223 AD

AD 223 is the year Xuande dies at Baidi, ending the founding ruler’s life as Shu’s first emperor and forcing a transfer of authority to his son Liu Shan. His death follows the loss of his sworn brothers, a failing body and a remembered warning about the consequences of rejecting Kong Ming’s advice; the succession ceremony in Chengdu then carries the Han lineage forward under a new ruler.

A ruler’s final decline

In the late spring of AD 223, Xuande’s strength rapidly ebbs in the Palace of Eternal Peace at Baidi. He takes to his bed, and the account connects his weakening to the shock of what has happened to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei: the loss of the two brothers has sapped his energy until sickness overwhelms what remains of his physical and mental strength.

One night, alone after dismissing his attendants, Xuande sees Guan Yu and Zhang Fei appear to him as ghosts. They tell him that the Supreme Lord has made them gods because they remained faithful to their oath, and that the three sworn brothers will soon be reunited. Xuande reaches out to touch them, wakes, and finds them gone. He takes the encounter as a sign that he has little time left and summons Kong Ming from Chengdu.

Regret and the transfer of authority

Kong Ming arrives with Xuande’s younger sons, Liu Yong and Liu Li. The heir apparent, Liu Shan, remains behind to hold Chengdu. Speaking privately to Kong Ming, the dying ruler acknowledges that his adviser had brought him success and reproaches himself for ignoring his advice, an error he associates with the disaster that has overtaken them.

Xuande entrusts the kingdom to Kong Ming because he considers Liu Shan too weak to rule. The confidence he places in his adviser gives the impending succession a second dimension: authority is to pass formally to the heir, while responsibility for the young ruler and the kingdom rests on Kong Ming. Xuande then addresses those gathered, wishes them well, and urges them to act according to what is best in themselves. He never speaks again.

Death and succession

Xuande dies aged sixty-three in the spring of AD 223. His death closes the life of the ruler whose fortunes had set the novel’s early course, but it does not end the dynastic claim he embodied. His body is carried back to Chengdu, where formal mourning rites accompany the enthronement of Liu Shan as the second ruler, allowing the Han lineage in Shu to continue without a break.

Xuande receives the posthumous name August Emperor Zhao Lie, meaning Reflected Glory, and is buried at Huiling. The account thus sets private bereavement beside public continuity: the sworn brothers’ reunion belongs to the deathbed vision, while the court’s rites and the new emperor’s enthronement make succession visible in the political world.

The year’s place in the larger political story

The year falls amid a struggle over who may claim the Han inheritance. Earlier, Kong Ming had argued that Cao Cao held the emperor and controlled the northern court, while Xuande’s benevolence and rule in Shu gave him grounds to claim legitimate authority. After Cao Pi’s accession in Wei, news and rumors about the former emperor’s fate made Xuande ill; Kong Ming then urged him to become emperor and continue the Han line. Xuande’s death in AD 223 comes after that contest over legitimacy has reshaped the political landscape.

The account also gives the year a retrospective, elegiac frame through a poem by Du Fu. Its lines contrast Xuande’s ambition to take Wu lands beyond the Three Gorges with his death, two years later, in the Palace of Eternal Peace. The contrast makes the place of his death part of the year’s meaning: a ruler who sought to enlarge his realm ends in a palace whose name promises enduring peace, while the transfer of power to Liu Shan leaves the political future in Kong Ming’s care.