ИСТИНА

The present paper examines the ways in which the exploits of the famous Chinese hero Zhuge Liang (181–234) in Yunnan during the military campaign he led there in 225 AD were presented in late imperial period Chinese texts. The notion of Zhuge Liang being venerated by indigenous peoples of the Southwest can be traced back to ninth-century texts. The idea was further developed along with the colonization of Yunnan during the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries when Zhuge Liang was invested with the meaning of peaceful civilizer of non-Han population of the southwestern frontier, bringing economic prosperity and cultural development to the borderlands. In continuity with the imperial times, ethnic minorities in present-day Yunnan province are still believed to have preserved fond memories of Zhuge Liang in their legends. This notion is not only promoted as a part of the “ethnic unity” discourse in PRC, but is also present in various Chinese and English language academic publications.