Liu Mi

Biography & Historical Record

Liu Mi (刘泌, Lưu Di) is the Fancheng (樊城, Phàn Thành) county magistrate of Chapter 36. The novel says he is a man of Changsha (长沙, Trường Sa) and a kinsman of the Han house. After Xu Shu (徐庶, Từ Thứ), courtesy name Yuanzhi (元直, Nguyên Trực), has helped Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị) smash Cao Ren (曹仁, Tào Nhân) and take the city, Liu Mi comes out to welcome the victor, settles the people, and invites Liu Bei to his house for a banquet. Standing beside the host is a youth of imposing bearing. Liu Bei asks who he is. Liu Mi answers that the boy is his sister’s son, Kou Feng (寇封, Khấu Phong), a son of the Kou house of Luo Marquisate (罗侯, La Hầu), left orphaned and raised in this hall. Liu Bei likes him at once and asks to take him as an adopted son. Liu Mi agrees with pleasure. Kou Feng bows to Liu Bei as father and is renamed Liu Feng (刘封, Lưu Phong).

Liu Bei brings the youth back and has him salute Guan Yu (关羽, Quan Vũ) and Zhang Fei (张飞, Trương Phi) as uncles. Guan Yu objects: the elder brother already has a son — why raise a moth-larva (螟蛉) who will breed trouble later? Liu Bei says he will treat the boy as a son and the boy will serve him as a father. Guan Yu is not pleased. Liu Bei and “Shan Fu” (Xu Shu’s alias) then leave Zhao Yun (赵云, Triệu Vân) with a thousand men to hold Fancheng and return to Xinye (新野, Tân Dã). Liu Mi himself does not ride out again in the novel. His narrative work is finished: he is the door through which Liu Feng enters the Shu house.

History gives the nephew, not the uncle’s personal name. Sanguozhi Shu 10 (刘封传) says Liu Feng was originally a son of the Kou house of Luo Marquisate and “a sister’s son of the Liu clan of Changsha” (长沙刘氏之甥). Liu Mi is the novel’s name for that Changsha Liu. Chen Shou does not say the man was magistrate of Fancheng or that the adoption happened at a banquet after Xu Shu took the city. Those details are Luo Guanzhong’s staging. Do not merge Liu Mi (刘泌) with Liu Min (刘敏, Lưu Mẫn) of Shu or with any other Liu Mi / Liu Bi homonym.

Role in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 36 (Xuande Uses a Plan to Take Fancheng; Yuanzhi Rides Off and Recommends Zhuge Liang): Cao Ren has been beaten back toward Xuchang. Liu Bei enters Fancheng. Magistrate Liu Mi (刘泌, Lưu Di) comes out to receive him. After the city is quiet, Liu Mi, a Changsha man and Han kinsman, hosts a feast. Liu Bei sees Kou Feng at the side, hears that the boy’s parents are dead, and asks to adopt him. Liu Mi consents. The youth becomes Liu Feng and is presented to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Guan Yu’s warning — “if the elder brother already has a son, why use a moth-larva? There will be disorder later” — is the novel’s seed for Liu Feng’s later refusal to aid Guan Yu at Maicheng and for his death after the fall of the eastern commanderies. In the same chapter Xu Shu’s mother is used to call him north, and Xu Shu, at the ferry, recommends Zhuge Liang (诸葛亮, Gia Cát Lượng). Liu Mi is not in that farewell; he remains the local host of the adoption scene.

Liu Mi (刘泌) — Historical & Literary Timeline

Further reading: Liu Feng on Wikipedia. Not Liu Min (刘敏).

Key Relationships

Family

• Liu Feng (刘封, Lưu Phong): Sister’s son. Born Kou Feng of the Luo Marquisate Kou house; orphaned and raised by Liu Mi; adopted by Liu Bei at the Fancheng banquet and renamed Liu Feng. Novel only names the uncle; history names only “the Changsha Liu.”
• Unnamed sister: mother of Kou Feng (novel). No spouse or children of Liu Mi himself are listed.

Friends

• Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị): Fellow Han imperial clansman whom Liu Mi welcomes into Fancheng and to whom he freely gives his nephew as an heir.

Enemies

• Cao Ren (曹仁, Tào Nhân): Wei commander driven from the Fancheng–Xinye fighting that puts Liu Bei in the magistrate’s hall. Liu Mi does not face him in person.

Other

• Guan Yu (关羽, Quan Vũ): Objects to the adoption as a moth-larva who will cause later strife — the novel’s foreshadowing of Liu Feng’s end.
• Zhang Fei (张飞, Trương Phi): Saluted as uncle with Guan Yu after the renaming.
• Xu Shu (徐庶, Từ Thứ): Strategist whose Fancheng victory creates the banquet; in the same chapter he recommends Zhuge Liang and leaves for the north.
• Zhao Yun (赵云, Triệu Vân): Left with a thousand men to hold Fancheng when Liu Bei returns to Xinye.