Why not recommend nephew Sima Yi? Sima Hui knew that Liu Bei could not grasp him
During the Three Kingdoms period, many people in order to survive in the chaotic world to the end, very early began to look for a counselor who can assist themselves, Liu Bei just began to rise, did not realize the importance of the counselor, repeatedly defeated, until when he came to Jingzhou, in Xiangyang to meet the famous soldier Sima Hui, 2 people talked about a lot of things, but also felt sorry for each other, Sima Hui saw that Liu Bei did not have a counselor around, so he recommended his disciple Zhuge Liang. What is surprising is that Sima Huiming knew his nephew Sima Yi, so why didn't he recommend it to Liu Bei? Because he knew that Liu Bei could not grasp Sima Yi.
▲ Sima Hui knew Sima Yi's ambitions and did not recommend it to Liu Bei. (Photo/Reprint from wikipedia entry)
Sima Hui knew Sima Yi's personality and ambitions very well, at that time he saw that Liu Bei was very depressed, and his temperament was not at all as good as Cao Cao, who had occupied Yingchuan, coupled with the defeat of Cao Cao, with Sima Yi's personality, it was impossible to travel thousands of miles to Jingchu to assist Liu Bei, and more importantly, Sima Yi was not willing to be a subject, even if Liu Bei successfully controlled him, Liu Chan might not be able to control it, but Zhuge Liang was very loyal, and such a person was more favorable to Shu Han.
There is also a saying that the three zhuge brothers all inherited Sima Hui, and afterwards served as officials in Wei Shu Wu, and after Zhuge Liang supported Shu Han, he fought against the State of Wei for many years, resulting in the continuous depletion of the strength of the two countries, as for Zhuge Jin, who was working under Sun Quan, he gave birth to a son who was Zhuge Ke, and set off a wave of rebellion in the State of Wu, resulting in the exhaustion of national strength. As for Zhuge Shi, who was on an errand under Cao Wei, he rebelled in Huainan, which also caused Cao Wei to spend a lot of effort to settle the situation, and the three members of the Zhuge family drove the three kingdoms to constantly fight each other, and their strength was slowly exhausted, and finally the three families belonged to the Sima family.
▲ Sima Hui, in order to find a counselor for Liu Bei, recommended his disciple Zhuge Liang. (Photo/Reprint from wikipedia entry)
Regardless of the outcome, Sima Hui did not recommend Sima Yi at that time, but instead recommended Zhuge Liang's decision to Liu Bei, which did make Shu Han go further, and even after Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang quickly accumulated strength in the defeat of the Battle of Yiling, and even 5 degrees of Northern Expedition later, which shows that Sima Hui's judgment is very correct.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zizhi Tongjian