Liu Sheng

Biography & Historical Record

Liu Sheng (刘胜, Lưu Thắng), posthumous title Prince Jing of Zhongshan (中山靖王, Trung Sơn Tĩnh Vương), was a son of Emperor Jing of the Western Han (汉景帝刘启, Hán Cảnh Đế Lưu Khải) and a brother of Emperor Wu (汉武帝, Hán Vũ Đế). He was enfeoffed at Zhongshan (中山, Trung Sơn; around present-day Dingzhou, Hebei) in 154 BC and died in 113 BC. The Shiji and Hanshu remember him as a prince of music, wine, and a huge posterity — tradition gives him more than a hundred sons — not as a general of the civil war four centuries later. His tomb at Mancheng (满城, Mãn Thành), opened in 1968, held the famous jade burial suit sewn with gold thread, now the image most readers meet before they meet the man.

Chapter 1 of the novel uses him as a genealogical key. When Luo Guanzhong introduces Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị), courtesy name Xuande (玄德, Huyền Đức), he writes that Xuande is a descendant of Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan, son of Emperor Jing. The line the novel recites runs Liu Sheng → Liu Zhen (刘贞, Lưu Trinh), Marquis of Lucheng Ting (陆城亭侯, Lục Thành Đình Hầu), then down through faded provincial Lius to Liu Xiong (刘雄, Lưu Hùng) and Liu Hong (刘弘, Lưu Hồng) — Xuande’s grandfather and father, the latter a county magistrate who died while the boy was young. That Ch.1 Liu Hong is not this site’s Jin inspector Liu Hong (刘弘, Lưu Hồng) of 236–306, and not Emperor Ling (刘宏, Lưu Hoành). The 汉字 胜 / the Zhongshan title / the Western Han dates are what identify this post.

Other men named Liu Sheng exist in later centuries. This article is only Jing of Zhongshan. He never sees a Yellow Turban, a Peach Garden, or a battlefield of 184. His “role” in the Three Kingdoms story is the claim that Liu Bei’s straw mat and weaving still carry the blood of Emperor Jing’s house — a claim the novel states as fact and that Chen Shou states more cautiously as “a descendant of the Han imperial clan, grandson of Liu Xiong, son of Liu Hong.”

Role in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1 (Three Heroes Swear Brotherhood in the Peach Garden; One Victory Breaks the Yellow Turbans): After the cavern gift of Nan Hua (南华老仙, Nam Hoa Lão Tiên) to Zhang Jiao (张角, Trương Giác) and the first news of yellow cloth, the narrator turns to Zhuo county and to a man selling straw sandals. He is Liu Bei, courtesy Xuande. The novel pauses to give him an imperial family tree: descendant of Liu Sheng (刘胜, Lưu Thắng), Prince Jing of Zhongshan, son of Emperor Jing. Liu Sheng’s son Liu Zhen lost the Lucheng Ting marquisate when the family failed a ritual gold contribution (酎金, trụu kim) under Emperor Wu; the line sank into the counties. Liu Bei’s grandfather Liu Xiong and father Liu Hong are named so the reader will hear “imperial uncle” later with a paper trail. Liu Sheng himself does not speak, ride, or die in this chapter. In the same pages Liu Bei, Guan Yu (关羽, Quan Vũ), and Zhang Fei (张飞, Trương Phi) swear the Peach Garden oath and march against Cheng Yuanzhi — the living plot that the dead prince is invoked to dignify.

Liu Sheng (刘胜) — Historical & Literary Timeline

Further reading: Liu Sheng, Prince of Zhongshan, on Wikipedia.

Key Relationships

Family

• Emperor Jing of Han (汉景帝刘启, Hán Cảnh Đế): Father. Liu Sheng is a younger son, brother of Emperor Wu (plain text; Western Han).
• Liu Zhen (刘贞, Lưu Trinh): Son, Marquis of Lucheng Ting; the novel’s next step from Zhongshan toward Liu Bei. Lost the marquisate over the ritual-gold law (plain text).
• Later descendants Liu Xiong (刘雄, Lưu Hùng) (grandfather) and Liu Hong (刘弘, Lưu Hoằng) (father of Liu Bei) — not sons of Liu Sheng. That Liu Hong is not the Jin inspector on /liu-hong/ and not Emperor Ling on /emperor-ling/.
• Clan uncle of the First Sovereign Liu Yuanqi (刘元起, Lưu Nguyên Khởi): same Zhuo house, a generation after Liu Xiong.
• Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị): Distant descendant in whose Chapter 1 introduction Liu Sheng is named.

Friends

• No Three Kingdoms comrades. His attested circle is the Western Han court of Emperor Jing and Emperor Wu, not the Peach Garden.

Enemies

• No Three Kingdoms opponent. He died 113 BC, three centuries before Zhang Jiao.

Other

• Zhang Jiao (张角, Trương Giác) and Nan Hua (南华老仙, Nam Hoa Lão Tiên): Same Chapter 1, different scene — the heavenly book and the yellow rising that make Liu Bei’s genealogy politically useful.
• Guan Yu (关羽, Quan Vũ) and Zhang Fei (张飞, Trương Phi): Peach Garden brothers who swear with the descendant, not with the ancestor.
• Not any later Liu Sheng of the Three Kingdoms lists; this 汉字 and the Zhongshan title fix the person.