Sichuan is the western territorial base of Xuande’s kingdom and the setting from which the novel’s struggle to continue the Han takes institutional form. Its importance is more than geographic: control of the region underwrites Xuande’s authority, while the claim that he rules through benevolence and serves the Han gives that authority a political and moral justification.

A western kingdom amid imperial collapse

The Three Kingdoms emerge as the Han empire breaks apart and rival leaders carve kingdoms from its diminishing territory. Xuande’s kingdom is based in Sichuan, in western China; unlike Cao Cao, who holds the emperor and commands allegiance through control of the court, Xuande’s claim rests on his distant descent from the imperial family and his effort to preserve the Han. The region therefore anchors a rival vision of political legitimacy in a landscape of competing warlord powers.

Kong Ming’s strategic counsel places Sichuan within a larger contest for the future. He describes Cao Cao as dominant in the north, strengthened by his control of the emperor, and advises treating Sun Quan’s southern power as a potential ally rather than an enemy. Jingzhou, he argues, is the place Xuande must focus on, since the future will be decided there. This counsel connects the western base to a broader political geography: Sichuan sustains Xuande’s position, but his ambitions and survival depend on alliances and territorial opportunities beyond it.

Conquest, rule, and popular support

The narrative links Xuande’s hold over the region to the conduct of his forces and the security offered to local people. After Cao Cao’s retreat from Hanzhong, surrounding places fall to Xuande’s men; others surrender when they believe he will protect peace and security for ordinary people. Kong Ming invokes this reputation when urging Xuande to accept the imperial title: Cao Cao has usurped the true ruler, while Xuande is renowned for benevolence and has restored peace to the regions he controls. Territory thus becomes evidence in a dispute over who can credibly rule, not merely a prize of warfare.

This claim is not uncontested. Zhang Lu’s Hanzhong regime lies to the north of the western Riverlands, and its advisers see the disorder of the wider empire as an opportunity to take the forty-one departments of the region and declare independence. Yan Pu points to the population, wealth, grain, natural defenses, and arrival of refugees as grounds for expansion, while dismissing Liu Zhang, governor of Yizhou, as weak. The episode makes clear that regional control is continually contested among local rulers as well as by the larger powers.

From territorial base to imperial claim

After the victories around Hanzhong, Xuande’s commanders press him to become emperor. Kong Ming argues that Xuande’s lineage, the people’s longing for a true ruler, and the peace established under his government make the moment appropriate. Xuande resists, fearing that accepting the throne would make him appear a rebel. His hesitation exposes the tension at the heart of the claim: to preserve the Han, he must assume an imperial title that might look like another seizure of power. Sichuan provides the secure base from which that claim can be advanced, but does not remove its political and ethical difficulty.

When Cao Pi establishes the Wei dynasty by compelling the Han emperor to abdicate, the news and rumors reaching Chengdu distress Xuande. Kong Ming responds by proposing that Xuande be crowned as a new Han emperor, arguing that Cao Pi has usurped the throne and that Xuande, as a descendant of the House of Liu, has a duty to recover it. Xuande initially condemns the proposal as rebellious and disloyal. The debate turns the western capital of his power into the staging ground for a competing continuation of Han legitimacy, even as the old dynasty has formally ended.

Memory and narrative significance

Sichuan’s political importance is matched by its place in the novel’s account of remembrance. The region is identified as the base of Xuande’s kingdom, and its capital, Chengdu, is where his tomb remains an important site of pilgrimage and veneration. The closing historical perspective contrasts this lasting reverence for Xuande with the controversy surrounding the whereabouts of Cao Cao’s burial. In that contrast, Sichuan is not only territory held during the struggle: it is also the setting associated with the enduring memory of the ruler who sought to keep the Han alive.