Meng Huo 孟獲

"Formerly I did not know the actual strength of your army, hence I was defeated. Now that you have graciously permitted me to inspect the camps, which are only like this, I am certain to defeat you easily."

- Meng Huo Meng Huo 孟獲 was a local leader of barbarians in the south of Yi Province. He succeeded the instigator of the Nanman rebellion Yong Kai, who was murdered by subordinates of Gao Ding and led seven battles against the Zhuge Liang.

Biography
Meng Huo was respected by both the Chinese and the southern barbarians (nánmán 南蠻) and because of this the local leader Yong Kai 雍闓 in Yongchang commandery called upon him to entice and incite the various barbarian tribes. Earlier Yong Kai had attempted to enter Yongchang commandery after being appointed by Sun Quan as Yongchang’s Grand Administrator, but he was met with resistance from Lü Kai and Wang Kang.

Zhu Bao 朱褒, the Grand Administrator of Zangke Commandery and Gao Ding 高定, a King of Barbarians in Yuexi commandery both responded to Yong Kai and Meng Huo.

War of Pacification
For some time Zhuge Liang of Shu-Han was aware of the troubles in the south. In 225 AD he headed to Nanzhong to pacify the region.

The three leaders Yong Kai, Gao Ding and Zhu Bao had come up with a plan that should’ve drawn Zhuge Liang deep into the terrain of Yong Kai and Meng Huo. Once this was done, Gao Ding would attack Zhuge Liang from the west, thereby encircling Zhuge Liang. The plan was ultimately not set in motion, because subordinates of Gao Ding had murdered Yong Kai. Later Zhuge Liang defeated Gao Ding and executed him.

After Yong Kai's death Meng Huo collected the remainder of his troops.

Seven Captures
Meng Huo would go on the challenge Zhuge Liang a total of seven times. Everytime he would be defeated and captured, and after every capture he would be released.

Unlike the fictitious novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the official biography of Zhuge Liang in Records of the Three Kingdoms does not give a detailed account of Meng Huo's seven captures and releases.

Zhuge Liang was determined to capture Meng Huo alive, because of his ties with the Nanman. Having caught Meng Huo, he made him inspect his camps and asked:


 * “What do you think of this army?”

Meng Huo replied:


 * “Formerly I did not know the actual strength of your army, hence I was defeated. Now that you have graciously permitted me to inspect the camps, which are only like this, I am certain to defeat you easily.”

Zhuge Liang laughingly released him. After the seventh capture and release Meng Huo stayed and would not go, saying:


 * “Your Excellency has heavenly majesty. We southerners will not rebel any more.”

After Zhuge Liang's Southern Campaign
Following Meng Huo's submission to Zhuge Liang, the latter appointed the worthy and competent men in Nanzhong to be officials. Among them were Meng Huo, Meng Yan and Chuan Xi.

John Herman, in The Kingdoms of Nanzhong, adds that Zhuge Liang was so impressed with Meng Huo's tactical skills that he added him to his personal staff, and within a year Meng Huo was commanding Shu-Han troops battling along the Shu-Han/Wei front in what is now northern Sichuan.

Point of Debate: Meng Huo's Existence
Meng Huo is not mentioned in Chen Shou's original 3rd century work Sanguo zhi. Meng Huo was added to the Sanguo zhi by Pei Songzhi in the 5th century.

The name 'Meng Huo' first appeared in the 4th century work Hàn Jìn chūn qiū 漢晉春秋 by Xi Zaochi. Meng Huo is mentioned again in another 4th century work huáyáng guózhí 華陽國志 by Chang Qu.

Pei Songzhi found certain parts of the Hàn Jìn chūn qiū unreliable, such as Wang Ling's biography. He has not expressed doubts about Meng Huo's entry into this work. Meng Huo's entry was thus included in the Sanguo zhi, but without additional commentary.

