Liu Hong (Liu Bei’s father)

Biography & Historical Record

Liu Hong (刘弘, Lưu Hoằng) of Zhuo County, Zhuo commandery (涿郡涿县; today’s Zhuozhou, Hebei) was the father of Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị), courtesy name Xuande (玄德, Huyền Đức), later First Sovereign of Shu-Han. Chen Shou’s Sanguozhi Shu 2 (先主传) gives the stem in one sentence: Liu Bei’s grandfather was Liu Xiong (刘雄, Lưu Hùng), his father was Liu Hong, and the house had served in the provincial and commandery bureaucracy for generations (先主祖雄，父弘，世仕州郡). Xiong was recommended Filial and Incorrupt and died as magistrate of Fan in Dong commandery. Hong himself held local office; he died while Liu Bei was still young (先主少孤). Widow and child then wove mats and sold straw sandals — the poverty that Chapter 1 of the novel inherits almost word for word.

The same Shu 2 paragraph traces the faded imperial cadet line back, at a distance, to Liu Sheng (刘胜, Lưu Thắng), Prince Jing of Zhongshan, a son of Emperor Jing of Western Han, and to Liu Zhen (刘贞, Lưu Trinh), who lost the Lucheng pavilion marquisate for a ritual-gold offence. Liu Hong is the last named generation before Xuande. He has no courtesy name, no battle, and no death year in Chen Shou. Later folk genealogies call the widow Madam Yan (燕氏, Yến Thị); the official history only says “his mother.”

Homonyms — do not merge. This 刘弘 is not the Western Jin Inspector of Jingzhou Liu Hong (刘弘, Lưu Hồng) of 236–306, courtesy Shuhe (叔和, Thúc Hòa), born in Peiguo Xiang after Liu Bei was already a grown warlord. He is not Emperor Ling (汉灵帝刘宏, Hán Linh Đế) — different 汉字 (弘 vs 宏). Catalog rows that file “Chapter 1 father of Liu Bei” onto the Jin inspector glued three men together. The 汉字 弘, the Zhuo house, the Fan-magistrate father, and the orphaned sandal-seller son identify this page.

Role in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1 (Three Heroes Swear Brotherhood in the Peach Garden; One Victory Shatters the Yellow Turbans): After Nan Hua’s book and the first yellow cloth, the narrator turns to Zhuo and to a young man selling sandals. He is Liu Bei. The novel pauses for a pedigree: descendant of Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan; then Liu Zhen; then, much later, Liu Xiong as Fan magistrate and Liu Hong (刘弘, Lưu Hoằng) as Xiong’s son. Romance says Hong “did not serve” (不仕) and died while the boy was young — a literary flattening of Chen Shou’s “served in the commanderies, then the household fell.” The same page gives the five-zhang mulberry like a feather-canopy chariot, uncle Liu Zijing’s (刘子敬, Lưu Tử Kính) panic, and Liu Yuanqi (刘元起, Lưu Nguyên Khởi) paying Liu Bei’s board under Lu Zhi (卢植, Lư Thực) equal to his own son Liu Deran (刘德然, Lưu Đức Nhiên). Only after that family table do Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang fund a following, and only then do Guan Yu (关羽, Quan Vũ) and Zhang Fei (张飞, Trương Phi) swear the Peach Garden oath. Liu Hong never rides to Guangzong. His entire novel life is the missing father in that opening file — the reason the boy is poor, the reason Yuanqi’s cash matters, the reason later chapters can call Xuande an imperial uncle with a paper trail.

Liu Hong (刘弘) — Historical & Literary Timeline

Notice in Shu 2; see the Liu Bei youth section of 刘备.

Key Relationships

Family

• Father Liu Xiong (刘雄, Lưu Hùng): Fan magistrate; Filial and Incorrupt. Shu 2 names him in the same sentence as Hong.
• Son Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị): First Sovereign of Shu-Han. Orphaned young; the Chapter 1 pedigree exists to legitimate him.
• Wife (tradition) Madam Yan (燕氏, Yến Thị): Named in later genealogies as Liu Bei’s mother. Chen Shou says only “his mother” sold sandals with the boy.
• Brother (standard 叔父 reading) Liu Yuanqi (刘元起, Lưu Nguyên Khởi): Funded Liu Bei’s study; first to call the clan boy no ordinary man.
• Fellow uncle of the next generation Liu Zijing (刘子敬, Lưu Tử Kính): Warned against the feather-canopy boast. Custom wiki — no dedicated post.
• Distant ancestor Liu Sheng (刘胜, Lưu Thắng): Prince Jing of Zhongshan. Not Hong’s father — many generations earlier.

Friends

• No sworn brothers or battlefield comrades recorded. His attested circle is the Zhuo Liu house and the Han local bureaucracy that also employed his father.

Enemies

• No personal foe. He dies before the Yellow Turbans. Later catalogs that attach this 刘弘 to Jin Jingzhou or to Emperor Ling are homonym errors, not enmities.

Other

• Lu Zhi (卢植, Lư Thực) and Gongsun Zan (公孙瓒, Công Tôn Toản): the teacher and older schoolmate of the orphan Hong left behind — named in the Shu 2 paragraph that follows 少孤.
• Guan Yu (关羽, Quan Vũ) and Zhang Fei (张飞, Trương Phi): Peach Garden brothers who swear with the son, in the same chapter that finishes Hong’s pedigree.
• Not Liu Hong (刘弘, Lưu Hồng) of Western Jin and not Emperor Ling (刘宏, Lưu Hoành).