Liu Bei Dies: Shu Han Founder Entrusts Kingdom to Zhuge Liang

Liu Bei died on June 10, 223 AD, in Baidicheng, present-day Chongqing, after a devastating military defeat that left his Shu Han kingdom weakened and his lifelong dream of restoring the Han dynasty unfulfilled. Born in 161 AD in Zhuo County, in what is now Hebei Province, Liu Bei claimed descent from the Han imperial family, a lineage that gave him political legitimacy in a period when the Han dynasty was collapsing under the weight of internal corruption, regional warlordism, and the Yellow Turban Rebellion. He began his career as a minor warlord with few resources, relying on personal charisma and the loyalty of his sworn brothers Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, relationships immortalized in the fourteenth-century novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms." His early decades were marked by repeated defeats and retreats as he struggled to establish a territorial base against far more powerful rivals. His fortunes changed when he recruited the strategist Zhuge Liang in 207 AD. Zhuge Liang's "Longzhong Plan" outlined a strategy for Liu Bei to seize the provinces of Jing and Yi, then use them as a base for reunification. The strategy worked through 219 AD, when Liu Bei declared himself king of Hanzhong and controlled significant territory in central and southwestern China. But the alliance with Sun Quan of Wu collapsed when Wu forces killed Guan Yu and seized Jingzhou. Liu Bei launched a massive retaliatory campaign against Wu in 222, despite Zhuge Liang's objections, and suffered a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Xiaoting. The defeat destroyed the bulk of Shu Han's military strength. Liu Bei retreated to Baidicheng and died there, entrusting his young son and the kingdom to Zhuge Liang in one of the most famous deathbed scenes in Chinese historical literature.