Zhuge Dan

Historical Record

Zhuge Dan, styled Gongxiu, was a native of Yangdu in Langya and a descendant of Zhuge Feng. He first served as a Gentleman of the Imperial Secretariat, later becoming Magistrate of Xingyang; while testing a boat at the Tao River, he once nearly drowned, yet won acclaim by first saving Du Ji. Afterward he entered the court as a Gentleman of the Bureau of Personnel and won the respect of his colleagues for his fair manner of selecting talent, advancing successively to Palace Aide to the Censor-in-Chief and Master of Writing^[1]. He was on good terms with Xiahou Xuan, Deng Yang, and others, and enjoyed great fame at court, where the men of the capital all held him in high esteem. However, this style of "frivolous flamboyance" provoked the displeasure of Emperor Ming, and Zhuge Dan was consequently dismissed from office. After Emperor Ming died, in the early years of the Zhengshi era, Zhuge Dan was reinstated, first as Palace Aide to the Censor-in-Chief and Master of Writing, and later as Inspector of Yangzhou with the additional title of General of Resplendent Valor.

In the affair of Wang Ling's rebellion, when Sima Yi led an army on an eastern campaign, Zhuge Dan was appointed General Who Guards the East, granted the staff of office and made Commander of all military affairs in Yangzhou, and enfeoffed as Marquis of Shanyang Village. When Zhuge Ke raised troops at Dongguan, Zhuge Dan was ordered to direct the various armies in the campaign against him, but the fighting went badly. After the battle, he was transferred to General Who Guards the South^[2]. When Guanqiu Jian and Wen Qin rebelled, they once sent an envoy to win Zhuge Dan over, but Dan beheaded the envoy and proclaimed to the realm the crimes of Guanqiu Jian and Wen Qin. When Sima Shi the King of Jing campaigned east, Zhuge Dan directed the various armies of Yu Province across the Anfeng ford and reached Shouchun directly. After Guanqiu Jian and Wen Qin were defeated, Zhuge Dan was the first to reach Shouchun. At the time there were more than a hundred thousand people in Shouchun, who, fearing execution, broke out of the city in droves, some fleeing into the mountains and marshes, some scattering into Wu. Because Zhuge Dan had long been in Huainan and had deeply won the people's hearts, he was appointed General-in-Chief Who Guards the East, with ceremonial equal to the Three Excellencies, and Commander of Yangzhou. The Wu generals Sun Jun, Lü Ju, Liu Zan, and others, hearing of the upheaval in Huainan, came to Shouchun together with Wen Qin, but because Zhuge Dan's army had already arrived, they failed to take the city. Zhuge Dan sent General Jiang Ban in pursuit, who beheaded Liu Zan and sent back his head. For this merit Zhuge Dan was further enfeoffed as Marquis of Gaoping, with a fief of three thousand five hundred households, and transferred to General-in-Chief Who Conquers the East^[3].

In the winter of the first year of Ganlu, Zhuge Dan, because of his close friendship with Xiahou Xuan, Deng Yang, and others, and seeing Wang Ling and Guanqiu Jian exterminated one after another, felt deeply uneasy, and so distributed all his family wealth to win the hearts of the multitude and recruited several thousand brave young men of Yangzhou as men sworn to die. He requested an additional hundred thousand troops from the court to guard Shouchun and asked to build a fortress at Linhuai to guard against raiders, in fact intending to hold Huainan. The court, sensing his self-doubt, wished to summon him to the capital. In the fifth month of the second year of Ganlu, the court summoned Zhuge Dan to be Minister of Works. On receiving the edict, Zhuge Dan grew ever more fearful and so raised troops in rebellion. He assembled his generals and personally attacked and killed the Inspector of Yangzhou, Yue Chen^[4]. Zhuge Dan gathered more than a hundred thousand garrison-farming troops from the commanderies and counties of Huainan and Huaibei, along with forty or fifty thousand newly attached Yangzhou troops, stored up a year's grain, and shut the city to defend himself. He sent his Chief Clerk Wu Gang to deliver his son Zhuge Jing to Wu to request reinforcements. Wu was greatly pleased and dispatched Quan Yi, Quan Duan, Tang Zi, Wang Zuo, and others to lead thirty thousand troops, together with Wen Qin, to support Zhuge Dan. Wu enfeoffed Zhuge Dan as Protector-General of the Left, granted the staff of office, and made him Grand Minister over the Masses, General of Agile Cavalry, Governor of Qing Province, and Marquis of Shouchun. At this point the General Who Guards the South, Wang Ji, had already led an army to besiege Shouchun, but had not yet completed the encirclement. Tang Zi, Wen Qin, and others, from the northeast, taking advantage of the steep terrain, led their troops in a breakthrough into the city^[4].

