The Three Visits

The Weilüe and Jiuzhou Chunqiu (九州春秋), however, provide a completely different account of how Liu Bei met Zhuge Liang.

When Liu Bei heard that, he sensed that Zhuge Liang was no ordinary person so he threw aside the gift and said he was only playing with it as a hobby.

He pointed out that there were large numbers of refugees who migrated south to Jing Province to escape from the chaos in central and northern China, and suggested to Liu Bei to have them registered as new residents so that the Jing Province administration could collect taxes from them and draft them into military service.

[Sanguozhi zhu 1][8] Pei Songzhi commented that the Weilüe and Jiuzhou Chunqiu accounts contradict Zhuge Liang's own statement in the Chu Shi Biao, which says: "(Liu Bei) visited me thrice in the thatched cottage, (and) consulted me on the affairs of our time.

[9]: ch.16 The 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms gives a romanticised account, spanning two chapters, of how Liu Bei met Zhuge Liang.

When spring arrives, Liu Bei decides to visit Zhuge Liang again, much to the annoyance of his sworn brothers.

[10] It became a complementary idiom in Chinese language, a metaphor with the meaning or "sincerely and repeatedly making a request to a worthy person".