Wei Yan

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Wei (魏).

Wei Yan (?–234) was a military general of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms era of China. Wei Yan was a member of Liu Bei's army after Liu Bei captured Changsha in 209. In 211, Wei Yan was a soldier in Liu Bei's campaign to the Yi Province (益州, modern Sichuan and Chongqing).^[1] His talent helped him to become a major general of Liu Bei's army in in a short period of time and was later named Administrator of Hanzhong (漢中),^[2] and regional Area Commander in the year 219.^[3]

According to the Records of Three Kingdoms, Wei Yan was a very arrogant man and others tended to avoid him. Some believed that Wei Yan was an aggressive person, which was incompatible with the strategies and methods of Zhuge Liang, the Chancellor of Shu Han. Moreover, Wei Yan's personality caused Yang Yi, a scholarly official, to fear and despise him, with the two barely capable of avoiding fighting one another. Eventually Wei Yan lost his life and his family to this personal conflict.

Life

Early and mid-career

Wei Yan was a native of Yiyang. As one of Liu Bei's personal retainers, he followed Liu Bei into the Yi province. He had many military accomplishments and was assigned as General of the Standard (牙門將軍). When Liu Bei became King of Hanzhong, he selected Wei Yan as the general who would guard Hanzhong and then honored him with the title, General Who Suppresses the North. This was despite Zhang Fei being considered by many to be the likely candidate for the position. Zhang Fei himself thought he was likely to be chosen.

In 223, Wei Yan was enfeoffed as Marquis of a Chief Village (都亭侯). In 227, Zhuge Liang, following Liu Bei's death, employed Wei Yan for the war with Cao Wei. Wei Yan was to supervise the front division with the rank of Major of the Prime Minister (丞相司馬) and Inspector of Liang province (涼州刺史). In 230, he was sent as ambassador into the Qiang tribes, where the Wei General of the Rear Army, Fei Yao, and the Inspector of Yong province, Guo Huai, battled with him at Yangqi. Wei Yan heavily defeated them and was promoted as Advisor of the Front Army (前軍師), General Who Conquers the West, and Marquis of Nanzheng. Wei Yan was very good to his soldiers and was braver than others. On the other hand, he was boastful of his talents and his peers tended to avoid him. However, Yang Yi alone made no concession to him and thus Wei Yan was extremely resentful of him. They were like fire and water.

The Ziwu Valley Plan

Each time Wei Yan accompanied Zhuge Liang on expedition, he always wanted to lead ten thousand and go along different paths to meet up with Zhuge Liang at the Tong Pass, based on the previous strategy of Han Xin. But Zhuge Liang never allowed this plan and Wei Yan often said Zhuge Liang was faint-hearted.

The Weilüe, which is of dubious accuracy about affairs outside of Cao Wei, records Wei Yan's reasoning. Wei Yan believed that the defender of the strategic city Chang'an, Xiahou Mao, was faint-hearted and without counsel. Thus, he reasoned, it would be easy for him to take five thousand troops (plus another five thousand to carry supplies) across the Qinling Mountains via the Ziwu Valley and into Chang'an. Wei Yan estimated that he will reach Chang'an in ten days and scare Xiahou Mao into flight, leaving the grain in the storehouses of Hengmen for Shu Han's taking. There Wei Yan's force can wait for Zhuge Liang's main force to take the safer road out of Xie valley and rendezvous in Chang'an. This way, the region west of Xianyang could be settled in one stroke. Despite Weilüe's detailed account of this plan, Shu Han's own account only tells that Wei Yan wanted to spilt the force in two and meet at Tong Pass, it is unknown if Weilüe's account was authentic or not.

Zhuge Liang considered this plan to be dangerous and preferred to travel along the flat roads and so that Longyou could be taken easily. He was certain that this plan was certain to work without any worry, and so did not accept Wei Yan's plan. Wei Yan sighed that his talents were not used to their full potential. The viability of Wei Yan's Ziwu Valley Plan (子午谷計) would become a subject of debate over the generations.

Death

In 234, Zhuge Liang set out on his last northern expedition against Cao Wei, with Wei Yan leading the Van. During the standoff in the Battle of Wuzhang Plains, Zhuge Liang fell sick and sent secret orders to the Chief Clerk (長史) Yang Yi, the Major Fei Yi, and the Protector of the Army, Jiang Wei for the armies to retreat after his death. Wei Yan was to guard the rear with Jiang Wei after him. If Wei Yan refused to accept the order, they were to retreat without him. Eventually, Zhuge Liang died, but his death was kept secret. Yang Yi ordered Fei Yi to go to Wei Yan and to discover his intentions. Wei Yan said:

Although the Prime Minister had died, I am still here. The officials belonging to the Office of Prime Minister may carry his mortal remains to be buried. I, on the other hand, should command the various troops and strike at the rebels. Because of the death of one man, must we neglect the affairs of the State? Besides, who am I, Wei Yan, that I should be commanded by Yang Yi to serve as general of the rearguard?

So Wei Yan and Fei Yi took charge of the troops left behind with Fei Yi writing a letter to be signed by both of them which was to be announced to the various generals. Fei Yi offered to go on Wei Yan's behalf and explain the situation to the Chief Clerk, Yang Yi, saying that the Chief Clerk is a civil official and is not experienced in military affairs, making it certain that Yang Yi would not disobey him. Wei Yan let him go, but regretted it and went after him, but was unable to catch up to him. He then sent someone to Yang Yi and the others, and discovered that the various encampments were returning, according to Zhuge Liang's plan to retreat. Wei Yan had wanted to continue the campaign against Cao Wei despite Zhuge Liang's death, and was thus angry at this development. Intending to block the retreating Shu force, Wei Yan led his troops back to the South before Yang Yi's main force, and cut off the Shu retreat by burning the gallery roads.

