Liu Chan, the lord of the Shu Dynasty, was an emperor who was criticized and even joked a lot in history. His father was Liu Bei, known as Emperor Liu's uncle, who started from selling straw shoes until the talents around him were abundant, and he fought against Wei Wu in the land of Western Shu for many years, which can be said to be a relatively excellent emperor. Liu Chan's mother was Pei Guo Gan, known as Lady Gan.
Lady Gan was actually Liu Bei's concubine, because several of Liu Bei's early wives died of unexpected illness. Therefore, Liu Bei did not want to help her as a proper wife, so he let her serve Liu Bei as a concubine. In fact, the Gan family has always acted as an agent for family affairs, and it also played a great role in assisting Liu Bei in the early days.
Later generations gave Liu Chan the infamy of "ADou who can't be supported" and "Happy not to think of Shu"
Although Liu Chan later became emperor, his life could not be regarded as peaceful. First of all, in the early days, Liu Bei's family was not well-off, and he himself was displaced by the turmoil. In the second year of his birth, Liu Bei was defeated by Cao Cao at Changshanpo, leaving Lady Gan and Liu Chan and running, but fortunately Zhao Yun protected him.
When Liu Bei entered Shu, Sun Quan took his sister Lady Sun back to Eastern Wu. Originally, she was going to take Liu Chan with her, but fortunately she was intercepted by Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun to save Liu Chan.
After Liu Bei's death, he was fortunate to have Zhuge Liang assist the government for more than ten years and Jiang Huan to assist him for many years, until he was destroyed by Wei and could still live in the State of Wei in peace. In the words of later generations, "Liu Chan has such a country and mountains and descends to people, is it not a mediocrity?" Coupled with Liu Chan's nickname, Ah Dou, posterity described Liu Chan as "a dou who can't be supported" to describe his fainting and incompetent.
From the perspective of the hereafter, it is of course incompetent to see Liu Chan as the king of the subjugated country. Moreover, after he was captured by the State of Wei, he made a lot of jokes because of his loyal and honest personality. Once Sima Zhao set up a banquet to entertain the old shu han courtiers and played shu han songs. The ministers all cried bitterly, but Liu Chan's face was expressionless. Sima Zhao asked him if he could miss his homeland, and Liu Chan simply replied, "I don't think about Shu here." Since then, his "happy thinking" has become a joke of people.
In fact, Liu Chan is not what posterity calls "unsupportable Adou", although Liu Chan is the king of the subjugated country, but he has been in power for 42 years, and he can be regarded as the number one in history. In other words, he reigned for 31 years after Zhuge Liang's death (including Deng Ai's army into Shu, and he still sat firmly on the throne). Liu Chan succeeded to the throne in 223, surrendered and abdicated in 265, and Zhuge Liang died in 234)
Having been in power for such a long time, and there is no major chaos in the country, Ah Dou still has his governing policy. During this period, of course, it was not excluded that there were some reasons for the assistance of the courtiers, plus he himself knew that the material was mediocre and knew that he was as good as a stream, so that he would not make big mistakes in the early days.
If Liu Chan really had mediocre qualifications, or even fainted and incompetent, he would have been replaced by someone long ago. We can see this from the puppet emperors such as Cao Fang and Cao Yi of the Wei state in the same period. In addition to trusting Huang Hao and other traitors in the later period to make a lot of wrong judgments, it is really difficult to say where Liu Chan can be regarded as a dark jun.
Speaking of Liu Chan's ceding the Shu Han Jiangshan that Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and others had worked so hard to defeat to the State of Wei, it was not his fault alone. Zhuge Liang's capable vassals in ruling the world, for many years to compete with the State of Wei, also failed to advance into the Central Plains, so that the strength of the two countries is very different. At that time, the Wei state was able to gather people, and the Shu Han people were getting fewer and fewer, which was also an important factor in the final demise. Therefore, it is not objective to blame the demise of Shu Han on Liu Chan's incompetence.
So the question is, since Liu Chan is not an "unsupportable Ah Dou", how can he still reign for 31 years after Zhuge Liang's death? The reason is simple.
1. Zhuge Liang was loyal to assist the government, bowed down and died, and Liu Chan was able to personally take over the government after his death
Although Liu Bei said in his will that he could replace him, Zhuge Liang never had the idea of monopolizing the government in his heart. He really just wanted to do his best for the revival of the Great Han, and he wanted to invite himself out when the three Gu Maolu only invited himself out, which showed that Zhuge Liang was not a person who admired power.
After Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang devoted himself to all political affairs and cultivated internal and military talents for Liu Chan. Moreover, Zhuge Liang did not form an exclusive power over Liu Chan, and Liu Chan was not a puppet. This can be seen from the fact that Zhuge Liang was recalled by Liu Chan during the Northern Expedition, and he could only obediently go back, and it can be seen that their monarchs and subjects have a hierarchical relationship.
