We say so long to the novel’s pivotal player and wonder if he was really the genius the book made him out to be. Transcript “You know, you two would’ve been nothing without me.” Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is a supplemental episode. So this is a huge one. In this episode, we bid farewell to the novel’s most prominent character, Zhuge Liang, by examining the similarities and differences between the real-life man and his fictional counterpart. So in the novel, when we are first introduced to Zhuge Liang, he was in his late 20s and had already taken up residence in the countryside of Jing Province, leading the life of a recluse. But what about his life before that? We’re not really told much about Zhuge Liang before his meeting with Liu Bei, so let’s delve into that pre-history right now. According to the historical records, Zhuge Liang was a native of Xu (2) Province. He was born in the year 181, about three years before the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, which marked the beginning of the novel. His father was a low-level county official in Yan (3) Province. So Zhuge Liang’s roots were in the territories that would eventually become part of the kingdom of Wei (4). Zhuge Liang’s father died in the year 187, when Zhuge Liang was just 6 years old. Now, remember that Zhuge Liang was the middle son. He had two brothers and two sisters, and they all needed a caretaker now that their father was dead. That caretaker turned out to be their uncle, who was in the service of Liu Biao (3), the imperial protector of Jing Province. This uncle moved to Xu Province to watch over Zhuge Liang and his siblings. A few years later, Cao Cao launched his invasion of Xu Province in search of vengeance after an officer under the imperial protector of that province had killed Cao Cao’s father. To flee the ravages of war, Zhuge Liang’s uncle packed up all his nieces and nephews and moved them South. All, that is, except for Zhuge Liang’s elder brother Zhuge Jin. Zhuge Jin was 7 years older than Zhuge Liang, and he was in his 20s at this point, so he struck out on his own, moving to the Southlands, where he became a key adviser for the ruling Sun family. Zhuge Liang’s uncle was then recommended for the governorship of a city by the warlord Yuan Shu, and he served in that post for a short time before being replaced. After that, he returned to the service of Liu Biao, so he brought Zhuge Liang and his younger siblings to the Jing Province city of Xiangyang (1,2). Not long after that, in the year 197, this uncle died, so Zhuge Liang, now at the ripe old age of 16, became the de facto head of his household. He moved the family to the nearby countryside, in the county of Nanyang (2,2), where he farmed by day, studied by night, and became good friends with some of the well-known scholars in the area. One of those acquaintances was Sima Hui (1), aka Master Water Mirror, the guy who in the novel was the first to hint to Liu Bei about the existence of a great talent in the area. Another acquaintance was Pang (2) Degong (2,1), the uncle of Young Phoenix, aka Pang Tong. A third literary friend was Huang (2) Chenyan (2,4), who would actually become Zhuge Liang’s father in law. There’s actually a bit of a story about how Zhuge Liang came to take Huang (2) Chenyan’s (2,4) daughter as wife. So when Zhuge Liang decided that it was time to marry, he started looking at various potential matches. Huang Chenyan told him, “Hey,