Both Wei Yan and Yang Yi sent memorials, each accusing each other of treason. Within the same day, their memorials arrived and the Shu Emperor Liu Shan asked Dong Yun and Jiang Wan for their opinions. Both of them supported Yang Yi and were suspicious of Wei Yan. Yang Yi had trees hewn to make roads and marched day and night to get close behind Wei Yan. Wei Yan arrived first at the Southern Valley and ordered his troops to attack Yang Yi and the others. Yang Yi ordered Wang Ping forward to resist Wei Yan. Wang Ping was critical of Wei Yan and Wei Yan's soldiers knew their leader was in the wrong, thus they scattered.

Wei Yan, along with his sons and a few followers, fled to Hanzhong. Yang Yi sent Ma Dai to give chase. Ma Dai caught up to Wei Yan and chopped Wei Yan's head off and sent it to Yang Yi. Yang Yi then ordered the execution of Wei Yan's family to the third degree. Before, Jiang Wan had led the various camps of the imperial bodyguards north to cope with the disorders. He travelled about ten li (1 quarter mile) when he heard news of Wei Yan's death, and so he returned.

Chen Shou, the compiler for the Records of the Three Kingdoms, analyzed Wei Yan's death as thus: In the beginning, Wei Yan did not go north to Wei but instead returned to the South. His desire was to kill Yang Yi and the others in disagreement with him, with the hope that opinion of the time would make him Zhuge Liang's successor. This was his actual aim and he did not think of rebelling. However, it was his own fault for bringing upon his downfall by being boastful and ignorant of discipline.

An alternative account exists in the Weilüe. It states that when Zhuge Liang died, he said to Wei Yan and the others, "After I am dead, be cautious in guarding but do not return here". Wei Yan was ordered to assist in the operations and keep his death a secret, and he did as he was told. When they reached the entrance of Bao, the death was announced and a funeral was held. Zhuge Liang's Chief Clerk, Yang Yi, was never in agreement with Wei Yan, and after noticing that Yan was in charge of military affairs, feared that he would be harmed. So he made rumours that Wei Yan was going to submit to the North and led his troops to attack him. In reality, Wei Yan had no intention to do such a thing, and so offered no resistance. The later compiler Pei Songzhi, when combining this account with Shu's account in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, noted that the Weilüe account was derived from hearsay from an enemy state, and was thus unreliable when compared to the official history of Shu.

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms

In the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it is suggested that Wei Yan originally served as a mid-ranked military officer under the warlord Liu Biao, though history books did not recognize that. Before the Battle of Changban, Wei Yan tried to revolt against Cai Mao, who had already surrendered to Cao Cao, to give the city of Xiangyang to Liu Bei. Liu Bei, however, didn't want to bring chaos to Xiangyang and chose to go to Jiangling instead. Wei Yan was not able to rendezvous with Liu Bei and became a subject of Han Xuan. Liu Bei later came to invade Han Xuan's city of Changsha, and Han Xuan became suspicious at his top general Huang Zhong amidst the battle and wanted to execute him. Wei Yan, outraged at Han Xuan's distrust, killed Han Xuan, rescued Huang Zhong, and surrendered the city to Liu Bei. While Zhuge Liang welcomed Huang Zhong, he ordered Wei Yan executed, saying that Wei Yan had a complexion that shows him to be a man of betrayal. Nonetheless, Liu Bei ordered Wei Yan's life to be spared and welcomed him into his forces.

Wei Yan became a valuable asset to Liu Bei's military, and he continued to serve Liu Bei's state of Shu Han well until Zhuge Liang died. At the eve of his death, Zhuge Liang predicted that Wei Yan would rebel, and so laid out a secret plan that would remove this threat after his death. Wei Yan openly rebelled with Ma Dai after Zhuge Liang died, as predicted. In one particular standoff between Wei Yan and Wang Ping, Wei Yan repeatedly shouted the challenge: "Who dares to kill me?" Unbeknownst to him, Ma Dai was actually an agent as part of Zhuge Liang's plan to remove Wei Yan. Responding to Wei Yan's challenge, Ma Dai sprung out from Wei Yan's own ranks and decapitated him.

Modern references

Wei Yan as he appears in Koei's Dynasty Warriors 6.

Wei Yan is a playable character in the Koei video game series Dynasty Warriors. He is depicted as a fearsome and unpredictable man, barely capable of maintaining the trust of his fellow officers and often merely grunting a few words and with qualities that can be described as barbaric. In DW5, he wields a double pole blade. In In Dynasty Warriors 6 he wields a giant club and wears armour similar to that of Orochi from Warriors Orochi.

In his ending in DW5, he is sad after the loss of many of his friends. In DW5 Xtreme Legends, Jiang Wei and others have to influence him to retreat in order to do a successful ambush on Wei.

In Dynasty Tactics 2, he is more of a normal human, and you can see his face.

In Warriors Orochi, he is in command of a small force made up of other Shu Officers, and is being sieged by Yuan Shao. Wei Yan is assisted by Zhao Yun's coalition, and they are successful. Wei Yan then joins Zhao Yun's coalition. In Warriors Orochi 2, Wei Yan, along with Zhao Yun and Hanzo Hattori, burn down the central garrison to weaken the morale of Keiji Maeda's men. In a gameplay scene, Hanzo and Wei Yan are shown as equals in strength and speed. In Dream Mode, he proves to Zhuge Liang that he can protect Liu Bei no matter what.

Notes

References

See also

• Three Kingdoms
• Personages of the Three Kingdoms
• Records of Three Kingdoms
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms