courtesy name
A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theob ...
Three Kingdoms
The Three Kingdoms () from 220 to 280 AD was the tripartite division of China among the dynastic states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The Three Kingdoms period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and was followed by the West ...
period of China. He is best known for resisting an invasion by Wei's rival state, Eastern Wu, at the Battle of Hefei in 253.
Life
Zhang Te was from
Zhuo Commandery
Zhuo Commandery ( zh, 涿郡) or Fanyang Commandery ( zh, 范陽郡) was a commandery in imperial China from Han dynasty to Tang dynasty, located in modern Hebei and Beijing.
Han dynasty
Zhuo Commandery was established during Emperor Gao of Han's ...
(), which is around present-day
Zhuozhou
Zhuozhou (), is a county-level city with 628,000 inhabitants in Hebei province, bordering Beijing to the north. It is administered by Baoding prefecture-level city. Zhuozhou has 3 subdistricts, 6 towns, 5 townships, and 1 development zone.
Adm ...
,
Hebei
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...
. He started his career as an Officer of the Standard () under the Wei general
Zhuge Dan
Zhuge Dan (died 10 April 258), courtesy name Gongxiu, was a Chinese military general and politician of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China. When he held key military appointments throughout his middle to late career, h ...
, who held the appointment of General Who Guards the East () from 251 to 252. After
Guanqiu Jian
Guanqiu Jian (died 16 March 255), courtesy name Zhonggong, was a Chinese military general and politician of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China.
Life
Guanqiu Jian was from Wenxi County (), Hedong Commandery, which i ...
took over the position of General Who Guards the East from Zhuge Dan, he put Zhang Te in charge of guarding Xincheng (新城; literally "new city"), a fortress at Hefei.
In 253,
Zhuge Ke
Zhuge Ke (203 – November or December 253), courtesy name Yuanxun (元逊), was a Chinese military general and politician of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. He was the eldest son of Zhuge Jin, a military gene ...
, the regent of Wei's rival state Eastern Wu, led Wu forces to attack Xincheng and surrounded the fortress. Zhang Te, along with Yue Fang () and others, led 3,000 troops to defend Xincheng. During this time, he sent his subordinates Liu Zheng () and Zheng Xiang () to break out of the siege and seek reinforcements, but Zhuge Ke's men intercepted and captured them. In desperation, Zhang Te lied to the enemy: "I've no intention of fighting now. However, according to the laws of Wei, when I'm under attack for more than 100 days and reinforcements do not arrive, even if I surrender, my family will be spared from punishment. Since I first started resisting the enemy, it has been more than 90 days. This city originally had a population of more than 4,000, and now more than half of them have died in battle. Even when the city falls, if someone does not wish to surrender, I'll speak to him and explain the possible implications of his choice. Tomorrow morning I'll send a list of names, you can first take my tally as a token of trust." Although Zhuge Ke did not accept Zhang Te's tally, he believed that Zhang Te wanted to surrender so he ordered his troops to stop attacking. Zhang Te and his remaining troops then seized the opportunity to make repairs to the walls and strengthen their defences overnight. The following morning, Zhang Te told the enemy: "We shall fight to the death!" Zhuge Ke turned furious when he realised he had been fooled, so he ordered his troops to mount a fierce assault on the fortress. However, his troops were already exhausted and weary after several days of siege, and they failed to breach Xincheng's walls. When Zhuge Ke sensed that his army's morale was falling, he had no choice but to withdraw back to Wu.
The Wei imperial court lauded Zhang Te for his valiant defence of Xincheng and appointed him as a General of a Miscellaneous Title () He was later reassigned to be the Administrator () of Anfeng Commandery (安豐郡; around present-day
Lu'an
Lu'an (), is a prefecture-level city in western Anhui province, People's Republic of China, bordering Henan to the northwest and Hubei to the southwest. As of the 2020 census, it had a total population of 4,393,699 inhabitants whom 1,752,537 liv ...
,
Anhui
Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
Zizhi Tongjian
''Zizhi Tongjian'' () is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 AD during the Northern Song (960–1127), Northern Song dynasty in the form of a chronicle recording Chinese history from 403 BC to 959&n ...