Wang Ping (Three Kingdoms)

Wang Ping (died 248), courtesy name Zijun (子均), was an officer under Cao Cao who in 218 defected to Liu Bei, and served as a general under Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. Wang Ping's last recorded rank was "General-in-Chief Who Guards the North" in 243 under Shu Han.

Wang Ping was born in Dangqu, Baxi (present-day Qu County, Sichuan). He was surnamed He (何) because he was raised by He clan, from which his mother originated. He Ping presumably changed his surname back to Wang during his later years (historic records show a discrepancy on how he was called, so it is also possible that he had his surname changed posthumously).

He began his career by serving Duhuo (杜濩), and was made an acting colonel when he followed his supervisor to visit the imperial court. When Du Huo joined Cao Cao in a campaign to wrestle control over the area of Hanzhong with Shu region warlord, Liu Bei, Wang served the expedition force. When they arrived the battlefield, Liu Bei refused to give battle, burdening Cao Cao forces with logistical difficulty. Many of Cao Cao's soldiers started deserting, joining the other side who could provide food and shelter. Wang Ping was one of those surrendered to Liu Bei.

As a reward for his defection, Wang Ping was given the rank of Major-General. Wang Ping went on to work in Liu Bei’s military, but his accomplishments were few and far between during his first 10 years of service.

In 228, a critical event in Wang Pang's life occurred when he fought under Ma Su, an inexperienced vanguard leader, during the Battle of Jieting. As an assistant to the young Ma Su, Wang Ping advised against abandoning the water sources and encamping atop a mountain. Ma Su rejected the advice, but gave a detachment to camp where Wang Ping saw fit. As he predicted, the Shu-Han van was defeated by the Cao-Wei general Zhang He when the latter cut off Shu's water supply.

Observing Ma Su's dire situation, Wang Ping and his unit of 1000 soldiers near the mountain foot rolled their drums loudly to alarm a defense. Zhang He probably mistook the enemy as giving out a signal for ambushing units, so he did not attack in Wang Ping's direction. Thus Wang Ping was able to regroup the defeated forces and regather supplies scattered everywhere. In the aftermath of the fiasco, Ma Su was executed but Wang Ping was greatly promoted.

In 231, Shu-Han's Chancellor and regent, Zhuge Liang, launched his fourth northern expedition, encumbering Wang Ping with greater responsibility. He was ordered by the Chancellor to guard the hill south to Lucheng (鹵城, Lu Fortress). When the fortress was being attacked by the main enemy force, Wang Ping's garrison was attacked by a contingent led by Zhang He, but the defenders were able to repel the aggressors. After Zhuge Liang's death in 234, Wang Pang received credit for his effort in quelling the "rebellion" of Wei Yan, and was promoted as a Governor, under the supervision of Wu Yi.

Wang Ping later replaced Wu Yi as the Area Commander of Hanzhong region, and received a title of Marquis Stabilizing Han. In 244, the Wei regent Cao Shuang led sixty to seventy thousand soldiers to attack Hanzhong. Wang Ping's forces were intimidated by the Wei regent's boost of over 100,000 troops. Generals under Wang Ping urged him to vacate the area for a more concentrated defense to the rear. However, general Liu Min insisted on following arrangements of the dead Wei Yan to resist the invaders on the outskirt. Wang Ping agreed with Liu Min's view, and they moved the troops to Xingshi, where the army occupied a mountain. Wang Ping only had 30,000 men at the time, but his strength was not known by the enemy. Liu Min then erected a flow of flags and streamers across the hill. Therefore, both sides perceived the other party larger than their actual sizes, and hesitated to engage in combat. While Cao Shuang was vacillating between a decisive attack and a general retreat, forces led by Fei Yi finally arrived, effectively forcing the latter choice onto the Wei regent.

Wang Ping came from a lower origin, and spent most of his life in the military. In terms of literature, he could not write a single word, and all he could read were no more than ten words. When he needed to make reports, he would ask his clerk to do the paperwork. In fear others might deride his education level, Wang Ping would excuse that he was there to fight, not to write. However, Wang Ping loved to listen to stories, and he was talented in giving orations.

Wang Ping was a straight disciplinarian, who never made a joke. Besides giving orations, Wang Ping seldom used his mouth, and he would just sit from morning till dusk, and then sleep. Trifles of Wang Ping (the northern commander) was comparable to that of Deng Zhi of the east and Ma Zhong of the south. General Wang died in 248, leaving his son Wang Xun as heir.

In Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wang Ping was given a fictionalized and more prominent role in the Hanzhong Campaign, opposing Xu Huang's tactics and defecting. Xu Huang wanted his army to cross the Han river and battle Liu Bei's forces on the other side. Wang warned that it would be impossible to retreat once they crossed the river, as the river would significantly slow down the retreat and they would be vulnerable to enemy fire. Xu claimed that the soldiers would fight to the death and have no need to retreat if they were in a dire situation (in conjunction with the tactic by legendary Western Han general Han Xin, where he purposely placed his army near a river in order to unleash their full potential). Wang then claimed that Han only used that tactic because the opposition had no strategist to see through it, but Liu's army had the support of Zhuge Liang, who would be able to easily see through this tactic. Xu refused to listen and, as expected, suffered great defeat. He asked why Wang did not come to his rescue, and Wang replied, "If I came to rescue you with my portion of the army, then our main camp would have had no protection; I warned you multiple times against crossing the river, but you did not listen, which resulted in this defeat." Xu was greatly angered by this and planned to kill Wang that night, however the plan was leaked out and Wang set the camp on fire and defected to Shu.

Right before Zhuge Liang died, he named Wang Ping, along with Liao Hua, Ma Dai, Zhang Ni and Zhang Yi, as the loyal generals of Shu who should be retained.