Zhuge Zhan

Zhuge Zhan
A Qing Dynasty illustration of Zhuge Zhan
General, politician of Shu Han
Born	227
Died	263 (aged 36)
Names
Traditional Chinese	諸葛瞻
Simplified Chinese	诸葛瞻
Pinyin	Zhūgě Zhān
Wade–Giles	Chu-ke Chan
Courtesy name	Siyuan (traditional Chinese: 思遠; simplified Chinese: 思远; pinyin: Sīyuǎn; Wade–Giles: Szu-yüan)

Zhuge Zhan (227–263),courtesy name Siyuan, was a politician and military general of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. He was a son of Shu Han's chancellor Zhuge Liang.

When Zhuge Zhan was 16 years old, the emperor of Shu, Liu Shan, arranged a marriage between his daughter and the adolescent, and made his son-in-law a Captain of the Cavalry, a title slightly lower than that of a general. One year later, the captain was promoted to General of the Household, serving as an imperial guardian. Henceforth, the prince consort constantly received promotions, and served many posts, including both civil and military appointments.

Besides his many official titles, Zhuge Zhan was an artist who was particularly good at painting and calligraphy. Since the people of Shu yearned for the deceased Zhuge Liang, they especially loved Zhuge Zhan's talents. Whenever there was a good policy set up within the state, the citizens would credit Zhuge Zhan with it, even though it actually had nothing to do with him. As Zhuge Liang banned the post of Historian in Shu, it was hard to distinguish which policy was suggested by Zhuge Zhan, and which was not, but Zhuge Zhan's reputation was surely greater than his real accomplishment.

His frequent promotions had been continuing until the prince consort reached the ceiling of the imperil administrative system — the Imperial Secretariat. At the same time, Zhuge Zhan was appointed the acting commander of imperial defensive forces and acting director of all military generals. Since his ascension to Imperial Secretariat, Zhuge Zhan's power within Shu appeared unrivaled, as veteran generals like Liao Hua, who served as the Right General of Chariot and Cavalry (top ranked military position, only next to Grand General and General of the Elite Cavalry), still had to buy the prince consort off for their political prospect.

While a son of Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Zhan realized the danger of over-extending the military. After Jiang Wei became the paramountcy of the army, Zhuge Zhan attempted to restrain the former from constantly waging wars against Cao-Wei. When Jiang Wei finally suffered a crushing defeat from Deng Ai, Zhuge Zhan memorialized the emperor that Jiang Wei should be stripped off from military command and replaced by Yan Yu, who, although a personal friend of the notorious Huang Hao, was said to be a capable general. Zhuge's memorial to Liu Shan was archived by some respected elders in Shu region even at the time of Jin Dynasty. However, it is not known whether the emperor listened to the Prince consort's suggestion, because Jiang Wei dared not return to Chengdu when he knew his failure had drawn him much resent from the people of Shu. But Zhuge Zhan's proposal of switching from an offensive stance to a defensive stance was somehow compromised by Liu Shan, who had earlier replaced Wei Yan's tried-and-trusted defensive layout with a high-risk-high-reward strategy presented by Jiang Wei.