The evaluation of historical figures is always diverse and focused. Different people have different views on the same person and event. The Three Kingdoms period is known"Zhisheng"Zhuge Liang has been tested by word-of-mouth polarization in recent years.
He is the military division next to Liu Bei, and has always been known as a civilian military talent. However, why would anyone question Zhuge Liang's military capabilities? What about Zhuge Liang's real military talent?
Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty once used 14 words to evaluate Zhuge Liang's military talent, what did he say?
In February, the ** dynamic incentive plan Zhuge Liang, a wise man near a demon, the world admires and fears him. He modestly refers to himself as "Buyi" at the beginning of the "Teacher's Table", but his talent goes far beyond this simple description.
As a fledgling, he provided Liu Bei with several countermeasures to deal with the situation, including strategies for warfare, political reform, and coordination of relations with ethnic minorities.
Many of Liu Bei's group's military strategies and combat deployments followed Zhuge Liang's strategies. Among them, the strategy of "uniting Wu to resist Cao" proposed by him has even affected the situation of the three countries in the future.
Zhuge Liang's wisdom and strategy made him stand out in the troubled times and was praised by future generations.
Under the approach of Cao Cao's army, Zhuge Liang went to Jiangdong to persuade Lu Su, Zhou Yu, and Sun Quan, and finally Cao Cao was defeated at Chibi and forced to retreat to the north, which laid the foundation for the situation of three points in the world.
After getting Zhuge Liang, the military advisor, Liu Bei Group successfully got rid of the predicament and laid the foundation for long-term development. Zhuge Liang not only performed well in front of the stage, he is also a rare talent behind the scenes.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Zhuge Liang recorded: "Liang often guards Chengdu, with enough food and soldiers. This shows that Zhuge Liang was a very good "logistics minister" at that time.
Even though the Three Kingdoms period was changing, he was able to make the army worry about food and clothing, fully demonstrating his outstanding planning skills. One of Zhuge Liang's great military achievements was to make great contributions in the Southern Expedition.
The success of the Southern Expedition directly ensured peace and stability in the South for decades, and also cleared important obstacles for the later Northern Expedition. Zhuge Liang participated in the whole process of the southern expedition, which laid a solid foundation for the internal political stability of Liu Bei's group in the future.
Seven captures of Meng Huo, six out of Qishan and other feats are also Zhuge Liang's outstanding performances under Liu Bei. It stands to reason that such a talent, or even an all-rounder, should not have a negative evaluation.
So, why did later generations' evaluation of Zhuge Liang change?
Zhuge Liang's military talent has always been a controversial topic. Some people questioned his inadequacy in the use of troops, mainly because of Chen Shou's evaluation of him in "Three Kingdoms".
As one of the twenty-four histories, Chen Shou's authority of "Three Kingdoms" is unquestionable, and he spent the first half of his life in Shu Han, which is very close to the era in which Zhuge Liang lived, so his evaluation was convinced by many people.
However, some people also questioned Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition strategy, which took several years, costing the people and money, but did not succeed, but weakened the national strength of Shu. Tang Taizong Li Shimin is Zhuge Liang's number one fan, he does not agree with Chen Shou's evaluation, and even thinks that Chen Shou is suspected of deliberately belittling Zhuge Liang.
Chen Shou's evaluation of Zhuge Liang may have been influenced by his father's imprisonment for joining the army under Ma Yan, but Li Shimin's appreciation of Zhuge Liang has left a clear record in the history books.
In various works that record the dialogue between Li Shimin and his courtiers, he praised Zhuge Liang many times in front of his ministers, and had unique insights into Zhuge Liang's military talents.
He once said: "Zhuge Liang ruled Shu for ten years without forgiveness, and Shu Dahua." This sentence pointed out Zhuge Liang's contribution to Shu and indirectly proved that he was an excellent military commander.
You must know that almost all the affairs of Liu Bei's group are related to Zhuge Liang, and Shu can occupy a place in the division of the heroes, and Zhuge Liang's achievements are indelible.
Li Shimin himself is an outstanding military strategist, strategist, and politician, and his high recognition is enough to prove Zhuge Liang's military talent. If the failure of the Northern Expedition to achieve a complete victory was entirely attributed to Zhuge Liang's lack of military talent, then Li Shimin would have been the first to stand up and appeal on his behalf.
At that time, the biggest opponent of the Northern Expedition was Sima Yi. Zhuge Liang organized five Northern Expeditions, all but the first one, which inflicted heavy losses on Cao Wei's army. Especially in the Second Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang created a miracle in the predicament.
He broke through the Sanguan, held Chencang, and killed Wang Shuang, which greatly boosted morale with such results. By the time of the Fifth Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang himself was already at the end of his crossbow.
Although the armament of the Northern Expeditionary Army was somewhat insufficient compared to Sima Yi's army, Zhuge Liang succeeded in stabilizing the situation, so that Sima Yi chose to stick to the camp gate and did not fight.
The large army led by Sima Yi, including the strong cavalry that the Shu Han army coveted, as well as the abundance of food and grass, gave him a great chance of victory. For this battle, Tang Taizong gave Sima Yi a high evaluation, thinking that he did not dare to do anything to Zhuge Liang when he was alive, and Zhuge Liang chose to flee because of suspicion and fraud after his death.
In the end, Li Shimin concluded: "Isn't this exactly where the way of a good general is lost? This shows that Li Shimin is more biased towards Zhuge Liang.
Why does Li Shimin respect Zhuge Liang so much? One of the important reasons for this is the frequent communication between him and his courtiers. Once, when Li Shimin was discussing with Fang Xuanling and others, he emphasized that he was selfless for political leaders, and there were clear rewards and punishments.
He believed that as long as he could do this, he would punish his men for their loyalty. In order to prove his point, Li Shimin took Zhuge Liang as an example. Zhuge Liang once severely punished Liao Li and Li Yan, but they did not resent him, because they knew that Zhuge Liang was on the basis of facts, and if he did wrong, he would be punished, and if he did right, he would be rewarded.
This is the embodiment of strict management of the army. Many years later, when Zhuge Liang died, Liao Li, Li Yan and others were very sad, and they missed Zhuge Liang very much. This proves that Zhuge Liang's political and military ideas are in many ways consistent with Li Shimin's ideas.
For Li Shimin, the Ming monarch who created a prosperous era, it is very important to have more virtuous and capable ministers.
Although Zhuge Liang came to prominence later than his peers, he showed extraordinary talent in all aspects, and his countermeasures in the face of various situations are still of far-reaching enlightening significance.
Li Shimin is familiar with historical books and biographies, and has in-depth research on historical figures. Among the many historical heroes, Zhuge Liang's deeds and his conduct are even more unique. More importantly, Zhuge Liang's era has many similarities with Li Shimin's accession to the throne.
As the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin had a fierce struggle against the separatist forces on all sides before ascending the throne. After he ascended the throne, like Shu Han, who had just experienced several major wars, he urgently needed a stable environment to recuperate.
Therefore, many of Zhuge Liang's ideas in governing Shu Han coincided with Li Shimin's ideas.
There were many ethnic minorities around Shu Han, and this was also the case in the late Tang Dynasty, and Li Shimin won it by treating ethnic minorities with his peaceful policy"Day Khan"reputation. In other words, Li Shimin's admiration, admiration and cross-era resonance for Zhuge Liang are self-evident, which is also the embodiment of Mingjun's cherishing of good looks.
Li Shimin himself is a monarch who loves talents very much, and people like Fang Xuanling, Chu Suiliang, Wei Zheng and others are all courtiers that he attaches great importance to. Li Shimin and his courtiers were very much in favor of Zhuge Liang's outstanding political and military contributions.
From this point of view, it is not surprising that Li Shimin gave Zhuge Liang a high evaluation.