In the first month of the third year of Ganlu, Zhuge Dan, Wen Qin, Tang Zi, and others massively built siege engines and attacked the southern encirclement day and night, attempting to break out. The encircling Wei army counterattacked from the heights with catapults and fire-arrows, smashing the siege engines, and arrows and stones fell like rain, the dead and wounded strewn about, blood flowing in rivers. Zhuge Dan and the others were forced back into the city. The grain in the city grew daily scarcer, and tens of thousands came out to surrender. Wen Qin proposed letting all the northerners out of the city to save grain, and to hold firm together with the Wu men, but Zhuge Dan disagreed, and the two thereupon fell into discord. Wen Qin had long been at odds with Zhuge Dan, and this cooperation was merely an expedient; as the situation grew critical, suspicion between the two intensified. When Wen Qin went to confer with Zhuge Dan, he was killed by Zhuge Dan. Wen Qin's sons Wen Yang and Wen Hu, hearing of their father's death, led troops to charge into the small city, but their followers would not be commanded. Wen Yang and Wen Hu fled on single horses and crossed the wall to surrender to Sima Zhao. Sima Zhao pardoned Wen Yang and Wen Hu and ordered them to ride around the city and call out to the defenders, to shake the morale of the garrison. Hearing this, the soldiers and people in the city were now joyful, now thrown into confusion, and, what with hunger and hardship, Zhuge Dan, Tang Zi, and the others were at the end of their resources. Sima Zhao personally came to the encirclement and advanced on all four sides at once, with drumming and shouting as they scaled the walls, and no one in the city dared resist. In his desperation, Zhuge Dan broke out on a single horse, charging out through the small city gate. The soldiers under Sima Hu Fen counterattacked and beheaded Zhuge Dan, sent back his head, and exterminated his three branches of kin. Several hundred men under Zhuge Dan, refusing to surrender, were beheaded; all of them said, "To die for Lord Zhuge—no regret," which fully shows how he had won men's hearts. The Wu generals Tang Zi, Wang Zuo, and the various subordinate generals all surrendered with their hands bound, and Wu's host of tens of thousands, with its weapons and supplies, were piled up like a mountain^[5].

In the Novel

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Dan's image is given more dramatic color and a tragic end. He first appears in Chapter 110, appointed by Sima Shi as General Who Guards the East, Director of the various armies of Yu Province, taking Shouchun from the Anfeng ford^[6]. In the novel, Zhuge Dan is set as a cousin of the Martial Marquis Zhuge Liang; because the Martial Marquis was Chancellor in Shu, in the early period of Wei he was not given important employment, and only after the Martial Marquis's death was he able to hold important office, enfeoffed as Marquis of Gaoping and put in overall charge of the troops and horses of the two Huai regions^[7].

The novel depicts in detail the motive for Zhuge Dan's rebellion. Sima Zhao, intending to usurp Wei, dispatched his confidant Jia Chong to Huainan under the pretext of offering comfort, in fact to probe Zhuge Dan's loyalty. At a banquet Jia Chong tested Zhuge Dan with words, asking his view on Sima Zhao usurping Wei. Hearing this, Zhuge Dan flew into a rage, refused in stern terms, and declared, "When the court is in peril, I will repay it with my death."^[7] After Jia Chong reported this to Sima Zhao, Sima Zhao was enraged and so secretly sent a confidential letter to the Inspector of Yangzhou, Yue Chen, while openly dispatching an envoy bearing an edict to summon Zhuge Dan as Minister of Works. On receiving the edict, Zhuge Dan knew Jia Chong had informed against him, and so interrogated the envoy and learned that Yue Chen was also involved. Enraged, Zhuge Dan beheaded the envoy, led troops to attack Yangzhou, and killed Yue Chen^[8]. This episode is recorded only briefly in the histories as "killed the Inspector of Yangzhou, Yue Chen"^[9], whereas the novel, through Jia Chong's probing, Zhuge Dan's display of loyalty and righteousness, and his rage at Yue Chen, greatly enriches the dramatic conflict of the rebellion.

