Wisdom of Zhuge Liang

Author: Zhang Xiaoli
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-04-01
Features: In the year 207 AD, six times, Liu Bei visited Zhuge Liang at his thatched cottage, seeking advice on matters of state. Zhuge Liang impressed Liu Bei with his "Lungdui Strategy," and from then on, at the age of twenty-seven, Zhuge Liang began to assist Liu Bei. Zhuge Liang's guidance greatly improved Liu Bei's situation. Liu Bei transformed from having no more than a thousand soldiers and only Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as generals to later founding the Shu Kingdom, forming a triumvirate with Sun Quan and Cao Cao. All of this was due in no small part to Zhuge Liang. In the year 223 AD, Liu Bei passed away, and his son Liu Shan ascended the throne, enfeoffing Zhuge Liang as the Marquis of Wuxiang and concurrently appointing him as the Governor of Yizhou, granting him supreme military and political authority. To fulfill his lifelong dream of unifying the Central Plains, Zhuge Liang, at the height of his prime, passed away in the military camp at Zhaozhangyuan at the age of fifty-four, posthumously honored with the title "Loyal and Martial." The brilliance of talent in the Three Kingdoms era was so spectacular not only because of the abundance of skilled individuals, each with their own expertise, but also because of the convergence and movement of talent. At that time, ambitious leaders not only focused on the acquisition of land but also placed greater emphasis on the acquisition of talent. Zhuge Liang, who valued practicality, also explored and summarized the theory of talent management, greatly enriching the thought of ancient Chinese personnel management. In the chapter "Jin Hou" of "The Art of War," Zhuge Liang proposed fifteen principles for military leadership and governance: