The Empty Fort Strategy

Also called: Empty Fort

An anecdote passed down outside the official histories. It may or may not be true.

Made famous by chapter 95 of the Romance: after the loss of Jieting, with Sima Yi’s army bearing down on the undefended town of Xicheng, Zhuge Liang threw open the gates and played the zither on the walls, and Sima Yi, suspecting an ambush, withdrew. It is not in the history itself but draws on an anecdote quoted in Pei Songzhi’s commentary.

A tale made famous by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. After Ma Su’s defeat at Jieting, Zhuge Liang was moving grain at Xicheng with only old and weak soldiers at hand. As Sima Yi approached with 150,000 men, he lowered every banner, opened all four gates with a few soldiers dressed as townsfolk sweeping each one, and sat on the gate tower burning incense and playing the zither. Knowing Zhuge Liang as a lifelong man of caution, Sima Yi suspected an ambush and turned back.

Nothing of this is in the official Records. A similar story appears in a work by Guo Chong quoted in Pei Songzhi’s commentary, but Pei himself doubted it, noting that Sima Yi was in Jing province at the time.