Liu Hong

Biography & Historical Record

Liu Hong (刘弘, Lưu Hồng), courtesy name Shuhe (叔和, Thúc Hòa), also written Heji (和季, Hòa Quý), lived 236–306. He was from Xiang (相, Tướng) in Peiguo (沛国, Bái Quốc; present-day Suixi, Anhui). This page is the Western Jin inspector. It is not Emperor Ling (汉灵帝刘宏, Hán Linh Đế) — different 汉字, 宏 not 弘. It is not Liu Bei’s father, a different earlier 刘弘, a county magistrate who died while Xuande was young and who is the man Chapter 1 actually names. Import notes that call this post “courtesy 子高” and “father of Liu Bei” have glued three men together. Historical courtesy is 叔和 / 和季; 子高 is a catalog error.

His grandfather Liu Fu (刘馥, Lưu Phức) served Cao Cao as a builder of Yangzhou’s fields and stores. His father Liu Jing (刘靖, Lưu Tĩnh) was a Wei minister. Liu Hong grew up in Luoyang as a classmate and exact contemporary of Sima Yan (司马炎, Tư Mã Viêm), the future Emperor Wu of Jin. When Sima Yan took the Wei throne in 266 he made Liu Hong an attendant of the heir as a mark of that old friendship. Liu Hong served through the Western Jin court and, in 303, was sent south as Inspector of Jingzhou, Commander of all Jing military affairs, and Colonel of the Southern Man, to put down the Zhang Chang (张昌, Trương Xương) rebellion. He recovered the province, blocked Chen Min (陈敏, Trần Mẫn) from coming up the river, and for three years kept Jing a refuge while the War of the Eight Princes tore the north. He recommended and advanced men — Tao Kan (陶侃, Đào Khản) among them — and was praised as a model governor. In 306 he was advanced to General of Chariots and Cavalry. He sent a detachment to help Sima Yue bring Emperor Hui back to Luoyang, then asked, old and ill, to lay down his offices. He died in Xiangyang before the resignation arrived. Jingzhou mourned him as a kinsman. After his son was called away to the capital, the province fell back into disorder and the people remembered Liu Hong.

The novel’s Chapter 1 “Liu Hong” is Liu Bei’s father. This Jin official does not walk into that peach-garden chapter. If later recensions name Jingzhou or Jin officers in the closing books, they are not the source of the import stub that filed him under Chapter 1. Readers looking for Xuande’s father will not find him in these dates, this courtesy, or this Peiguo Xiang birthplace.

Role in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Not Chapter 1 — disambiguation. Chapter 1 (Three Heroes Swear Brotherhood in the Peach Garden) names a Liu Hong (刘弘) as the father of Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị): a magistrate who died while the boy was young, grandson of Liu Xiong (刘雄, Lưu Hùng), in the Zhongshan line from Liu Sheng (刘胜, Lưu Thắng). That man cannot be the Jin inspector born in 236, when Liu Bei was already a warlord in his forties. This article keeps the two 刘弘 apart and also keeps both apart from Emperor Ling’s 刘宏. The Jin Liu Hong’s own career belongs to the generation after the novel’s last battles: classmate of Sima Yan, inspector of Jing in 303–306, death at Xiangyang. Romance catalogs list him because Jin Shu lives sit on the edge of the Three Kingdoms people lists, not because he drinks in the Peach Garden.

Liu Hong (刘弘) — Historical & Literary Timeline

Further reading: Liu Hong (Jin dynasty) on Wikipedia. Jin Shu 66.

Key Relationships

Family

• Liu Fu (刘馥, Lưu Phức): Grandfather; late-Han / Cao Cao administrator who rebuilt Yangzhou (plain text).
• Liu Jing (刘靖, Lưu Tĩnh): Father; Cao Wei minister (plain text).
• Liu Fan / Liu Pan (刘璠, Lưu Phiền): Son who held Jingzhou hearts after 306 and was summoned to the capital so he could not become a local focus (plain text — not Liu Fang 刘放).
• Not the father of Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị). That 刘弘 is a different, earlier man.

Friends

• Sima Yan (司马炎, Tư Mã Viêm), Emperor Wu of Jin: Luoyang classmate, born the same year; the patronage that opened Liu Hong’s Jin career (plain text).
• Tao Kan (陶侃, Đào Khản): Raised from the ranks in Jing; Liu Hong told him he would one day stand where Liu Hong stood (plain text).

Enemies

• Zhang Chang (张昌, Trương Xương): Rebel whose 303 rising in Jing Liu Hong was sent to destroy.
• Chen Min (陈敏, Trần Mẫn): Jiangdong adventurer Liu Hong kept out of Jing after Zhang Chang fell.

Other

• Emperor Ling (刘宏, Lưu Hoành): Homophone only. Different 汉字, different century. Never link this post to that slug as the same person.
• Liu Bei’s father Liu Hong (刘弘): Same 汉字, Chapter 1 magistrate; different life. Do not merge.
• Liu Sheng (刘胜, Lưu Thắng): Ancestor in Liu Bei’s tree, not in this Jin official’s Peiguo line.