Li Shimin's evaluation is not groundless, Zhuge Liang's military talent stems from his in-depth understanding and application of "The Art of War". It can be seen from the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" and Zhuge Liang's writings that he has been familiar with "The Art of War" since his youth.
In addition, he also studied many military documents of the pre-Qin period, such as "Guanzi" and "Liutao", and was able to integrate this knowledge with "The Art of War" for his own use.
In "Longzhong Pair", Zhuge Liang's strategic thinking and diplomatic strategy are highly consistent with the essence of "The Art of War". The Daosheng ideology and military economic ideas displayed in it also prove his extraordinary talent in the military field.
In fact, "Longzhong Pair" is a document rich in temple calculation strategy, which is very rare in history. However, Zhuge Liang's ability to gain insight into the general situation of the world and create such far-reaching articles even in a state of seclusion is enough to prove that his military talents are not unfounded.
Zhu Xi, a scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, once compared the "Longzhong Pair" with the strategies of Han Xin and Deng Yuchu, believing that these are great articles that can determine the world in just a few sentences, thus demonstrating Zhuge Liang's military theory and rich knowledge.
However, if anyone thinks that Zhuge Liang is only talking on paper and has never been on the battlefield before following Liu Bei, then this is very wrong. Zhuge Liang is a practical military strategist.
This point was fully reflected in his action of rejecting the advice of Wang Lang and others, insisting on working hard for the great cause of the reunification of the Han family, and making full preparations for the Northern Expedition.
Moreover, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was very different from his previous military deployments, and he acted more cautiously, following the theory of "prudent warfare" in the Art of War. These are all concrete manifestations of Zhuge Liang's practical achievements.
Zhuge Liang's military strategy was superb, and he was especially good at using various strategies, such as counter-strategy, empty city strategy, arrogant strategy, and ambush strategy. These tactics demonstrate his excellent ability to perceive people's hearts.
Zhuge Liang is not only good at strategy, but his strategy is often combined with formations to produce unexpected results. He was well aware of the importance of formations in warfare, so he created eight formations for training soldiers, and the results were remarkable.
From then on, the Shu army's marching operations became more flexible, and even if it could not be completely victorious, it could defeat the enemy's important generals and reduce its own losses.
Zhuge Liang's all-round performance in military affairs stems from his innovation of the Eight Formations and the improvement of weapons and military equipment, and his practical ability has been shown in detail in the "Zhuge Liang Collection".
At the same time, he also vigorously promoted the smelting industry of Shu, so that the steelmaking technology of Shu reached a high level at that time. All these prove Zhuge Liang's extremely high level of military theory, military practice, military literacy, and logistical support.
With such a well-rounded talent, there is no doubt that no one can match it on the battlefield. Li Shimin's evaluation of Zhuge Liang seems to be extremely accurate.
To evaluate historical figures, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive analysis in combination with the background of the times at that time. If we only look at the behavior of the ancients from the perspective of modern times or God, it will inevitably be biased.
As a top military division during the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang's outstanding military talent is indisputable. It is a pity that he failed to witness the unification of the Han dynasty with his own eyes and failed to realize the ideal of recovering the Han dynasty.
Although Zhuge Liang has passed away, his clever plan is still planning for the future of Shu Han. He devoted himself to the cause of Shu Han and achieved "being entrusted by people and being loyal to people".
Therefore, it cannot be concluded that Zhuge Liang is not good at fighting just because his Northern Expedition was unsuccessful, which is a one-sided evaluation.
As an important figure in the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang's image has attracted much attention. Scholar Wang Yanxia published an article "The Image of Zhuge Liang in the Three Kingdoms under the Full Vision" in the magazine "Cultural Industry", which comprehensively carried out the image of Zhuge Liang.
Li Xingbin conducted an in-depth analysis of Zhuge Liang's military talent in the article "Zhuge Liang and the Art of War" published in "Sun Tzu Studies" - and a review of Zhuge Liang's military talent.