The Song dynasty historian and leading compiler of the Zizhi tongjian Sima Guang also took Xi Zaochi's records in the Zizhi tongjian.

There were thus two sources in which Meng Huo was mentioned:
 * Hàn Jìn chūn qiū 漢晉春秋
 * huáyáng guózhí 華陽國志

Which were later included in:
 * Sānguó zhì 三國志
 * Zīzhì tōngjiàn 資治通鑒

The Sanguo zhi and the Zizhi tongjian are two of the most popular Three Kingdoms sources. Yet, despite being included in these work various historians have found reasons to doubt Zhuge Liang's campaign against Meng Huo (especially the 7 captures and releases), but also Meng Huo's existence.

There are various reasons given for doubting Meng Huo's existence of the reliability of Zhuge Liang's campaign as mentioned in Hàn Jìn chūn qiū:


 * 1) In Mandarin the name 'Meng Huo' is written as '孟獲'. The hanzi '獲' (Huo) literally means 'captured'. Being captured a total of seven times, this makes the name 'Meng Huo' look suspicious.
 * 2) The story of Meng Huo being captured seven times within a rather short time is considered “too good to be true”.

If Meng Huo indeed did not exist, then who was the man Yong Kai called upon to encourage the various barbarian leaders to revolt in Nanzhong? Or did he actually not call upon somebody? And who was it that collected Yong Kai's troops to oppose Zhuge Liang? Or was there nobody opposing Zhuge Liang after Yong Kai and Gao Ding died?

About Meng Huo
According to Zhang Hualan's Discussion on Meng Huo Meng Huo indeed did not exist. Zhang claims that Meng Huo was invented by later historians to represent the various Nanzhong leaders who opposed Zhuge Liang. He supports this statement by saying that 獲 (Huo) means 'captured'.

It's indeed a coincidence that the name of the man that gets captured seven times literally means 'captured'. But does that mean that he is fictional?

If we answer with “no”, we could support it with the following example:


 * '備' (Bei), the given name of Liu Bei 劉備, literally means "to prepare".
 * '禪' (Shan), the given name of Liu Shan 劉禪, literally means "to abdicate".

Just as with Meng Huo, these names indicate quite well what happened. Liu Bei founded a kingdom and did all the preparation to make it possible. Liu Shan would go on to surrender it to Wei. These two men were definately not fictional, so why should Meng Huo be?

On another note, it is not clear if Meng Huo was a Chinese or not. If Meng Huo was not of Chinese origin, then his name could've just sounded like 'Meng Huo' and the Chinese chose a humiliating hanzi to transcribe it with.

About the campaign
As mentioned above Zhuge Liang's campaign against the Nanzhong natives is, by some historians described as "too good to be true".

Let's analyze the campaign to see what's so “too good to be true” about it. The campaign, as mentioned in Sanguo zhi with Pei Songzhi's annotations gives us the names of four local leaders that opposed Zhuge Liang: Yong Kai, Gao Ding, Zhu Bao and Meng Huo.

In the third month of 225 AD (27 March - 25 April) Zhuge Liang left the Shu-Han capital city of Chengdu to pacify the region of Nanzhong.

In the seventh month (22 August - 19 September) Zhuge Liang is said to have arrived in Nanzhong, “winning victories everywhere”. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, the English translation of the Zizhi tongjian, puts the entire Nanzhong campaign under this month and makes it look as if the four commanderies of Nanzhong were thus pacified within the span of only one month.

In the twelfth month (16 January - 14 February 226) Zhuge Liang returned to Chengdu.

researching... more to come...

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Fact vs. Fiction
Historically...
 * ...Meng Huo did not have a wife named Zhurong.
 * ...Meng Huo did not have a daughter named Huaman.
 * ...Meng Huo did not have brothers named Meng You or Meng Jie.
 * ...In fact, nothing is known about Meng Huo's family.
 * ...Meng Huo did not have the title "King of Nanman" or "King of Nanzhong".