Zhuge Shuang
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Zhuge Shuang (Chinese: 諸葛爽) (d. 886) was a general of the Chinese Tang dynasty, who controlled Heyang Circuit (河陽, headquartered in modern Jiaozuo, Henan) for some time and who vacillated between allegiance to Tang and to the Qi state of the agrarian rebel Huang Chao.
It is not known when Zhuge Shuang was born, but it is known that he was from Bochang (博昌, in modern Binzhou, Shandong). He was a local militia soldier at one point and served at his home county of Bochang, but after he was caned by the county magistrate for reasons lost to history, he deserted and became a beggar.[1] When Pang Xun rebelled and took over Xu Prefecture (徐州, in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu) in 868,[2] Zhuge joined his army and became a low-level officer. When the imperial troops subsequently attacked Pang and Pang's strength was fading, Zhuge took some 100 soldiers and surrendered to the imperial army, along with fellow officer Yang Qun (陽群). He was eventually made the defender of Ru Prefecture (汝州, in modern Pingdingshan, Henan).[1]
In 880, the Tang imperial government was facing a rebellion led by the Shatuo chieftain Li Guochang and Li Guochang's son Li Keyong, and the Shatuo rebels were threatening Taiyuan Municipality, the capital of the important Hedong Circuit (河東). At that time, Zhuge, who was still serving as the defender of Ru Prefecture, was ordered to take the troops defending the eastern capital Luoyang north to help relieve Taiyuan. He was also made the deputy to the overall commander of the operations, Li Zhuo (李涿). He was also subsequently made the military governor (jiedushi) of Zhenwu Circuit (振武, headquartered in modern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia), replacing Wu Shitai (吳師泰), who was summoned back to the capital Chang'an to serve as an imperial guard general, but Wu resisted the order. Then-reigning Emperor Xizong could not force Wu to accept the order, and thereafter allowed Wu to remain at Zhenwu while making Zhuge the military governor of Xiasui Circuit (夏綏, in modern Yulin, Shaanxi).[3]
In late 880, with the major agrarian rebel Huang Chao approaching Chang'an, Emperor Xizong ordered the military governor of Hedong, Zheng Congdang, to give his troops to Zhuge and Zhu Mei, to have them take them to Chang'an to help stop the Huang attack, but it did not appear that Zhuge and Zhu had the opportunity to do so before Chang'an fell to Huang, forcing Emperor Xizong to flee to Chengdu. Huang declared himself the emperor of a new state of Qi. Zhuge subsequently camped his troops at the site of modern Xi'an, near Chang'an, opposing those of Huang's general Zhu Wen. Huang had Zhu Wen send overtures to Zhuge to persuade Zhuge to submit to Qi, and Zhuge subsequently did.[4]