主题：【原创】诸葛亮(revised) -- hbuff

There have been many debates about ZhuGeLiang, but from what I can see few

really understand this historical figure.

And we are not to blame, for the historical records do not give us a clear

picture of the real person, that is, unless we dig deeper into these records

and find for ourselves, for the first time in Chinese history, a coherent,

realistic and detailed portrait of this cultural icon.

Let me declare up front, that I have not read the historical documents.

But I did see a TV series "the Three Kingdoms" and I did read a lot of articles on the web.

My complaint is that from these sources I can not arrive at something that

resembles a real person. He's more like a saint, and he's not even religious.

It is not until I read the article below (“诸葛亮的政治表演术” and I

recommend it to everyone) that I begin to get a glimpse of the real person

behind that entire facade.

From there I learned why he joined Liu and not the other two kingdoms. Say I'm

looking for a job and I have three offers, two from well established companies

and one from a startup. The CEO of the startup is so eager to have me that he

travels a long way to visit me, three times; that he practically offers not

just a job but a partnership; that I know that I would have pretty much free

reign over the enterprise. Being an ambitious upstart, I think it's a safe bet

I'll take the position with unlimited room to grow rather than disappear into

obscurity in a corporate pigeonhole. I might even deliberately miss the first

two appointments with the CEO, just to test his sincerity, if I were the cold

calculating politician that ZhuGeLiang was.

The calculation on my part is fully understandable. I have to watch out for my

own interests, as everybody naturally does, and it does not hurt anyone.

Unfortunately self-interest goes against the holy Confucian doctrine. Now we

have a frantic effort to grasp at any excuse we can find: he joined Liu because

he valued their friendship (they didn't even know each other before the alliance

was made); because he thought Liu was the only legitimate heir to the throng;

because he was moved by his perseverance; etc. None of these sits well with the

shrewd politician whose career was essentially made from deceptive schemes,

ahem, brilliant military and diplomatic strategies.

For me this is a good start at understanding the real person. Lots of questions

still remain. Why did he invade the north 6 or 7 times with futility? Being the

smart man he was, he had to know chances of success were slim at best.

The best defense is offence? What is the evidence that a northern invasion was

imminent? For 7 times in a role? --- That’s never heard of in human history for

defensive purposes. How would such repeated long marches into enemy territory

help your defense? Would it weaken yourself more or weaken your enemy more?

Would it weaken the both of you for the benefit of the third party?

I suspect we should look into his personal ambitions for an answer.

Again, there is nothing wrong with ambition, except that it is against, you

know what, the Confucian ideal.