Liu Bei

Liu Bei, called Xuande throughout the narrative, is one of the three leaders who rise from the collapse of the Han and carve out kingdoms from its ruins. His plot is shaped by repeated loss of territory and the need to secure allies, but also by his stated commitment to Han legitimacy, benevolent rule, and the people caught in civil war. The contrast between those commitments and the practical demands of conquest gives his rise its political and moral tension.

Identity and Political Aim

The book places Liu Bei among the three figures whose emergence defines the age of division: Cao Cao in the north, Sun Quan in the south, and Liu Bei, whose fortunes come to shape the opening movement of the novel. His political claim rests on his imperial lineage and on his insistence that the Han has been usurped by ministers who have displaced its rightful authority. When he explains his purpose to Kong Ming, he says that the Han is collapsing and its authority has been taken by evil ministers; although weak, he wants the land governed by justice and asks for instruction to achieve it.

That aim is not merely a claim to personal advancement. Liu Bei frames his cause as service to the country and its people, and Kong Ming recognizes the force of that appeal. Yet the narrative repeatedly tests the difference between his intention to restore legitimate rule and the political acts required to acquire territory. His supporters urge him to act before opportunities close, while he resists steps that seem to violate the kinship or imperial principles he invokes.

Displacement, Rivalry, and Survival

Liu Bei’s position is precarious even when he has a foothold at Xiaopei. After Zhang Fei steals horses belonging to Lü Bu, Liu Bei offers to return them, but Lü Bu is furious and attacks the city. Liu Bei is forced to retreat with his sworn brothers, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, and leaves at night to seek service with Cao Cao. The episode establishes a recurring pattern: an ally can become a threat, and a territorial setback sends Liu Bei back into dependence on another power.

That dependence makes his relationship with Cao Cao especially uneasy. Cao Cao’s advisers debate whether to kill Liu Bei when he is vulnerable, but warn that such an act would damage Cao Cao’s standing among men of virtue and undermine his stated aim of restoring the empire. Cao Cao instead gives Liu Bei additional troops as a sign of friendship. The apparent protection does not remove the underlying contest. During a private meeting, Cao Cao calls himself and Liu Bei the only heroes alive. Liu Bei’s alarm is so great that he drops his chopsticks, while Zhang Fei and Guan Yu arrive, hands on their sword hilts, claiming they have come to perform a sword dance. The scene turns political suspicion into a test of composure: Liu Bei must conceal his opposition even in the company of the rival who sees him as an equal.

Later, when the two armies meet at Rang Mountain, Cao Cao reproaches Liu Bei for having once been his guest and receiving his hospitality. Liu Bei answers that Cao Cao is a traitor to the Han and reads aloud from the secret belt decree ordering resistance. The exchange makes explicit what the earlier hospitality had obscured: the men’s relationship is not a stable alliance but a rivalry over who may claim to act for the dynasty.

Alliances, Strategy, and Territorial Rule

The search for a secure base brings Liu Bei to Kong Ming. At their meeting, Liu Bei asks to be taught how to serve a land whose government is collapsing. Kong Ming sets out the strategic balance: Cao Cao controls the emperor and the north, while Sun Quan possesses popular support south of the river and should be treated as a potential ally rather than an enemy. Liu Bei, in Kong Ming’s view, should focus on Jingzhou. The counsel joins political principle to practical geography: restoring the Han requires a power base, alliances, and a calculation of which rival can be opposed and which must be accommodated.

Kong Ming’s first military test at Bowang also exposes the strain of bringing an established command under a new strategist. Cao Cao’s army of more than one hundred thousand is advancing on Xinye. Kong Ming assigns Guan Yu to conceal troops near Bowang and attack the rear and supply train when the signal fires appear; Zhang Fei is to strike the army stores, while Zhao Zilong leads an advance party ordered to feign retreat. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei distrust the plan, especially because Kong Ming will remain away from the fighting. Liu Bei reprimands them and insists that they cooperate. The scene shows him backing delegated authority even when the men closest to him doubt it, and making command itself part of the test.

