Speaking of the heroes of the Three Kingdoms, we often think of Cao Cao and Liu Bei, or think of those martial generals who galloped on the battlefield and had unparalleled martial arts, such as Lü Bu, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and so on. These characters are still talked about today, but there is an old saying that the rich are not the second generation, and this sentence has also been verified by many heroes of the Three Kingdoms. In fact, it is not that the ability of the younger generations is too poor, but that the ability of the predecessors is too strong, covering their light, and Liu Bei's son Liu Chan is exactly like this.
Liu Bei's early life has been in exile, defecting to one prince after another, and found that it is better to be the boss himself. In the Battle of Changshanpo, Liu Bei was defeated by Cao Cao, and thanks to Zhao Yun, Liu Chan's life was saved. Although it was not like the seven in and seven outs in the rendition, Zhao Yun was still a great hero. In 223 AD, Liu Bei died of illness in the White Emperor's City, and Liu Chan, who was only 16 years old, ascended the throne. In fact, he is not suitable to be an emperor, he does not have the ambition and the will to dominate the world that an emperor should have, but you say that he is a stupid person, which is not very appropriate. During his term of office, he listened to the advice of Zhuge Liang, the minister of affairs, and treated Zhuge Liang as if he were his father. You can say that he does not pay attention to political affairs, but in fact, this is precisely what makes him smart. He knew Zhuge Liang's ability and the determination and original intention of doing his best for the Shu kingdom, and he was also relieved to hand over everything to Zhuge Liang. I think he was in awe of this old minister who had followed his biological father for nearly 20 years, but more of a love.
In 234 AD, Zhuge Liang died of illness in Wuzhangyuan, Liu Chan almost fainted from crying, and this father who had accompanied him for eleven years was gone. He reused the ministers mentioned by Zhuge Liang before his death, And Jiang Huan, Fei Yi, and Dong Yun all did their best for the country and did not live up to Liu Chan's trust, which was also his cleverness. As an emperor, he was not weak and would use life and death to seize power. After Zhuge Liang's death, a minister slandered Zhuge Liang, saying that he had covered the sky with one hand before his death, and Liu Chan was furious and immediately executed the minister. The people requested to build a temple for Zhuge Liang, and he would also discuss with the ministers, and finally follow the will of the people and build a temple for Zhuge Liang, which was the first example of a king building a temple for his subjects in a feudal dynasty. Sympathetic to public opinion and discerning right from wrong, at this time he cannot be called a mediocre.
After personally coming to power, Liu Chan would still listen to the opinions of his ministers and formulate national policies, and the state pursued a policy of recuperation for decades until the appearance of the eunuch Huang Hao. In 258 AD, it had been 24 years since Zhuge Liang's death. In the policy of recuperation and recuperation, the national strength of the Shu state was also gradually restored, but Jiang Huan, Fei Yi and other important ministers died one after another, and the Shu state gradually fell into a situation of talent withering away. Liu Chan, who was already 51 years old, did not know who to listen to for the government, so he let it go and began to favor the eunuch Huang Hao. Jiang Wei, who inherited the legacy of Cheng Xiang, was often limited by him, and even if he was already a great general, he did not dare to stay in the middle of the court. In 263, Deng Ai took Chengdu directly, and Liu Chan surrendered without any resistance. Sima Zhao commented on him: Although Zhuge Liang was there, he could not complement him for a long time, but Jiang Wei was evil. I think that at this time, Liu Chan was probably tired of being an emperor, or that being an emperor didn't matter to him at all. This period was a manifestation of what later generations thought of him as mediocrity and favoritism.
The Shu kingdom was destroyed, and even though the courtiers had the heart of restoration, their imperial heart was already dead. Two later events also tell us that Liu Chan is not stupid and very smart, but he is not suitable to be an emperor. After Liu Chan came to Luoyang, Sima Zhao arranged a banquet, at which he specially prepared songs and dances of the Shu Kingdom, and asked Liu Chan: Don't you miss the Shu Kingdom? Liu Chan replied to him: "Enjoy here, don't think about Shu." He really did not have any ambitions, and I am afraid that in the 40 years he was emperor of the Shu kingdom, he only regarded the throne as a kind of work, not a supreme position of power.
Sima Zhao did not trust him for this, and later sent people to test him, until the people he sent saw these three big characters "Zhongshan Village" on Liu Chan's door sign. When Sima Zhao heard this, he stopped testing Liu Chan. Why? Originally, Zhongshan Village, in turn, was "in the mountains", reflecting Liu Chan's desire to have no quarrel with the world and was unwilling to participate in the struggle for rights. In addition, Zhongshan is also the title of Liu Bei's ancestor Liu Sheng, Liu Sheng was a person of pleasure before his death, and Liu Chan compared himself to Liu Sheng, which is really appropriate. This incident also reflects Liu Chan's cleverness, after all, he was 56 years old when he surrendered, and even if he was stupid, he would not joke about his life. He also enjoyed the last days of his life in the palace, at the age of 64. This age was older than most people at that time, and it was also considered a long-lived person.
Throughout Liu Chan's life, the merits were greater than the past, and his faults were nothing more than favoring the eunuchs, but he had always been tolerant of his courtiers and commoners. In being an emperor, he was mediocre, but not stupid. For many people, it is difficult to retreat from the whole body, and Liu Chan has done it with his fifty or sixty years of life experience.