The Man蠻

The Man (蠻) are the descendants of Panhu (盤瓠). Their kind grew many and spread, and they live scattered between the Jiang and the Huai and in the commanderies of Ru and Yu. Trusting to rough country, they made trouble, and from age to age they were raiders and rebels. When the men of Wei lost their hold on the reins, the violence of the Man grew worse still. There were the Ran, the Xiang, and the Tian, whose settlements were the largest of all, and of the rest the great had ten thousand households and the small a thousand. They raised one another up and usurped the titles of king and marquis. They camped and held the Three Gorges and cut off the river roads, so that travellers of Jing and Shu came to ask leave to pass. Taizu brought the Yi and the Chan roughly to order, and his fame and teaching (聲教) reached south, so that the many Man feared his majesty and turned to his civilizing influence as grass bends before the wind.

In the fifth year of Datong, Lu Chaoming, the Man king of Caiyang, came under submission, and he was made governor of Nanyongzhou, and the office was to pass to his line. In the eleventh year the Man chief Mei Lete came and presented the products of his land. Soon after this the Man chief Tian Duqing and the many Man of the Mian and the Han stirred up trouble, and the great general Yang Zhong struck and broke them. After that the Man chief Du Qinghe called himself governor of Bazhou and brought his province over in submission, and the court granted him the very title he had claimed. Qinghe afterward rebelled and laid siege to Dongliangzhou. Tian Lujia, a Man of Tangzhou, also turned traitor and styled himself earl of Yuzhou. Wang Xiong and Quan Jingxuan and others attacked them one after another and put them down. The account is in the chapters on Quan Zhongzun and Jingxuan.

At the beginning of the reign of the Deposed Emperor of Wei, the Man chieftain Fan She (樊舍) brought his settlement over in submission, and he was made overseer of military affairs in the three provinces north of the Huai, governor of Huaizhou, and duke of Huai'an commandery. When Yu Jin and the others put Jiangling in order, the many Man rose in disturbance, and by edict Doulu Ning and Cai You and others were sent to strike and break them.

In the second year of Emperor Gong of Wei, the Man chieftain Tian Xingyan, king of Yimin, and Mei Jichang, governor of Beijingzhou, came over in submission one after the other. Xingyan and Jichang were both made Commander Unequalled in Honour, and Jichang was given governor of Luozhou besides and granted the rank of duke of Shitai district. After that Qiao Yan, a man of Baxi, stirred up the many Man to go over to Liang, and the Man chiefs Xiang Zhenhou and Xiang Baibiao and others answered him. Xiang Wuziwang attacked Xinzhou as well and took it. Tian Wudu and Tian Dutang and others cut the river roads and plundered them. Wen Zirong for his part held Wenyang commandery in Jingzhou and called himself governor of Renzhou. Together with them Pu Wei, governor of Linzhou, also raised troops and defied the command. By edict Tian Hong, Heruo Dun, Pan Zhao, and Li Qianzhe were sent to strike and break them. The account is in the chapters on Dun, on Qianzhe, and on Xiong.

At the beginning of Wucheng the Man of Wenzhou rebelled, and the province chose out troops and struck them and settled the matter. Soon after this Ran Lingxian and Xiang Wuziwang and others took Baidi fortress (白帝城) as well and killed Yang Zhanghua, who held the office of kaifu, and then they led one another into revolt. One after another Yuan Qi and Zhao Gang, both kaifu, were sent out at the head of troops to strike them, and though they cut down a good many of that kind, the chief evildoers were not yet removed.

In the first year of Tianhe, by edict Lu Teng, a kaifu, was set over Wang Liang and Sima Yi and others to strike them. Teng advanced by water and by land together, halted at Tangkou, and first sent men to admonish them. But Lingxian was then raising his walls higher and digging his moats deeper and setting his defenses in strict order. He sent his eldest son Xili and his second son Nanwang to lead the branches of his house and set up ten fortresses in the steep and vital places south of the river, and he made a distant alliance with the Man of Cenyang to be his support. Lingxian led his picked soldiers and held Shuiluo fortress (水邏城) fast.

