Hanzhong

Hanzhong is a defensible western territory whose distance from the imperial court allows Zhang Lu’s regime to endure, while its resources and position make it a target in wider struggles for control. It also becomes a place of lasting remembrance: Kong Ming’s tomb near Hanzhong is described as a pilgrimage destination, linking the region’s political geography to the legacy of the strategist who helped shape the Three Kingdoms era.

Setting and strategic position

The narrative places Hanzhong west of the heartlands and presents its remoteness as a political advantage. For thirty years, Zhang Lu’s government has survived there because the territory lies too far from the imperial court to attract sustained attention. The court has instead granted Zhang Lu the title of prefect and required him to send the usual tax, an arrangement that recognizes his authority while leaving his local rule largely intact.

Hanzhong’s natural defenses add to its importance. Zhang Lu’s adviser Yan Pu argues that the region has more than one hundred thousand households, abundant wealth and grain, and protection on all four sides. The arrival of refugees after Ma Chao’s defeat further increases the population and resources available there. In Yan Pu’s assessment, those advantages make Hanzhong more than a remote refuge: it can serve as a base for extending power into the western Riverlands.

Zhang Lu’s government

Hanzhong is governed through the religious community associated with Zhang Lu and the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice. Its offices have distinctive titles: Zhang Lu calls himself supreme ruler, followers are known as ghost fighters, and local leaders serve as libationers. Those responsible for larger forces are called lead healing libationers. The account presents sincerity as a central rule of the tradition, with lying and deception forbidden.

The community’s response to illness combines confession and ritual. A sick person is taken to a Place of Silence to reflect on and articulate the sins believed to have caused the illness. A superintendent of libations oversees prayers, and the confession is written in three copies, titled the Petition to the Three Officials. One copy is placed on a hill for Heaven, another buried for Earth, and the third cast into water for the officials of the Underworld. If the patient recovers, a donation of five bushels of rice follows as thanksgiving.

Its rules also shape everyday provision and discipline. Public places offer the poor rice, meat, and facilities for cooking; people may take what they honestly need, while taking more than necessary is believed to invite punishment from Heaven. Offenders receive three pardons before punishment. The account emphasizes that the territory has no ordinary officials, since governance is carried out by the libationers.

Ambitions and conflict

When news reaches Hanzhong that Cao Cao has defeated the western army and is increasing his power, Zhang Lu anticipates that his own territory may be next. With Ma Teng dead and Ma Chao in retreat, he proposes declaring himself prince of Hanning and leading resistance. Yan Pu advises a more expansive course: seize the forty-one departments of the western Riverlands, whose governor, Liu Zhang, he considers weak, and then declare independence. Zhang Lu accepts the proposal and commissions his brother Zhang Wei to summon the army.

The move brings Hanzhong into direct conflict with Liu Zhang’s Yizhou regime. Liu Zhang has a long-standing enmity with Zhang Lu and has executed Zhang Lu’s mother and brother. Treating the uprising as a serious threat, Liu Zhang garrisons Baxi, a town near Hanzhong, under Pang Xi’s command. Pang Xi sends word of the revolt, and Liu Zhang gathers advisers to consider how to respond. The evidence establishes the uprising’s immediate political stakes but does not describe its eventual military outcome here.

Hanzhong in the wider story

Hanzhong’s importance is both strategic and retrospective. The collapse of the Han gives rise to three leaders who carve kingdoms from the weakening empire: Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Sun Quan. In that fractured landscape, Hanzhong’s distance, defenses, population, and grain make it a consequential regional center rather than a peripheral setting.

The region’s later association with Kong Ming adds a different kind of significance. His actual tomb near Hanzhong is described as a place of pilgrimage, while a shrine dedicated to him stands beside that of Liu Bei in Chengdu. The narrative thus connects Hanzhong not only to contests over territory and independence, but also to the historical memory and reverence that gather around the figures of the Three Kingdoms.