In the novel, after Zhuge Dan rebelled, he also sought aid from Wu and sent his Chief Clerk Wu Gang to deliver his son Zhuge Jing into Wu as a hostage. Wu dispatched Wen Qin, Tang Zi, Quan Duan, Quan Yi, and others, thirty thousand men, to the rescue^[10]. During the siege, the novel emphasizes the episodes of wavering morale within the city and the infighting among the generals. Quan Yi and Quan Duan, after receiving a family letter from Quan Yi, led several thousand men to open the gates and surrender, further weakening Zhuge Dan's strength^[11]. Wen Qin once proposed to Zhuge Dan that the northern troops be let out of the city to save grain, but Zhuge Dan suspected Wen Qin of harboring disloyalty and beheaded him. Wen Qin's sons Wen Yang and Wen Hu, seeing their father killed, then surrendered to Sima Zhao^[12]. Sima Zhao adopted Zhong Hui's advice, pardoning and employing Wen Yang and Wen Hu, and having them ride around the city calling out, further breaking down the morale of the garrison. Though these details are mentioned in the histories, the novel, through dialogue and psychological description, makes the figures more vivid.

In the end, with the grain in the city exhausted and morale dispersed, Zhuge Dan personally patrolled the city, maintaining military discipline by killing, but the situation was beyond saving. In the novel, Zhuge Dan's end accords largely with historical fact: he was beheaded by Hu Fen's soldiers while breaking out^[5]. Through the depiction of these episodes, the novel shapes Zhuge Dan into a tragic hero loyal to the House of Wei, fierce in character, yet ultimately powerless against the larger trend.

Key Relationships

* The Sima clan (enemy_of): The conflict between Zhuge Dan and the Sima clan is the main thread of his political career. From being appointed Commander of the various armies of Yangzhou when Sima Yi campaigned east against Wang Ling^[2], to later, when Sima Zhao held power, Zhuge Dan broke with the Sima clan out of loyalty to the House of Wei. In the novel, the episodes of Jia Chong probing Zhuge Dan's loyalty and of Zhuge Dan angrily rebuking Jia Chong, "For generations you have eaten the salary of Wei—how dare you utter such seditious words!"^[7] push this hostility to a climax. In the end, Zhuge Dan raised troops against Sima Zhao, was defeated and killed, his three branches of kin exterminated, becoming utterly the enemy of the Sima clan.
* Yue Chen (enemy_of): One of the direct fuses of Zhuge Dan's rebellion was the killing of the Inspector of Yangzhou, Yue Chen. The histories record "killed the Inspector of Yangzhou, Yue Chen"^[9], while the novel depicts in detail the scene of Zhuge Dan, suspecting Yue Chen of informing against him, attacking the city in rage and beheading Yue Chen with his own hand, highlighting Zhuge Dan's fierceness and decisiveness^[8].
* Xiahou Xuan (friend_of): Zhuge Dan was on good terms with Xiahou Xuan, Deng Yang, and others, jointly enjoying great fame at court and being called men of "frivolous flamboyance"^[1]. This relationship also figures in the motive for Zhuge Dan's rebellion; the histories record that he, "being close to Xuan, Yang, and the others, and seeing Wang Ling and Guanqiu Jian repeatedly exterminated, feared for his own safety"^[4], showing his fear of the Sima clan's purging of dissidents.
* Deng Yang (friend_of): Like Xiahou Xuan, Deng Yang was also a close friend of Zhuge Dan^[1]. Their friendship and shared political stance were an important reason for Zhuge Dan's unease amid the political turmoil of late Wei.
* Wen Qin (ally_turned_enemy): Wen Qin, after Guanqiu Jian's rebellion, fled to Wu, and later, together with the Wu army, came to support Zhuge Dan. However, when Shouchun was besieged and grain was scarce, Wen Qin and Zhuge Dan fell into disagreement over the strategy of letting troops out of the city, and Wen Qin was ultimately killed by Zhuge Dan^[5]. In the novel, Wen Qin proposed releasing the northern troops to save grain, but was suspected of disloyalty by Zhuge Dan and beheaded^[12], displaying Zhuge Dan's suspicion and cruelty in extremity.
* Wen Yang and Wen Hu (enemies turned allies of Sima Zhao): After Wen Qin was killed, his sons Wen Yang and Wen Hu surrendered to Sima Zhao. Sima Zhao, adopting Zhong Hui's advice, pardoned and employed them, using them to break down the morale of the garrison^[12]. This episode is recorded in both the histories and the novel and was an important turning point in Zhuge Dan's defeat.
* Wu reinforcements (ally): After Zhuge Dan rebelled, he sent his son Zhuge Jing into Wu to request aid, and Wu was greatly pleased and dispatched generals such as Quan Yi, Quan Duan, Tang Zi, and Wang Zuo to lead troops in support^[4]. In the novel, the arrival of the Wu reinforcements gave Zhuge Dan hope, but in the end could not change his fated defeat.

Iconic Scenes

* First saving Lord Du: While serving as a Gentleman of the Imperial Secretariat, Zhuge Dan once tested a boat at the Tao River together with the Vice Director Du Ji and met with wind and waves that capsized them. Though himself nearly drowning, he cried out, "First save Lord Du," displaying his noble character and concern for his colleague. This event is recorded in the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Wei^[1]; though not directly mentioned in the novel, it shapes Zhuge Dan's early image of uprightness and integrity.
* Beheading Yue Chen: Zhuge Dan's direct act of rebellion was attacking and killing the Inspector of Yangzhou, Yue Chen. The histories record that he "killed the Inspector of Yangzhou, Yue Chen"^[9], while the novel depicts it more vividly: Zhuge Dan, suspecting Yue Chen of informing against him, attacked the city in rage, personally went up the tower with sword in hand, angrily rebuked Yue Chen for not thinking of repaying his debt, and finally beheaded him^[8]. This scene fully displays Zhuge Dan's fierceness and resolve and became the iconic opening of his rebellion.
* Angrily rebuking Jia Chong: In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sima Zhao sent Jia Chong to probe Zhuge Dan's loyalty. When Jia Chong suggested that the Sima clan might receive the abdication of the Wei throne, Zhuge Dan "flew into a rage and said, 'You are the son of Jia of Yu Province; for generations you have eaten the salary of Wei—how dare you utter such seditious words!'"^[7] This scene is a vivid embodiment of Zhuge Dan's loyalty to the House of Wei and his refusal to betray it, and directly provoked Sima Zhao's intent to kill him.
* "To die for Lord Zhuge—no regret": After Zhuge Dan was defeated and killed, several hundred men under him refused to surrender, preferring to be beheaded, crying out, "To die for Lord Zhuge—no regret"^[5]. This scene is recorded in the histories and was likened by contemporaries to the retainers of Tian Heng, greatly displaying Zhuge Dan's personal charisma and his having won men's hearts, and adding a touch of tragic grandeur to his end.
* Beheading Wen Qin: In the desperate straits of besieged, grain-short Shouchun, Zhuge Dan, suspecting Wen Qin of disloyalty, beheaded him^[5]. In the novel, Wen Qin proposed releasing the northern troops to save grain, but was misunderstood by Zhuge Dan as "scheming against me!" and beheaded^[12]. This scene not only displays Zhuge Dan's suspicion and cruelty in adversity but also directly led to the surrender of Wen Yang and Wen Hu, hastening the fall of Shouchun.
* Breaking out on a single horse and being beheaded: When Shouchun fell, Zhuge Dan, "in his desperation, on a single horse, led his followers in charging out through the small city gate. The soldiers under the General-in-Chief Sima Hu Fen counterattacked, beheaded Dan, sent back his head, and exterminated his three branches of kin."^[5] This was the end of Zhuge Dan's life and the final outcome of his resistance against the Sima clan—tragic and resolute.