Record of Liangzhou

刘澄之Jul 2024

2.7

Word count: 305 words
Chapters: 2

Summary

Southeast of the Wuhou fortifications stands Mount Dingjun. About eighty li into the mountains lies the tomb of Marquis Wu of Zhuge Liang. When Zhong Hui campaigned against Shu and reached Hanzhou, he sacrificed at Liang's tomb and ordered his soldiers not to graze animals, cut wood, or gather fuel there. Today the pines and cypresses and the stone inscription remain as they were.

Editor's review

Liangzhou Ji, traditionally attributed to Liu Chengzhi, belongs to the genre of early geographical miscellany. The surviving fragments record the location of Mount Dingjun and the tomb of Marquis Wu of Zhuge Liang, and describe how Zhong Hui, on his campaign against Shu, sacrificed at the tomb and forbade his soldiers to graze animals, cut wood, or gather fuel there; the text closes by noting that the pines and cypresses and the stone inscription remain as they were. Brief as it is, the passage combines geographical orientation, historical event, and tomb protection, and can be cross-checked against the Zhuge Liang biography in the Records of the Three Kingdoms and later accounts of Mount Dingjun. Its value lies in preserving, in extremely spare prose, an early record of a Shu-Han relic from the Wei-Jin transition, and in revealing the attitude of a conqueror toward the tomb precinct of a renowned minister of a former dynasty. It is suitable as auxiliary material for research on regional historical geography and Three Kingdoms relics, and offers an example for understanding ancient conceptions of tomb protection. Readers should note that the extant text consists largely of reconstructed fragments and should not be used as a complete gazetteer.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and humanities enthusiasts researching Three Kingdoms relics and historical geography
Readers interested in historical sources on Zhuge Liang's burial site and Mount Dingjun
Students of early geographical miscellany and reconstructed texts
Regional cultural researchers seeking early documentary evidence from local gazetteers

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking the complete systematic content of a geographical gazetteer
Beginners without basic knowledge of Three Kingdoms history who need a full vernacular explanation
General readers expecting long narrative or biography

Reading tips

First confirm that the edition in hand is a reconstructed fragment, and avoid generalizing from a partial text; consult notes on the sources of the reconstruction.
Read the account of Marquis Wu's tomb alongside the Records of the Three Kingdoms and related poems and prose about Mount Dingjun, observing differences in expression across genres.
Note the details of Zhong Hui's sacrifice and the ban on woodcutting and grazing, and consult similar cases of tomb-precinct protection for renowned ministers in antiquity.
Mark the relative positions of Mount Dingjun and the Wuhou fortifications on a map to deepen understanding of the text's spatial information.

版权信息
梁州记

FAQ

What is the significance of the record of Zhong Hui sacrificing at Zhuge Liang's tomb?

The text records that when Zhong Hui campaigned against Shu and reached Hanzhou, he sacrificed at Liang's tomb and ordered his soldiers not to graze animals, cut wood, or gather fuel there. This record reflects both the standing of a renowned Shu-Han minister in the eyes of the opposing side and the ancient practice of protecting the tomb precincts of worthy figures of earlier ages during military campaigns; read alongside related historical biographies, it reveals the conqueror's political posture.

Is a complete text of Liangzhou Ji still available today?

The original Liangzhou Ji has long been lost, and what survives consists largely of reconstructed fragments, of which this is one. It should therefore not be used as a systematic, complete geographical gazetteer; rather, it should be cross-checked against the sources of the reconstruction and related historical-geographical literature, with attention to the limitations of fragmentary information and avoidance of overinterpretation.

With which sources can the record of Marquis Wu's tomb on Mount Dingjun be cross-checked?

It can be read alongside the account in the Zhuge Liang biography in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, which states that he was buried at Mount Dingjun in Hanzhong with the mountain itself serving as the grave, and with later poems, prose, and gazetteer records concerning the tomb of Marquis Wu at Mount Dingjun. These texts differ in the detail with which they describe location and tomb precinct; comparative reading helps clarify the layered relationship between early records and later tradition.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

刘澄之 Author

Liu Chengzhi's official career, dates of birth and death, and other biographical details are not clearly recorded; public information is limited, so only a brief outline can be drawn from his surviving works. Judging from the two works collected here, Poyang Ji and Liangzhou Ji, Liu Chengzhi was the author of ancient geographical miscellanies. Both books take provinces and prefectures as their framework, recording the mountains and rivers, historic sites, local products, and legends of a region, and belong to the tradition of local records that flourished from the Six Dynasties onward. Such writings often combine the character of a geographical gazetteer with that of a notebook of strange tales: they value factual accounts of directions and distances while also collecting local legends, and their style is concise and vivid. Liu Chengzhi's writing is close to this model: plain in narration, clear in organization, and skilled at preserving regional knowledge in short passages, allowing later readers to glimpse the local society and natural landscape of his time. His works are often classified in traditional bibliographies under classics and Eastern philosophy, indicating that beyond their geographical value they are also read as material for understanding ancient worldviews and conceptions of region. Although the man and his deeds have faded from history, his writings retain lasting value for research and reading because they carry local memory.