On Liu Zhang

[Sun Gongli]

I merely thought it would be interesting to discuss the career of Liu Zhang. Despite the view we have of him as a bit of a bumbler second only to Liu Shan, he seems to have lived through some very interesting times.

Two of Liu Zhang's brothers appear to have been killed during Ma Teng's attack on Li Jue, and it was at this time that a certain Pang Xi brought their sons to Liu Yan and joined him. Shortly thereafter, Liu Yan died, and an imperial edict named Hu Mao as his replacement, but Zhao Wei and others felt that Liu Zhang, being lenient and kind, should receive the post instead. This resulted in the rebellion of Gan Ning (yes, that Gan Ning), Lou Fa, and Shen Mi, but their revolt was quashed and they fled to Jing province (Liu Biao and Liu Yan had conflicted with one another numerous times, and Liu Biao and Liu Zhang would continue that long running trend). In the end, the Han issued another edict, this time naming Liu Zhang as Inspector instead of Hu Mao.

Liu Zhang appears to have exercised some control of Zhang Lu and his sect, but Zhang Lu apparently had a falling out with him and rebelled, killing his officer Zhang Xiu. In retaliation, Liu Zhang killed Zhang Lu's family. Liu Zhang sent Pang Xi to war with Zhang Lu, but someone started a rumor against Pang Xi. Zhao Wei had tried to intercede on Pang Xi's behalf, but Liu Zhang would not listen. Eventually, Zhao Wei, who had helped to establish Liu Zhang, rebelled, and joined Liu Biao.

Zhao Wei was eventually slain, but Pang Xi was able to make peace with Liu Zhang (though he had tried to raise troops in self-defense). The Han court heard of the troubles that Yi was having and tried to replace Liu Zhang, but he refused.

We all know the story about how Liu Zhang's forces fell apart when Liu Bei entered the picture - Zhang Song and Fa Zheng betrayed him, and generals were captured and surrendered. What some people may not realize is that, upon the capture of Guan Yu, Liu Zhang also came into the service of Sun Quan, and he was set up to be made as Governor of Yi Province, but died shortly thereafter.

All other accounts I'd read besides Liu Zhang's SGZ biography and ZZTJ indicated that Liu Zhang died an officer of Liu Bei. How interesting, then, it would be that Sun Quan, who had once sought to send Zhou Yu and Sun Yu to attack him, would then want to use him to replace the man who had forced his surrender earlier?

[Xu Yuan]

I absolutely love the exploit's of little known officer's, if Koei would take the time, they could create a "Legend of,,," based upon character's of your choosing, From Guan Yu to Ma Long, of course some might be much shorter then other's that would still be an excellent idea... sort of strummed off topic...


Ahem... anyway, thanks for all this info. on Liu Zhang, I knew he couldn't be as bad as Koei's stats make him out to be.

[Lexus Fiend]

Thanks for posting, Gongli. My knowledge on Liu Zhang has basically doubled by reading this.

[LiuBeiwasGreat]

Very nice, i always wanted to know the details of Pang Xi's campaign against Zhang Lu and the details about Liu Zhang's rule before Liu Bei's arrival. Thanks Sun Gongli.

[Six_and_Up]

Interesting stuff. Thanks for the post. Looks like theres a lot more on Liu Zhang than i thought.

[MarvelousLingTong!!!!!!]

That was very interesting I knew next to nothing about Liu Zhang I'm glad you posted this.

[SlickSlicer]

YES! I knew that was the same Gan Ning. I saw his name on Dr. Rafe de Crispigny's site and was wondering about that. In the bio I made of him for my old site I said that he originally served Liu Zhang and then rebelled too, but I wasn't sure if it was the same Gan Ning or another one.

[JamesD]

Great info Sun Gongli, this could help me in a debate on another forum. By the way, that Zhang Xiu isn't related to Zhang Lu is it?

[Sun Gongli]

Not that I'm aware of. Zhang is, even then, an extremely common surname. It's like "Smith" or "Jones" in English.

[Zhao Zilong]

Thanks for the info on Liu Zhang. I didn't know too much about Liu Zhang and that passage was interesting.