How did Zhuge Liang die? What was the cause of Zhuge Liang’s death

Zhuge Liang, as soon as this name is mentioned, many friends’ minds naturally assume an image of holding a fan and having a natural demeanor, right?
He was the prime minister invited by Liu Bei to visit the thatched cottage three times. He was the person that Cao Cao feared the most, and also an extraordinary talent. And the downfall of Shu Kingdom was precisely due to his passing. So how did Zhuge Liang die? Now let’s reveal the true cause of Zhuge Liang’s death!
How did Zhuge Liang die? Zhuge Liang, born and died in 181-234, was the Prime Minister of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. He was born in Langya Yangdu, Xuzhou (now Yinan County, Linyi City, Shandong Province) and was an outstanding politician, military strategist, and inventor during the Three Kingdoms period. Representative works include essays such as “The Memorial to the Master” and “The Book of Admonitions to the Son”, as well as the invention of wooden oxen, flowing horses, and Kongming lanterns. Zhuge Liang devoted his life to serving and dying, and is a representative figure of loyal ministers and wise men in traditional Chinese culture. Next, let me explain in detail how Zhuge Liang died.
Zhuge Liang died of illness in Wuzhangyuan, which is not explicitly recorded in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Records of the Three Kingdoms. Based on the lifestyle habits described in “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, we can roughly speculate that Zhuge Liang may have suffered from digestive system diseases and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
The novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” repeatedly depicts scenes of Zhuge Liang spitting blood, which is likely a symptom caused by peptic ulcers. In professional pathology textbooks, patients with peptic ulcers often experience black stool and vomiting blood when they develop symptoms. This is mainly caused by the corrosion and rupture of large blood vessels at the bottom of the ulcer.
Throughout Zhuge Liang’s life, there was no established regularity in his daily routine. When he was young, he had a tendency to be reckless, either sailing a small boat in the rivers and lakes, visiting monks and Taoists on the mountains, seeking friends between villages, or playing music and chess in caves. Lack of proper food intake, irregular sleep, and a lack of regular physical exercise. The description of his life is’ The thatched cottage sleeps soundly in spring, while the sun lingers outside the window ‘.
After following Liu Bei out of the mountains, Zhuge Liang lacked necessary physical movements. Due to his habit of “hand cranking feather fans and sitting alone on a wheeled cart” during every battle, maintaining a constant posture for a long time will inevitably affect the digestion of food. In addition, Zhuge Liang was also a workaholic who forgot to sleep and eat, which further increased the burden on his gastrointestinal function. During the last campaign against Wei, Zhuge Liang’s appetite severely declined. And this information happened to be learned by his archenemy Sima Yi. Sima Yi said, “Kong Ming is fed up and troubled, how can he last long?” There are also many descriptions in “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” about Zhuge Liang fainting. There are multiple possibilities for this, such as hypertension, cerebral hemorrhage, anemia, hypoglycemia, etc. These are directly related to high work pressure, long-term mental stimulation, emotional instability, and nutritional imbalance.
Zhuge Liang is a very sensitive person in his heart. He cannot handle heavy tasks lightly, and every mistake in his work will bring him a great mental burden. And he is also a person with good face. The repeated failures of the Northern Expedition prevented him from fulfilling his promises to the world, which made him extremely anxious and worried. And the successive deaths of the generals around him made him even more heartbroken.
Zhuge Liang launched his second Northern Expedition to the Central Plains and saw Zhao Yun’s son come to mourn. Zhuge Liang threw a cup to the ground and said, “Zilong has passed away!” He also fell to the ground and cried, “Zilong has died, and the country has suffered losses. I will take one arm away!” During the third Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang strategically defeated Sima Yi, but suddenly heard someone report Zhang Bao’s death. Kong Ming burst into tears, spat out blood, and fainted on the ground. From then on, he fell ill and was bedridden. The Shu army had to give up the attack and retreat to Hanzhong.
When Liu Bei died of illness, he never saw Zhuge Liang so heartbroken. Why did the loss of a general make him so heartbroken? This is because at the end of the war, Shu Kingdom was already short of major generals, and the death of Zhang Bao meant that Kong Ming’s offensive power was inferior, making it even more difficult to win.
The sixth Northern Expedition to the Central Plains suddenly reported the death of Guan Xing due to illness. Kong Ming burst into tears, collapsed to the ground, and for a while Fang Su. After repeated persuasion from the generals, Kong Ming sighed and said, “Poor loyal and righteous people, heaven cannot match their longevity! I am leaving the army this time, and I am missing another general
Despite numerous attempts to conquer the Central Plains, Zhuge Liang’s inner fragility had reached its extreme, and he could no longer withstand the blow of failure. Seeing Sima Yi unable to defend himself, Zhuge Liang was unable to defeat him with any strategy and had to rely on the joint action of the Allied forces in Eastern Wu. Unexpectedly, another piece of bad news came: “Wei Lord Cao Rui heard that the three armies of Eastern Wu were advancing, so he led his own army to Hefei and ordered Man Chong, Tian Yu, and Liu Shao to divide their troops into three routes to meet the enemy. Man Chong planned to burn all the food, supplies, and weapons of Eastern Wu, and the Wu soldiers were sick. Lu Xun presented himself to the King of Wu and planned to launch a pincer attack before and after the appointment. Unexpectedly, he was captured by the Wei soldiers halfway through, so the mechanism leaked and the Wu soldiers retreated without success.” Upon hearing this news, Kong Ming sighed deeply and collapsed to the ground. Emergency treatment will be given to the generals, and Su will wait for a while.
After the joint attack of Wu and Shu was disintegrated by Cao Wei, Zhuge Liang completely collapsed. Kong Ming sighed and said, “My heart is in a daze, my old illness has recurred, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to give birth.” At night, Kong Ming helped the sick out of the tent, looked up at the astronomy, and was very alarmed. When he entered the tent, he said to Jiang Wei, “My life is on the brink of death
How did Zhuge Liang die? Although Zhuge Liang’s death appeared to be due to illness, it is not difficult to see from the above introduction that the situation was chaotic at that time, and the contradictions within the Shu Kingdom were also very sharp. Zhuge Liang had become an obstacle to the development of many forces, and coupled with Zhuge Liang’s old age at that time, his death became inevitable.

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