A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Chu-ko Liang
459 Chu-ko Liang 諸葛亮 (T. 孔明. Also known as 臥龍先生). A.D. 181-234. A native of 陽都 Yang-tu in Shantung, whose father died while he was still a child and left him to the care of an uncle serving under Yüan Shu. Thence he went to the district ruled by Liu Piao, and there much of his early life was passed. As a young man he showed signs of literary genius, occupying his leisure in versifying. He used to compare himself with the famous Kuan Chung and Yo I, and one of his intimate friends recommended him to Liu Pei. The latter, then an unimportant adventurer, made three expeditions in A.D. 207 to the reed-hut where the future Minister, like another Cincinnatus, was leading a life of retirement. On the third occasion he obtained an interview, at which the recluse showed such wide knowledge of the empire and such a grasp of the needs of the times that Liu Pei was astounded, and declared that on receiving a promise of his services he felt the joy of a fish regaining its native element. At that juncture Sun Ch'üan had a strong position in Wu, while Ts'ao Ts'ao was in command of Wei. Putting himself entirely into the hands of his new counsellor, and following his advice in everything, Liu Pei embarked upon the contest with his two rivals for the possession of the empire. Chu-ko Liang, seeing that a coalition would be fatal to the prospects of his master, kept a watchful eye on the conduct of the vacillating Sun Ch'üan, with whom he succeeded in making a defensive alliance, and by whose means he inflicted a severe blow on Ts'ao Ts'ao at the 赤壁 Red Wall on the Yang-tsze. Having at length seated Liu Pei upon a throne in Shu, modern Ssŭch'uan, he next devoted himself ardently to internal reforms, as well as to the organisation of a great army. Liu Pei upon his deathbed confided his son to his Minister's care, at the same time begging him, if the young man should prove incapable, to mount the throne himself. The government of Shu having been satisfactorily settied , Chu-ko Liang undertook an expedition to the south to subdue the border tribes, and is said to have penetrated into Burmah. Returning from this expedition in A.D. 227, he began a great campaign against Wei, which was successful but not to the extent anticipated. Chu-ko Liang thereupon applied to be degraded; and degraded he actually was, although still retained as chief in the conduct of affairs. Another campaign was undertaken in A.D. 231, when he made use of the famous device of "wooden oxen and running horses" as a means of transport. What the device was, nobody now knows. He died while engaged in another campaign against Wei in A.D. 234. Always well informed as to the doings of his contemporaries, "K'ung-ming," as this darling hero of the Chinese people is affectionately styled, was gifted with a deep insight into human nature, often seeming to his subordinates to be in possession of superhuman faculties. Besides the "oxen and horses" mentioned above, he invented a bow for shooting several arrows at once. He did not invent, as is often stated, but improved and ultimately perfected the Eight Dispositions, a series of military tactics. He was generally regarded as a mechanical and mathematical genius, and one who could not only foretell the course of natural phenomena but even control them. His collected writings have been published in two thin volumes. He was ennobled as Marquis in A.D. 223, and canonised as 忠武; and in 1724 his tablet was placed in the Confucian Temple.