Jiang Wan
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Image:JiangWan.jpg Jiang Wan (蔣琬) (? – 245), courtesy name Gongyan (公琰) was an official of Shu Han. After Zhuge Liang's death, he succeeded Zhuge as the regent for the emperor Liu Shan.
[edit] Early career
Jiang was from Lingling Commandery (零陵, in modern northwestern Hunan), and both he and his brother-in-law Liu Min (劉敏) were known for their intelligence when they were young. It is not known how he became a subordinate of Liu Bei's, but what is known is that when Liu Bei entered and conquered Yi Province (益州, modern Sichuan and Chongqing), Jiang was part of his army, and after Liu's success, Jiang was made a county magistrate. Once, when Liu Bei visited the county, he was surprised and angered that Jiang was not personally handling the county affairs and was, on that occasion, drunk. He wanted to execute Jiang, but Zhuge Liang persuaded him not to -- reasoning that, based on what he knew, Jiang was a capable supervisor and had delegated the matters to proper personnel, and therefore on that occasion could rest. However, Jiang was still removed from his post. When Zhuge became regent for Liu Bei's son Liu Shan in 223 after Liu Bei's death, he made Jiang a key assistant.
[edit] During Zhuge Liang's regency
During Zhuge's regency, he appreciated Jiang's talents, and Jiang's role in government gradually grew more and more important. When Zhuge started his northern expeditions against Cao Wei in 227, Jiang was one of the key officials remaining in the Shu Han capital Chengdu to handle domestic matters. In 230, he became a chief assistant to Zhuge, and was in charge of logistics. He made sure that the food and manpower supplies were sufficient, and Zhuge praised him in this way: "Gongyan is both faithful and open-minded, and he and I will together serve the emperor in great things."
In 231, when Zhuge's vice-regent Li Yan was discovered to have repeatedly lied to him and the emperor Liu Shan, Li was removed from his post. Jiang, while not given the same post, became more even more important. When Zhuge grew ill on his final campaign against Cao Wei in 234, Liu Shan sent messengers to inquire him as to who should succeed him. Zhuge recommended Jiang (and also Fei Yi, as Jiang's eventual successor). After Zhuge's death later that year, Jiang became regent.
[edit] As regent
As regent, Jiang was a capable administrator, and he continued Zhuge's domestic policies, leaving the government largely efficient. He was also known for his tolerance of dissension and his humility. For example, when Yang Min (楊敏) criticized him for being ineffective and not being as good at his job as his predecessor, Jiang's response was, "Indeed, I am not as good as my predecessor," and he did not punish Yang.
However, Jiang, not having military aptitude, soon abandoned Zhuge's policy of waging war against Cao Wei, and indeed in 241 withdrew most of the troops from the important border city of Hanzhong (漢中, in modern Hanzhong, Shaanxi) to Fu (涪縣, in modern Mianyang, Sichuan). From that point on, Shu Han was generally in a defensive posture and no longer posed a threat to Cao Wei. (This was in fact misinterpreted by many Eastern Wu officials as a sign that Shu Han was abandoning the alliance and entering into a treaty with Cao Wei, but was correctly read by Eastern Wu's emperor Sun Quan as merely a sign of weakness, not an abandonment of the alliance.) At one point, he considered sending an army heading east on the Han River to attack Cao Wei's Weixing (魏興, in modern Ankang, Shaanxi) and Shangyong (上庸, in modern Shiyan, Hubei), but did not actually carry out those plans.
In 243, Jiang grew ill and transferred most of his authority to Fei and Fei's assistant Dong Yun (董允). For example, in 244, when Cao Wei's regent Cao Shuang attacked Hanzhong, it was Fei who led the troops against Cao Shuang and dealt Cao Wei a major defeat. However, Jiang remained influential until his death in 245. He was given the posthumous name Gong (恭, literally, "respectful").