In addition, after Zhuge Liang's death, Liu Chan could not only personally take power, but also have capable people with whom he could discuss national policies. Compared with those few people in the Sima family, Zhuge Liang's loyal subjects were obvious.
Second, Zhuge Liang was good at internal affairs, eliminating Li Yan, Wei Yan and other people with different intentions for Liu Chan, thus removing the late threat for Liu Chan
Although Zhuge Liang was the greatest power in the dynasty, shu Han was not without some people with different intentions. Zhuge Liang's rewards and punishments in the court were clear, which not only cultivated some upright and capable subjects, but also made those traitors and villains invisible.
For example, the traitorous minister Li Yan, he and Zhuge Liang are both Liu Beitou's lonely people, and their loyalty cannot be compared with Zhuge Liang. He once forged the emperor's will to order Zhuge Liang to withdraw his troops, but was revealed to be reduced to a commoner. Wei Yan, on the other hand, planned to defect after Zhuge Liang's death, but was predicted by Zhuge Liang in advance, so that he did not have the opportunity to defect.
That is, after Zhuge Liang made sufficient efforts in internal affairs and eliminated a few people with different intentions such as Li Yan and Wei Yan for Liu Chan. Let Liu Chan reduce the threat of his courtiers in the later period of his reign, so that he can firmly hold the power in his own hands.
Third, there was no stable faction within the Shu Han Dynasty, and it was not a threat to the climate
After Zhuge Liang's death, shu Han did not have the power to tilt the government and opposition, and even the descendants of the former dynasty meritorious zhang fei, Guan Yu, Zhao Yun and others were not assigned important positions, and most of the positions were held by Ren Xian. There were no heavy subjects, no clinging forces, and no factions, so another reason why Liu Chan could sit firmly on the throne was that there was no powerful force that could threaten him.
Even in the later period, Liu Chan trusted Huang Hao and was bent on being a big Jiang Wei and asked to kill him. Liu Chan only lightly downplayed him as a villain, which shows that Liu Chan has the string of political balance in his heart. Without this skill, he would not be able to sit in the dragon chair for so long.
4. After Zhuge Liang's death, Liu Chan abolished the post of chancellor and degraded his powers to allow the ministers to check each other
As mentioned earlier, Liu Chan knew to let the ministers restrain each other, and although Zhuge Liang bowed to the best of his ability, Liu Chan still felt a little restrained. Therefore, after the death of Xiang Xiang, Liu Chan abolished this position, and after that, whether it was Jiang Huan or Fei Yi appointed by Zhuge Liang, or Jiang Wei and others, they could only control part of the power, and they formed a restrictive effect on each other.
This not only made it impossible for these people to form a monopoly and threatened the imperial power, but also allowed them to unite and work together to advance and retreat for the Shu Han, and also allowed Liu Chan himself to hold great power. The reason why Liu Chan reused Huang Hao in the later period was also to use him to restrain the power of Jiang Wei and others. Therefore, Liu Chan's "imperial art" should actually be recognized, and he is similar to the generations of Li Shimin and Qianlong in later generations.
5. Sima Shi was too busy seizing power from Cao Wei to take care of the Shu Han, to whom there was no threat
In Cao Wei's view, Eastern Wu was probably a greater threat than Shu Han. Therefore, Cao Wei did not regard attacking Shu Han as a big strategy, but in the early stage, because Zhuge Liang was in power and took the initiative to launch the Northern Expedition many times, Cao Wei had to pay attention to it. After Zhuge Liang's death, Shu Han, under the rule of Liu Chan, who lacked leadership ability, did not pose a threat to Cao Wei as in the previous period.
After Zhuge Liang's death, Cao Wei's strength was much higher than that of Shu and Wu. It is reasonable to say that Cao Wei could take the opportunity to attack Shu and Wu at this time, and then unify the whole country. However, Cao Wei did not focus on unification, but put more energy into the struggle for the power of the court. The so-called Sima Zhao's heart is well known, he has ambitions to become emperor, but he has never taken the initiative to launch an attack on Shu Han. This also gave Liu Chan the opportunity to exert his power arrangement in the court and sit firmly in the southwest region.
Overall:
Although Liu Chan was not an emperor with great talent, he was by no means the so-called full-fledged emperor in the eyes of posterity, nor was he a "unable to support Adou". The reason why Liu Chan was able to reign for 31 years after Zhuge Liang's death was actually very much related to the smooth road paved by Zhuge Liang in the early days.
In addition, Liu Chan is also an emperor who understands the "art of emperors" and can love the people like a son, so he can still reign for 31 years. And after the fall of the Shu kingdom, what he said about "happy not thinking about Shu" was actually for the sake of Mingzhe to protect himself, otherwise if he put the words "I want to restore the country and overthrow the Cao Wei regime" every day, he would be able to be alone?
In addition, we can also find that Zhuge Liang was a sincere loyal subject, bowing down to death and then dying, such a loyal subject is worthy of respect and remembrance by our descendants. So, do you still think that Liu Chan is a dark lord who has no ability at all?
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