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East Asia · Confederacies, Han and the steppe

Shu Han

221–263

Shu Han (221–263), founded by Liu Bei (r. 221–223) in Sichuan with capital Chengdu, claimed legitimate succession to the Han. Its famous chancellor Zhuge Liang launched the Northern Expeditions against Wei.

Existed
221–263
Shown on the map
AD 224–262
Peak area
883k km²
Region
East Asia

Overview

Shu Han (221–263), founded by Liu Bei (r. 221–223) in Sichuan with capital Chengdu, claimed legitimate succession to the Han. Its famous chancellor Zhuge Liang launched the Northern Expeditions against Wei. Smallest of the three kingdoms, it was conquered by Wei in 263; the last emperor Liu Shan surrendered. It was immortalized in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Common questions

What was Shu Han?
Shu Han (221–263), founded by Liu Bei (r. 221–223) in Sichuan with capital Chengdu, claimed legitimate succession to the Han. Its famous chancellor Zhuge Liang launched the Northern Expeditions against Wei.
When did Shu Han exist?
Shu Han existed 221–263. On this map it is drawn AD 224–262.
How large was Shu Han?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Shu Han covered about 883,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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