Liu Bei’s claim to rule the western lands is likewise contested by questions of principle. Zhang Song urges him to take Yizhou from Liu Zhang, arguing that Liu Zhang is a weak ruler and that the people want better government. He proposes that Liu Bei begin by pretending to head toward Hanzhong, then seize the region. Liu Bei objects that he should not attack a member of the same imperial family. Zhang Song counters that another power may take the land first. The proposal places Liu Bei’s scruples beside the cost of inaction: refusal can preserve a principle while allowing the political opportunity to pass.

When Liu Bei’s forces reach Chengdu, Liu Zhang surrenders, moved by a desire to spare the population further suffering. Liu Bei enters to public rejoicing and forbids reprisals against opponents including Huang Quan and Liu Ba; their continued opposition gives way to surrender. He initially wants to keep Liu Zhang in the city out of respect, but Kong Ming argues that the territory cannot have two lords and that Liu Zhang has forfeited his right to rule through indecision. Liu Zhang is sent to Jingzhou under comfortable house arrest and given an honorific title. Liu Bei’s refusal to punish opponents is therefore paired with the transfer of sovereignty: clemency softens the conquest but does not undo it.

The policies that follow give practical form to that distinction. Liu Bei rewards those who served him with offices, titles, money, and treasure, including gifts sent to Guan Yu in Jingzhou. But he does not redistribute the newly conquered land among his followers. Zhao Zilong argues that the people have suffered enough and that generosity toward them will win future support; the policy makes their relief a political consideration as well as a moral one. Laws are revised, corrupt or excessively harsh local governors are restrained, and the territory is settled. The account presents Liu Bei’s rule as an effort to distinguish the new regime from the abuses associated with the breakdown of central government.

Kingship and the Claim to Legitimacy

After Cao Cao retreats and Liu Bei’s men secure the territory around Hanzhong, commanders urge Liu Bei to assume a higher title. Kong Ming argues that Cao Cao has usurped power, that Liu Bei has brought peace to the regions under his control, and that the proper response is to accept the people’s and Heaven’s call to rule. Liu Bei resists, warning that although he belongs to the Han imperial line, taking the title could make him appear a rebel. His hesitation sustains the conflict between hereditary legitimacy and the appearance of ambition: the same lineage that supports his claim could also make his actions look like a seizure of power.

Kong Ming answers that the land has been taken by adventurers and that loyal and virtuous people want a true emperor. If Liu Bei refuses for fear of criticism, he may lose their support. Even then, Liu Bei first accepts the title of king rather than emperor. After refusing three times, as convention requires, he agrees to be crowned King of Hanzhong in late 219. The ceremony takes place facing south, on a specially made altar marked for the five directions. He names his son Liu Shan as heir and appoints Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Zilong, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong as the Five Tiger Generals, while Wei Yan becomes governor of Hanzhong. The appointments turn a disputed political claim into an organized hierarchy of succession, military honor, and territorial administration.

Liu Bei then writes to the emperor to explain his decision. He traces the crisis of the imperial family back to Dong Zhuo and recounts his own attempts to defend the throne, including the conspiracy with Dong Cheng that failed after a security breach. His account presents him as the remaining member of the imperial family able to resist Cao Cao, whose ambition, he argues, has corrupted the court and endangered the dynastic temples. By portraying kingship as a duty imposed by the family’s peril and the people’s appeal, Liu Bei seeks to distinguish his acceptance of power from the usurpation he attributes to Cao Cao.

Narrative Role and Political Tension

Liu Bei’s story turns on the friction between aspiration and restraint. He seeks advisers and military allies, depends on the protection of others, and loses ground when relationships sour; later, he becomes a ruler through decisions that require both strategic opportunism and gestures of restraint. The narrative repeatedly gives his claim moral force through his concern for the people and his appeal to Han lineage, but it also shows that restoring authority requires acquiring territory and exercising command.

That tension is clearest in the contrast between his reluctance to attack Liu Zhang and his eventual acceptance of Yizhou, and between his hesitation over royal status and his eventual coronation. The sequence does not erase the difference between benevolent intentions and political consequences. Instead, it makes that difference central to Liu Bei’s significance: he embodies a competing claim to order in an age when inherited legitimacy, military power, alliances, and public welfare are all at stake. His rise is therefore not simply the story of a leader gaining a kingdom, but of a leader repeatedly having to explain why his possession of power should count as rightful rule.