Liu Xiong

Biography & Historical Record

Liu Xiong (刘雄, Lưu Hùng) was the paternal grandfather 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) places the family in Zhuo County, Zhuo commandery (涿郡涿县; today’s Zhuozhou, Hebei) and traces them, at a distance, to Liu Sheng (刘胜, Lưu Thắng), Prince Jing of Zhongshan, a son of Emperor Jing of Western Han. After Liu Zhen (刘贞, Lưu Trinh) lost the Lucheng pavilion marquisate for a ritual-gold offence, the line settled in Zhuo. Generations later Liu Xiong was recommended Filial and Incorrupt (孝廉) and rose to magistrate of Fan county in Dong commandery (东郡范令) — a real local office, not a Cao Cao field command. His son Liu Hong (刘弘, Lưu Hồng) also served in the commandery bureaucracy; after Hong’s early death the household slipped into weaving mats and selling sandals. Import catalogs that list this 刘雄 as a Cao Cao officer from Lantian confuse him with later homonyms and with Liu Xiongming (刘雄鸣); the 汉字, Zhuo origin, and Chapter 1 pedigree all identify Liu Bei’s grandfather.

Pei Songzhi’s note quoting the Dianlue offers a second, still Han-imperial, stem: that Liu Bei belonged to the cadet line of a Marquis of Linyi. Either way Liu Xiong is an Eastern Han county magistrate in a faded imperial cadet house, not a Three Kingdoms general. The novel’s Chapter 1 genealogy invents many intervening marquises between Liu Zhen and Liu Xiong; those names (including a fictional Yingchuan Marquis Liu Da) have no independent Sanguozhi lives. Only Liu Xiong’s Filial-and-Incorrupt recommendation and Fan magistracy, and Liu Hong’s existence, stand in Chen Shou.

Role in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1 (Three Heroes Swear Brotherhood in the Peach Garden; One Victory Shatters the Yellow Turbans): Before the oath of Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị), Guan Yu (关羽, Quan Vũ), and Zhang Fei (张飞, Trương Phi), the narrator opens Liu Bei’s file. It names Liu Xiong (刘雄, Lưu Hùng) as Dong-commandery Fan magistrate and father of Liu Hong (刘弘, Lưu Hồng), who “did not serve,” then Liu Bei as Hong’s son. The same page gives the mulberry-tree omen and the boy’s boast that he will ride a feather-canopy chariot — the pedigree that later lets the novel call Liu Bei an imperial uncle. Liu Xiong never appears on the Yellow Turban field; he is the historical hinge of that opening genealogy.

Liu Xiong (刘雄) — Historical & Literary Timeline

For the Fan-magistrate notice, see 刘雄 (范县县令).

Key Relationships

Family

• Son Liu Hong (刘弘, Lưu Hoằng): Liu Bei’s father; served in the commandery then died early. Not the Jin inspector on /liu-hong/.
• Son (standard 叔父 reading) Liu Yuanqi (刘元起, Lưu Nguyên Khởi): Clan uncle who funded Liu Bei’s study under Lu Zhi.
• Grandson Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị): First Sovereign of Shu-Han; the Chapter 1 pedigree exists to legitimate him.
• Distant ancestor Liu Sheng (刘胜, Lưu Thắng): Prince Jing of Zhongshan, named in the same Shu 2 / Chapter 1 stem.

Friends

• No sworn brothers recorded. His attested “allies” are the Han recommendation system that made a cadet-line man Fan magistrate.

Enemies

• No personal battlefield foe. Later catalogs that attach him to Cao Cao (曹操, Tào Tháo) are a homonym error, not an enmity.

Other

• Guan Yu (关羽, Quan Vũ) and Zhang Fei (张飞, Trương Phi): sworn in the Peach Garden immediately after the novel finishes Liu Xiong’s pedigree.
• Liu Sheng (刘胜, Lưu Thắng) and Liu Zhen (刘贞, Lưu Trinh): Western Han ancestors named in the same Shu 2 sentence that introduces Liu Xiong. Liu Zhen has no dedicated post (not Liu Zhen 刘桢).