Who was Liu Bei? There is no need to elaborate. Which Chinese person has not heard of Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Who does not know Uncle Emperor Liu? The founder of the Shu Han regime, who wept his way to a glorious kingdom; the sworn elder brother of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang's lord, and the father of Liu Shan, the last ruler. The Liu Bei we know has been embellished by novelists, colored by their personal feelings and their sympathies for Liu Bei and opposition to Cao Cao. Here, Tao Jian invites readers to explore the historical records, including Records of the Three Kingdoms, Book of the Later Han, and Zizhi Tongjian, to see what kind of person Liu Bei really was, and to discuss how a humble mat weaver and sandal seller began his unlikely rise to become an emperor.
