Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is a supplemental episode.

So this is a huge one.

In this episode, we bid farewell to the novel's most prominent character, Zhuge Liang,

by examining the similarities and differences between the real-life man and his fictional

counterpart.

So in the novel, when we're first introduced to Zhuge Liang, he was in his late 20s and

had already taken up residence in the countryside of Jing province,

leading the life of a recluse. But what about his life before that? We're not really told

much about Zhuge Liang before his meeting with Liu Bei, so let's delve into that prehistory

right now. According to the historical records, Zhuge Liang was a native of Xu province.

He was born in the year 181, about three years before the outbreak of the Yellow Turban

Rebellion, which marked the beginning of the novel.

His father was a low-level county official in Yan province,

so Zhuge Liang's roots were in the territories that would eventually become part of the kingdom of Wei.

Zhuge Liang's father died in the year 187 when Zhuge Liang was just six years old.

Now remember that Zhuge Liang was the middle son.

He had two brothers and two sisters,

and they all needed a caretaker now that their father was dead. That caretaker turned out to be

their uncle, who was in the service of Liu Biao, the imperial protector of Jing province.

This uncle moved to Xu province to watch over Zhuge Liang and his siblings.

A few years later, Cao Cao launched his invasion of Xu province in search of vengeance

...