventually, imperial succession. The ideal’s force lies in that tension: it restrains particular acts even as it helps authorize a new ruler.

Ethical Standard and Political Claim

The story first establishes a bond between righteousness and obligations to others through the Peach Orchard vow. Xuande, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu pledge to support one another, defend the people, and seek to die together. Their brotherhood gives political loyalty a personal form: public responsibility and private fidelity are not easily separated. When Guan Yu is captured after Xuande’s defeat, Zhang Liao urges him to submit rather than die. He argues that dying would abandon Xuande’s wives, violate the vow if Xuande survived, and discard their shared commitment to the Han. The appeal makes loyalty and service, rather than solitary martial glory, the measure of a righteous choice.

The principle also governs the relationship between filial duty and political allegiance. When Shan Fu’s mother learns that her son has entered Cao Cao’s service after being misled by a forged document, she condemns him for failing to judge Cao Cao’s character or seek Xuande’s service. Her rebuke presents loyalty as a moral discernment: serving a powerful ruler is not automatically honorable, and filial duty does not erase the question of which political cause deserves support. The episode places family obligation within the same moral landscape as service to the Han and allegiance to a virtuous leader.

Xuande’s Contrast with Cao Cao

Xuande states the contrast explicitly while considering whether to attack Liu Zhang. He describes himself as reflective where Cao Cao is aggressive, humane where Cao Cao is vicious, and straightforward where Cao Cao is wily. For Xuande, these differences have sustained his moral standing; attacking a fellow member of the imperial Liu family, he fears, would destroy it. The distinction is not merely a claim about temperament. It sets a test for conduct at the moment when political advantage might tempt Xuande to abandon the standards by which he distinguishes himself.

Zhang Song’s embassy makes the contrast public. When Cao Cao displays his army, Zhang Song answers a question about Shu’s military resources by saying that Shu rules through benevolence and justice. He then counters Cao Cao’s boasts by recalling defeats at Red Cliffs, Tong Pass, and the River Wei. Cao Cao is angered by the rebuke and nearly orders the envoy executed; Yang Xiu has to remind him that Zhang Song represents another state. In this scene, benevolent rule is both an asserted political identity and a rhetorical weapon against a ruler whose military splendour cannot settle the question of moral legitimacy.

The Shu Campaign: Restraint and Expansion

Zhang Song recommends that Xuande take Shu from Liu Zhang, whom he describes as too weak to govern and unable to make proper use of capable advisers. Xuande initially resists: Liu Zhang is his kinsman, and their shared imperial lineage makes an attack difficult to reconcile with his principles. Fa Zheng and Pang Tong argue that circumstances are extraordinary, that another power may take the territory, and that acquiring it can be justified as a way to preserve the people and the land. Their argument shifts the question from whether expansion is righteous in itself to whether refusing to act would leave Shu vulnerable to a worse outcome.

At Fucheng, Pang Tong proposes killing Liu Zhang at a second banquet: a hundred men would be hidden around the wall, and a dropped cup would signal the attack. Xuande refuses, saying that Heaven and the people would not forgive him for murdering his kinsman. Fa Zheng invokes the Mandate of Heaven, while Pang Tong urges him to seize the moment, but Xuande holds to his refusal. Pang Tong and Fa Zheng then arrange for Wei Yan to use a sword dance as cover for the assassination. The danger becomes apparent as participants from both sides join the dance, some seeking to protect Liu Zhang and others advancing the plot. Xuande stops it by declaring that Liu Zhang is his friend and weapons are unnecessary, then rebukes Pang Tong for risking his reputation through the scheme. His principle here has an immediate cost: he gives up a possible shortcut to power rather than obtain it by betrayal at a feast.

The campaign continues by other means. When Liu Zhang asks for assistance against Zhang Lu, Xuande accepts the request and advances into Shu, but gives strict orders that his soldiers must neither take goods nor harm the people. His conduct is contrasted with the advisers’ plans for a sudden seizure of power. The people’s later approval of the army is attributed in part to its paying for what it takes and treating local residents respectfully. Benevolence thus appears not only in a ruler’s declarations, but in regulations governing an army moving through territory it intends to control.

Rule and Its Limits

When Xuande enters Chengdu, he forbids retribution against opponents such as Huang Quan and Liu Ba, even though they have resisted him. His clemency helps persuade them to surrender. He initially wants to keep Liu Zhang in the city out of respect, but Kong Ming argues that two lords cannot govern together and that Liu Zhang’s indecision has cost him the right to rule. Liu Zhang is sent to Jingzhou to live under comfortable confinement and receives an honorific title. Benevolent conduct therefore does not prevent the removal of a rival; it shapes how the victor treats him and presents the transfer of power.

The question of material reward sharpens the difference between serving followers and protecting the public. Xuande rewards those who joined him with offices, titles, money, and treasure, including gifts sent to Guan Yu in Jingzhou. But when a proposal is made to redistribute the newly conquered land among his followers, Zhao Zilong objects that the people have already suffered enough. Generosity toward the army, he argues, should not be purchased at the people’s expense; restraint now will win their support in the future. Xuande’s government then overhauls the laws, checks corrupt or excessively harsh local governors, and settles the territory. The contrast makes benevolence an administrative principle as well as a personal virtue: it concerns the treatment of ordinary people after conquest, not only the ruler’s mercy toward political opponents.

Legitimacy and the Imperial Succession

Benevolent rule ultimately becomes part of Xuande’s claim to imperial authority. After his victories in the region around Hanzhong, Kong Ming argues that Xuande has brought peace, controls Shu, and is known for benevolence. Since Cao Cao has usurped power while the Han ruler is displaced, Kong Ming urges Xuande to become emperor and present himself as the righteous opponent of the traitor. Xuande objects that, despite his Han lineage, accepting the throne could make him appear a rebel. Kong Ming answers that a divided land needs a true emperor and that refusing the role out of fear of criticism could cost him the people’s support. The language of virtue now supports a claim to rule beyond the bounds of Xuande’s earlier regional leadership.

The succession dispute exposes how contested that language is. Cao Pi’s accession is framed through an abdication announcement that invokes Heaven’s signs, the people’s wishes, and the precedent of Yao’s transfer of authority. Sima Yi advises Cao Pi to refuse the offer repeatedly before accepting the throne at the Altar of Abdication, where the former emperor hands over the jade seal. In Chengdu, Kong Ming responds by proposing that Xuande become emperor as a descendant of the Han founder, continuing the dynasty after Cao Pi’s seizure of the throne. Xuande initially finds the proposal rebellious; Kong Ming argues that Cao Pi has already usurped the Han and that restoring the Liu house is Xuande’s proper duty. Benevolence and righteousness therefore remain more than a stable description of good behaviour: they are standards by which the narrative distinguishes rulers, and political language through which rival claims to legitimacy are advanced.