Pang Tong, "Young Phoenix"

"...It was Pang Tong's boat-connecting scheme That let Zhou Yu accomplish his great deed."

Páng Tǒng (龐統, 178 - 214) , courtesy name Shiyuan (士元) , was an advisor to Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han Dynasty and during the Three Kingdoms era of China. He was nicknamed "Young Phoenix" (鳯雛; Fèngchú) by his uncle and a famous scholar , Pang De. He was not well known until he met another famous scholar at the time, Sima Hui, who claimed Pang Tong to be the most talented among the scholars in the southern Jing Province after a whole day's discussion.

Life

Pang Tong started as a secretary in Nan Commandery (南郡) , and was promoted to the administrator of Nan Commandery after Zhou Yu annexed Jing Province. Following the death of Zhou Yu , Pang Tong went to the Sun court to offer condolences, where he met and made friends with famous Jiangdong When Liu Bei led an army to Yi Province to help Liu Zhang defend from Zhang Lu , Pang Tong suggested that Liu Bei take Liu Zhang captive when they meet in order to gain control of the province without bloodshed. Liu Bei, reasoning that it was too big of a risk to take at that stage , given his own unfamiliarity with the province, declined and let Liu Zhang return to Chengdu, the capital of Yi Province. Later, when relations soured between Liu Bei and Liu Zhang , Pang Tong offered him three strategies , the upper plan, the middle plan, and the lower plan:

• Upper : choose a few elites from the camp and hurry to Chengdu by night , this can force the unprepared Liu Zhang to surrender immediately ;
• Middle : fake the news that Liu Bei was retreating to Jing Province , hence lure Liu Zhang's two generals , Yang Huai and Gao Pei , away from their posts when they come to say farewell , then Liu Bei can kill them, take over their castles and armies, and advance to Chengdu;
• Lower : retreat to Jing Province and wait for assistance for a fighting return to Yi Province.

Out of these three policies, Liu Bei approved the middle one and then requested reinforcements from Liu Zhang. When Liu Zhang only sent a paltry sum of troops and supplies , Liu Bei pretended to be enraged and rallied his troops to turn against Liu Zhang. Liu Bei summoned Gao Pei and Yang Huai of Boshui and had them arrested and murdered. He then combined their forces with his own and rushed forward to assault the city of Luo , which at that time was held by Liu Zhang. Liu Bei besieged the city for over a year.

At a party in Fucheng (涪城) , celebrating his victory over Liu Zhang so far, Liu Bei expressed joy at the banquet. Pang Tong , however , replied, "celebrating the invasion of other's territory is not what a person of ren (仁, see Confucianism) would do." The drunken Liu Bei retorted angrily , "King Wu of Zhou also danced and sang after he defeated King Zhou of Shang, is he not he a model of ren then ? You are wrong, so get out now!" After Pang Tong left his seat , Liu Bei felt regretful and invited him back. Pang Tong returned to his seat and started eating , without any apology to Liu Bei. Liu Bei asked, "When that happened, whose fault did you think it was ?" Pang Tong replied, "It's both yours and mine." Liu Bei then laughed and continued with the party.

When leading the siege of Luocheng (雒城) , Pang Tong was shot by arrows and died at the age of 36. Liu Bei wept whenever the grief was mentioned and Zhuge Liang came personally to his funeral. Pang Tong was conferred a posthumous title of Marquis of Guannei (關內侯) and the posthumous name Marquis Jing (靖侯).

Pang Tong’s son , Pang Hong , would later become the governor of Fu. Pang Tong’s brother, Pang Lin , however , would sometime later surrender to Wei.

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