Often depicted wearing a robe and holding a fan made of crane feathers, Zhuge was not only an important military strategist and statesman; he was also an accomplished scholar and inventor. His reputation as an intelligent and learned person grew even while he was living in relative seclusion, gaining him the nickname "The Hidden Dragon" . When Cao Cao invaded Shandong in 195, his family was forced to flee south, and his uncle soon died of illness.
Although both his sisters married into important families with numerous connections in the area, for ten years he resided in Longzhong Commandery If he fought in the north while the Nanman people rebelled in the south, then the Nanman people would march further and perhaps even press into areas surrounding the capital. So rather than embarking on a northern invasion, Zhuge Liang led an army to pacify the south first.
Ma Su, brother of Ma Liang, proposed the plan that Zhuge Liang should work toward getting the tribes to join him rather than trying to subdue all of them and he took this plan. Zhuge Liang defeated the rebel leader, Meng Huo, seven different times, but released him each time in order to achieve his genuine surrender.
Finally, Meng Huo agreed to join Zhuge Liang in a genuine acquiescence, and thus Zhuge Liang appointed Meng Huo governor of the region, so he could govern it as he already had, keeping the populace content, and keeping the southern Shu border secure to allow for the future .
During his first Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang persuaded Jiang Wei, a general of Cao Wei, to defect to Shu Han.
In the historical novel ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', Zhuge Liang attempted to extend his lifespan by twelve years, but failed when the ceremony was disturbed when Wei Yan rushed in, announcing the arrival of the Wei army. The novel also related a story of Zhuge Liang passing the ''24 Volumes on Military Strategy'' to Jiang Wei at the eve of his death.
In ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms''
The wisdom and achievements of Zhuge Liang were exaggerated and made popular by ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' written by Luo Guanzhong more than a millennium after the Three Kingdoms era ended. The novel incorporates many popular folklore, pseudohistories, and opera scripts into the character of Zhuge Liang, turning him into an embodiment of intelligence itself. Significant deviations from a historically accurate account include:
Using straw boats to borrow arrows
Before the Battle of Red Cliffs, Zhuge Liang went to visit the Wu camp to assist Wu strategist Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu saw Zhuge Liang as a threat to Eastern Wu and was also jealous of Zhuge Liang's talent. Therefore, he assigned Zhuge Liang the task to make 100,000 arrows in ten days or face execution. Zhuge Liang, however, swore he would finish this seemingly impossible task in three days. He requested 20 large boats, each manned with many straw men and a few soldiers. Before dawn, Zhuge Liang ordered his soldiers to beat war drums and shout orders, to imitate the noise of an attack.
Zhuge Liang sat with Lu Su inside one of the boats drinking wine. The Wei soldiers, unable to see in the fog, fired many volleys of arrows at the sound of the drums. The straw men were soon filled with arrows, and Zhuge Liang returned to Wu having fulfilled his promise.
Hence, the Chinese expression "草船借箭" refers to the act of using someone's strength against him or her.
Stone Sentinel Maze
In Chapter 84, as Lu Xun pursued the fleeing Liu Bei after the Battle of Yiling, he felt a strong enemy presence near Baidicheng and cautioned his army for possible ambush. He sent scouts ahead, who reported that the area was empty except for some scattered piles of stones. Bewildered, he asked one of the locals, who answered that ''Qi'' started to emerge from the area after Zhuge Liang had arranged the stones there. Lu Xun himself then inspected the area, and determined that the array was only a petty display of deception. He led a few cavaliers into the array, and as he was about to come out, a strong gust blew. Soon, duststorms were shadowing the sky and the stones became swords, mountainous piles of dirt emerged while the waves of the Yangtze River sounded like swords and drums. Lu Xun exclaimed, "I fell into Zhuge's trap!" and attempted to exit to no avail.
Suddenly, Lu Xun saw an old man standing before his horse, who then asked if Lu needed assistance out of the array. Lu Xun followed the man and exited the maze unharmed. The old man revealed himself to be Zhuge Liang's father-in-law Huang Chengyan, and explained that the array is constructed using the ideas of the ''''. Huang Chengyan said that Zhuge Liang had predicted that a Wu general would stumble across this maze as he constructed the structure, and asked Huang Chengyan not to lead the general out when that happens. Lu Xun immediately dismounted from his horse and thanked Huang Chengyan, and when he returned to his camp, he exclaimed that he could never top the genius of Zhuge Liang.
