Records of the Three Kingdoms
Zhuge Liang, courtesy name Kongming, was from Yangdu in Langya. He lived in Jing with his uncle Zhuge Xuan and farmed at Longzhong. After Liu Bei’s three visits he proposed holding Jing and Yi, keeping peace with Sun Quan to the east and with the Rong and the southern peoples, repairing government, and waiting for the realm to change before a northern campaign on more than one road. That is the frame of the Longzhong plan, in Zhuge Liang’s biography.
Around Red Cliffs he went as envoy to Jiangdong. After Liu Bei’s death, Liu Shan made him chancellor. Matters great and small were decided by him. In 225 he went south and settled Nanzhong. In 227 he submitted the memorial on taking the army out and began the northern campaigns. In 228 Ma Su lost Jieting. Zhuge Liang executed him and demoted himself three degrees. Later he came out at Qishan or by the Xie valley, faced Cao Zhen and Sima Yi, and did not take Chang’an.
In 234 he died of illness at Wuzhang, at fifty-four. Yang Yi brought the army home in order. The saying that the dead Zhuge put the living Zhongda to flight is in a work Pei quotes, not in Chen Shou’s main text. Chen Shou says Zhuge Liang’s strength was administering an army, not surprise, and also that he was open and fair.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The novel turns the mission to Jiangdong into a debate with the scholars, arrows borrowed from straw boats, and an east wind called down from an altar. Zhou Yu dies of rage because of it. In the histories Zhou Yu dies of illness in 210.
The empty fort, each method of the seven captures of Meng Huo, and the sealed order to kill Wei Yan are episodes of the novel. The execution of Ma Su in tears keeps the defeat at Jieting and the military law. The rite at Wuzhang to lengthen his own life is also the novel’s: Wei Yan knocks over the lamp.
Reference: Wikipedia · Zhuge Liang