Shu Han

Shu Han was the southwestern of the three states of the Three Kingdoms period, proclaimed in 221 when Liu Bei, a distant kinsman of the Han imperial house, took the imperial title at Chengdu after Cao Pi had ended the Han dynasty. Liu Bei claimed to restore the Han and refused to recognise Wei's legitimacy, which is why his state is also called Ji Han, the junior Han. Its core was the Sichuan basin, with Hanzhong in the north and commanderies reaching into present-day Yunnan and Guizhou. After Liu Bei's defeat by Wu at Yiling in 222 and his death in 223, the regent Zhuge Liang governed for the young Liu Shan and launched repeated campaigns against Wei in the Qinling mountains. Jiang Wei continued the offensives after Zhuge Liang's death in 234, but they exhausted the state's resources. In 263 a Wei army under Deng Ai crossed the mountains and reached Chengdu; Liu Shan surrendered, and Shu Han was annexed.