Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage
"The Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage" is a story from China's Three Kingdoms era, first recorded in Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms and later told even more vividly in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Liu Bei personally visited Zhuge Liang's humble cottage three times to invite him to become his strategist, and only then did Zhuge Liang agree. This idiom teaches us to earnestly seek talented people, and that sincerity is what wins hearts.
In the last years of the Eastern Han dynasty, China fell into chaos. Warlords rose on every side, and the people suffered. Liu Bei, a kind and virtuous lord, sheltered in the small town of Xinye. He had brave generals, but no wise counsellor. Day and night he longed for a talented scholar to help him save the land.
One day a clever scholar named Xu Shu, calling himself Shan Fu, came to serve Liu Bei. His brilliant plan helped Liu Bei win a great victory over Cao Cao's army. But Cao Cao forged a letter from Xu Shu's mother and tricked him into leaving. Before their tearful parting, Xu Shu said: 'In Longzhong there lives a genius named Zhuge Liang, called the Sleeping Dragon. You must go and invite him.'
Liu Bei took Guan Yu and Zhang Fei and travelled in person to Longzhong. But the Sleeping Dragon was away, wandering among the hills, and would not return for days. They met only his younger brother, Zhuge Jun. Liu Bei wrote a sincere letter and left it behind, then rode home, his heart heavy with disappointment.
In the depths of winter, beneath heavy snow, Liu Bei set out a second time. On the road he met Zhuge Liang's father-in-law, the elder Huang Chengyan, and learned the master was again away from home. Liu Bei sighed deeply, left a poem expressing his longing, and turned his horse back through the snow.
When spring arrived, Liu Bei fasted and bathed for three days to purify himself before the third visit. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were displeased. Zhang Fei burst out: 'Why not just tie him up with a rope and drag him here?' Liu Bei rebuked him sternly: 'You must not be rude to a worthy man!'
When the three brothers reached the cottage, they found Zhuge Liang fast asleep in the daylight. Liu Bei ordered Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to wait outside, and stood alone on the steps, waiting quietly for a long time. Zhang Fei grew restless and grumbled loudly outside, but Liu Bei quickly silenced him with a gesture.
When Zhuge Liang awoke, Liu Bei greeted him with the deepest courtesy and begged him to come forth and save the land. Zhuge Liang unrolled a map and explained his great plan: hold Jingzhou, seize Yizhou, befriend Sun Quan in the east, divide the realm into three kingdoms, and then march upon the Central Plains. This was the famous Longzhong Plan.
Liu Bei listened with delight, his eyes filling with tears. He bowed low and pleaded again and again. Touched by the sincerity of three earnest visits, Zhuge Liang at last agreed. 'I am willing to serve you with all my strength,' he said, 'even unto death.' From that day, the Sleeping Dragon left his cottage to follow Liu Bei.
Back in Xinye, Liu Bei treated Zhuge Liang as his honoured teacher. They ate at the same table and slept in the same bed, talking late into the night. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei felt slighted and complained. Liu Bei smiled and said: 'My having Kongming is like a fish having water. Do not begrudge him.' The two brothers were convinced.
Zhuge Liang (181–234), courtesy name Kongming, was called the Sleeping Dragon. His Longzhong Plan — hold Jingzhou, take Yizhou, ally with the east — laid the foundation for the Three Kingdoms period, when China was divided into the states of Wei, Shu, and Wu. The tale of Liu Bei's three sincere visits became the Chinese idiom 'three visits to the thatched cottage,' meaning to invite a talented person again and again with utmost sincerity.
