"Former General, Rear General, Left General, Right General, Partial General" are all official names of military generals in the Han Dynasty, but the two Han Dynasties are very different from the Three Kingdoms period. Compared with the Han Dynasty, the four generals of the Three Kingdoms Era can even be said to be in name only.
In the Han Dynasty, generals were generally not permanent posts, but "all the lords of conquest, and the matter was dismissed", that is, a certain general position was granted during the war, and it was automatically revoked after the war.
In the chaotic era at the end of the Han Dynasty, warlords in various places indiscriminately issued various military general official numbers to their subordinates in order to reward military merit and attract talents, which caused the phenomenon of chaotic military general official numbers.
For example, Shu Han's Mi Zhu, friends who have read the Three Kingdoms or played a Game of the Three Kingdoms know that he is an authentic civilian official, and there is no half-cent relationship with Pi Jian's persistence and rushing to kill, but the "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms Mi Zhu" records this:
"Yizhou is ping, Bai (糜竺) is the general of An Han, and Ban is on the right side of the general of the military division (Zhuge Liang). Zhu Grace Dunya, and Qianfeng is not his strength. It is a courtesy to treat the guests above, and there is no command. ”
That is to say, after Liu Bei pacified Yizhou, Zhuge Liang was named a general of the military division, and Mi Zhu was named a general of An Han, although Mi Zhu had the aura of "general", he was "not in command", that is, he did not bring troops at all. Liu Bei was so enthroned purely to show his special grace for him.
However, as the saying goes, "things are scarce and precious", and when these official positions were granted to their subordinates in large numbers by warlords, their original functions changed significantly, lost their original role, and even became a symbol of rank and status.
Therefore, in the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty, although there were many names such as "former general, rear general, left general, right general, and partial general", it was obviously meaningless to say what their specific functions were during this period, and they had undergone qualitative changes. Only by going back to the two Han dynasties can we understand what their specific functions were in the military.
1. Front, rear, left and right generals
The Book of Han is that the names of the four generals "front, back, left, and right" originated in the Zhou Dynasty and were continued in the Han Dynasty, but they were not permanent positions, and were only temporarily set up when they went on expeditions:
"The generals before and after, all of them are weekend officials, Qin Yinzhi, Shangqing, Jinyin Zihuan." Han is not often placed, or there are front and back, or there are left and right, all command soldiers and four Yi. ”
So, what exactly are these four generals responsible for in the army? We can see this in a historical record of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's expedition against the Northern Xiongnu:
"The great general Wei Qing led six generals, namely the lieutenant general Sun Ao, the left general Gongsun He, the former general Zhao Xin, the right general Su Jian, the rear general Li Guang, and the crossbow general Li Feng to attack the Xiongnu from Dingxiang."
That is to say, the four generals of the front, rear, left and right all went out with the general Wei Qing, and they were responsible for commanding the front, rear, left and right directions of the army, and at the same time were subject to the control of the general. Their names already indicate their role in the military.
Later, the Western Han Dynasty's foreign wars gradually decreased, but the four generals of the front, rear, left and right did not disappear, but "although they did not go on the expedition, they still had their officials and were on the top of the secretaries."
In the Book of Han, there are also "generals, attendants, changsan riders, and officials of the Middle Dynasty... The record of "Shangqing" shows that the four generals of the front, rear, left and right were very prominent officials at that time, and they were all officials of the Inner Dynasty, that is, the emperor's sidekicks.
In the Three Kingdoms era at the end of the Han Dynasty, this practice was basically continued, but only retained its status rather than function.
For example, on the side of the Shu Han Dynasty, Liu Bei was crowned queen of Hanzhong, Guan Yu was made a former general, Huang Zhong was made a rear general, Ma Chao was made a left general, and Zhang Fei was made a right general.
On the side of Cao Wei, famous generals such as Zhang Liao, Xiahou Huan, Wu Qiujian, Guo Huai, and Man Yu also served as former generals, and other generals will not repeat them.
In short, the four generals of this period, before, after, left and right, have nothing to do with what they are responsible for in the army, and are completely symbols of status and status.
Second, partial generals
After talking about the front, back, left and right, let's talk about another common official name - partial general.
At the earliest, the flank troops that fought in coordination with the main force were called "partial divisions", and the commander in charge of the partial division was the partial general.
It can be seen from this that although the partial generals are the generals who are on their own, they are still lower than the four generals of the front, rear, left and right, and they are only responsible for the strategy and support.
In the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, as a symbol of middle and low-level military ranks, partial generals were often awarded a large number of official positions, such as Guan Yu and Ma Chao mentioned above, as well as people like Zhang Gao, Cao Zhen, Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Lü Meng, Huang Gai, etc., who had served as partial generals early in their careers.
To sum up, there were not many general names in the early Han Dynasty, most of them were generals, cavalry generals, wei generals, etc., and when there was a war, in order to facilitate the title, plus front, back, left, right, partial generals, etc., to clearly indicate their role on the battlefield.
In the Three Kingdoms era at the end of the Han Dynasty, many general names became a symbol of the identity and status of military generals, and even generals with various "good names and prestige" such as "General Fenwei, General Yangwu, and General Langkou" appeared.
This is completely contrary to their original function, which can be said to be "nominal"!