Empty Fort Strategy
During the first Northern Expedition, his efforts to capture Chang'an were undermined by the loss at the Battle of Jieting. With the loss of Jieting, Zhuge Liang's current location, Xicheng , was in great danger. With the army deployed elsewhere and left with only a handful of civil officers in the city, Zhuge Liang decided to use a ploy to ward off the advancing Wei army.
Zhuge Liang ordered all the gates to be opened and had civilians sweeping the roads while he sat high up on the gates calmly playing his zither with two children beside him. When the Cao Wei commander and strategist Sima Yi approached the fort with the Wei military, he was puzzled by the scene and ordered his troops to retreat.
Zhuge Liang later told the bewildered civil officers that the strategy only worked because Sima Yi was a man of suspicion, the latter having personally witnessed the success of Zhuge Liang's highly effective ambushing and misdirection tactics many times before. Furthermore, Zhuge Liang had a reputation as a keen but extremely careful military tactician who rarely took risks. Zhuge Liang's well-known carefulness, coupled with Sima Yi's own suspicious nature, led Sima Yi to the conclusion that entry into the apparently empty city would have drawn his troops into an ambush. It is unlikely the same strategy would have worked on someone else, and indeed Sima Yi's son Sima Zhao saw through the ruse immediately and counseled his father against retreat.
Legacy
Zhuge Liang's name is synonymous with wisdom in the Chinese language. He was believed to be the inventor of the mantou, the landmine and a mysterious, efficient automatic transportation device described as a "wooden ox and floating horse" , which is sometimes identified with the wheelbarrow. Although he is often credited with the invention of the repeating crossbow which is named after him, called ''Zhuge Nu'', i.e. ''Zhuge Crossbow'', this type of semi-automatic crossbow is actually an improved version of a model that first appeared during the Warring States Period . Nevertheless, Zhuge Liang's version could shoot further and faster. He is also credited for constructing the mysterious Stone Sentinel Maze, an array of stone piles that is said to produce supernatural phenomenon, located near Baidicheng. An early type of hot air balloon used for military signalling called the Kongming lantern is also named after him.
Some books popularly attributed to Zhuge Liang can be found today, for example the ''Thirty-Six Stratagems'', and ''Mastering the Art of War'' are two that are generally available. Supposedly, his mastery of infantry and cavalry formation tactics based upon the Taoist I-Ching were unrivalled. His ''Chu Shi Biao'', written before the Northern Expeditions, was considered so moving that it was said that if one read it and shed no tears, the reader would be a disloyal person.
He is also the subject of many Chinese literary works. A poem by Du Fu, one of the most prolific poets from the Tang Dynasty, was written in remembrance of Zhuge Liang and his unwavering dedication to his cause, against overwhelming odds. Some historians believe that Du Fu compared himself with Zhuge Liang in the poem. The full text is:
Bai Chongxi, a military leader of the Republic of China and warlord from Guangxi province, earned the laudatory nickname "Little Zhuge" due to his tactical decisions in the Second Sino-Japanese War during World War II.
Takenaka Shigeharu, a Sengoku Period samurai who served under the early Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Japan, was himself often likened to Zhuge Liang due to his reputation as an exceptional strategist, and due to a fictional account of Hideyoshi gaining Shigeharu's services after visiting him three times in a similar manner to Liu Bei's Three Visits.
Portrayals in popular culture
Movies/TV series
In TV series '''' by CCTV, he was played by Tang Guoqiang. Zhuge Liang was portrayed by Pu Quanxin as a minor role in the movie ''Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon'', directed by Daniel Lee. Takeshi Kaneshiro played him in John Woo's movie about the Battle of Chibi, ''Red Cliff''.
Games
Zhuge Liang's reputation for being an unparalleled genius is also emphasised in his portrayal in video games. Reflecting his status as the most highly regarded strategist in the novel ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', games such as ''Destiny of an Emperor'' and Koei's '''' series place Zhuge Liang's intelligence statistic as the highest of all characters.
Zhuge Liang is the protagonist in Koei's tactical role-playing game ''Sangokushi Koumeiden'', where he can die at the Wuzhang Plains, as he did historically, or go on to restore the Han Dynasty under Emperor Xian. He also appears in Koei's popular ''Dynasty Warriors'' series. For more information, see List of Dynasty Warriors characters.
Zhuge Liang is also a main character on the second delivery of Koei's Kessen game also depicting him as a master strategist as well as the main enemy to beat on the Wei campaign.
Manhwa
In the manhwa ''Faeries' Landing'', the protagonist of the story in a high-school student named Ryang Jegal, whose life is turned upside-down by a fairy and her heavenly peers. Ryang Jegal, or Jegal Ryang in the proper Asian sequence, is the translation of Zhuge Liang.
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