Teng then gathered his commanders together and took counsel on the way forward. All of them wished to take Shuiluo first and then to work over the land south of the river. Teng said to them, "Within, Lingxian trusts to Shuiluo, a fortress of metal with a moat of boiling water; without, he leans on the support of Cenyang, which is to him as the cheek to the jawbone. And he has goods and grain in plenty besides, and his gear is well made and new. If with an army cut off from its base we strike at his strict ramparts and do not win in one battle, we only build up his spirit. It would be better to halt the army at Tangkou, take the land south of the river first, and clip his feathers, and then march on Shuiluo. This is the plan by which we shall win." All of them held that he was right.

So he sent Wang Liang, a kaifu, to lead the host across the river, and within ten days they attacked and took eight of the fortresses, and the wicked band fled and scattered. They took the enemy chief Ran Chenggong and three thousand captives, and a thousand households of his following surrendered. Then he picked and mustered the swift and the brave and went in by several roads to attack Shuiluo. The road passed by Shibi fortress. That fortress is steep and hard, standing sheer as a wall on all four sides, and so it is named. There is only one small path, which is climbed by ladder. The Man held it a sheer drop, no place for soldiers to go. Teng put on his armor and climbed first, and the whole army came up after him, and after every kind of danger it was months before they came upon the old road. And Teng had earlier served as area commander of Longzhou, and knew well that the Man chiefs Ran Boli and Ran Anxi were at odds with Lingxian.

Teng then called Boli and the others to him and won them over, binding himself to them as father to son, and he gave them much gold and silk besides. Boli and the others were pleased, and they became his guides. Beside Shuiluo there was also Shisheng fortress, likewise steep and vital, and Lingxian had his brother's son Longzhen hold it. Teng secretly won Longzhen over as well, saying that if Shuiluo were put down he would set him in Lingxian's place. Longzhen was greatly pleased and secretly sent his own son to Teng. Teng received him with rich courtesy and gave him gold and silk. The greed of the Man for gain ran deep, and Longzhen at once asked leave to earn merit, and said to Teng, "I wish to turn the fortress I hold, but I fear my men are too few." Teng promised three hundred soldiers to help him, and presently sent two thousand men, who went forward by night with gags in their mouths. Longzhen had no strength to hold them off, and so Shisheng fortress was put down. At dawn they came to Shuiluo, and the host of the Man broke utterly. They cut off more than ten thousand heads and took ten thousand people. Lingxian fled, but they pursued and caught him, and he and his sons and younger brothers were all beheaded. Sima Yi for his part brought down more than twenty of their fortresses and took the Man chief Ran Sangong and others. Teng then heaped up their bones beside Shuiluo fortress and made a victory mound (京觀), and afterward, whenever the Man looked upon it, they wailed aloud. From that time their wolfish and savage hearts were stilled.

At that time Xiang Wuziwang held Shimo fortress and had his son Baosheng hold Shuangcheng. After Shuiluo was put down, men were sent again and again to admonish him, but Wuziwang still would not follow the command. Teng then stationed Wang Liang at Laoping and Sima Yi at Shuangcheng to work against him. Teng reckoned that Shuangcheng stood alone and steep and would not easily be taken by attack, and that if the enemy left the fortress and fled and scattered they would be hard to pursue. So he ordered his armies to set palisades all around and block the roads of escape, and the enemy were greatly alarmed. Then he loosed his soldiers and struck and broke them, taking Wuziwang at Shimo and Baosheng at Shuangcheng, and he beheaded all the chief men of the Xiang and took ten thousand and more alive.

Xinzhou had its old seat at Baidi. Teng built a fortress anew on the bank of the river, south of the old palace fortress of Liu Bei and north of the Eight Formations, and moved the seat of Xinzhou there. And because Wu district, Xinling, and Zigui are all vital and steep places within the gorges, he built fortresses there and set garrisons in them, to serve as a collar and belt (襟帶).

In the sixth year of Tianhe the Man leaders Ran Zuxi and Ran Longxiang rebelled again, and by edict the great general Zhao Yin was sent to strike them and put them down. From that time the many Man held their breath in fear and raided no more.