Mi Zhu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Names | |
|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese: | 麋竺¹ |
| Traditional Chinese: | 麋竺 |
| Pinyin: | Mí Zhú |
| Wade-Giles: | Mi Chu |
| Zi: | Zifang (子仲) |
| ¹ 麋竺 is often (mis)printed as 糜竺 in copies of Romance of the Three Kingdoms in circulation. | |
Mi Zhu (? – 219) was a highly esteemed advisor and brother-in-law of the powerful warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms era in ancient China. He was also the elder brother of Mi Fang, who served the same lord. In 219, Mi Fang defected to the Kingdom of Wu, directly resulting in the loss of Jingzhou (荊州, present day Hubei and Hunan) and the death of his superior Guan Yu. Mi Zhu was so ashamed that he fell sick and died shortly afterwards.
[edit] Life
A local of the county of Qu (胊, present day Linqu County, Shandong), Mi Zhu was born in an extremely rich merchant family. According to In Search of the Supernatural (搜神記) by Gan Bao (干竇), a work largely consisting of legends and hearsays, Mi Zhu was once returning home from the capital Luoyang when he met a lady by the road. He gave her a lift out of kindness. When she alighted, she revealed that she was an emissary from Heaven on a mission to burn down Mi Zhu's house. However, to repay his kindness, she agreed to walk slowly so as to allow Mi Zhu the time to evacuate the house. A huge fire indeed broke out at noon as the lady promised.
Legends aside, Mi Zhu initially served under Tao Qian (陶謙), governor of Xuzhou (徐州, present day northern Jiangsu). Upon his death, Tao Qian passed on the governorship to Liu Bei, to whom Mi Zhu thereafter rendered his service. In 196, Lü Bu snatched Xiapi, capital of Xuzhou, and proclaimed himself the governor. Henceforth, Liu Bei was forced into exile, forming a series of temporary alliances with different warlords, including Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and Liu Biao. Throughout this trough in Liu Bei's career, however, Mi Zhu stayed loyal. He sponsored Liu Bei with his family wealth and also married his younger sister to the latter. Cao Cao had once attempted to entice Mi Zhu and his younger brother Mi Fang to defect by offering them governorships of Ying Commandery (嬴郡, northwest of present day Laiwu, Shandong) and Pengcheng respectively but was turned down.
After Liu Bei conquered Yizhou (益州, present day central Sichuan and Guizhou) in 215, Mi Zhu was promoted to General Who Maintains Peace of Han (安漢將軍). Although he was not given any troops to command, as military manoeuvrer were not his expertise, he was nonetheless the most highly esteemed among Liu Bei's subjects.
In 219, Mi Fang surrendered to the forces of Sun Quan, lord of the Kingdom of Wu, when the latter launched a surprise attack on Jingzhou (荆州, present day Hubei and Hunan). This directly resulted in the loss of the region as well as the death of its chief commander Guan Yu. Mi Zhu bound himself and came to Liu Bei, pleading guilty for his brother's crime. Although Liu Bei did not fault him, Mi Zhu was so ashamed that he soon fell sick and died within the year.
[edit] Reference
- Chen Shou (2002). San Guo Zhi. Yue Lu Shu She. ISBN 7-80665-198-5.
