Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage

Also called: Longzhong Plan

Liu Bei visited Zhuge Liang three times at his thatched cottage in Longzhong to recruit him. Zhuge Liang proposed taking Jing and Yi provinces and allying with Sun Quan against Cao Cao — the plan to divide the realm in three.

Driven south by Cao Cao and sheltering under Liu Biao in Jing Province, Liu Bei in 207 called three times on Zhuge Liang, who lived in seclusion at Longzhong west of Xiangyang. Zhuge Liang laid out the Longzhong Plan: leave the north to Cao Cao and the lower Yangtze to Sun Quan, seize Jing and Yi provinces so that three powers stood like the legs of a tripod, and march north when the time was right. The three visits are mentioned in Zhuge Liang’s own Memorial on Dispatching the Troops.