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
