Zhuge Liang, stylename Kongming, was a brilliant youth who studied under the hermit Sima Hui. It's from there he had classmates and fellow brilliant minds, ranging from Pang Tong to Sima Yi. In the future, some (like Pang Tong) would become his allies, while some (like Sima Yi) would become his adversary. Zhuge Liang also had a wife named Huang Yueying; despite Yueying being not very pretty (for various reasons), Zhuge Liang solely married her because he's interested in her intellects, which was said to match his.
Later, when the warlord Liu Bei was seeking strategist to help him survive through the era, Sima Hui recommended Zhuge Liang to join his services. And thus, Zhuge Liang became known as Liu Bei's most trusted advisor. However, he's mostly good at city administration, where he set up many edicts that would improve the lives of the people under the Shu kingdom.
After Liu Bei's passing, however, he was entrusted with the welfare of the kingdom under Liu Bei's less-competent son Liu Shan. This meant that Zhuge Liang had to handle military campaign as well, something that it turned out that he's not as good as. This resulted the Northern Campaign, where Zhuge Liang launched several military campaigns towards the Wei Kingdom, facing off his old classmate Sima Yi, and also managed to convince Wei general Jiang Wei to become his successor. Ultimately, however, Zhuge Liang was unable to score a decisive push towards Wei, and due to overworking himself, he died in the middle of the battle at Wuzhang Plains. And with Zhuge Liang passing away, Jiang Wei tried his best to uphold his legacy, but ultimately unable to prevent the fall of Shu, as corruption started running rampart and further hindered his efforts.
Those are what actually happened in history. In the novel, however... Zhuge Liang is a different level of beast altogether. He has a lot of embelished feats that makes him look like a godlike strategist. For instance, rather than just joining Liu Bei on recommendation alone, Liu Bei had to visit him three times just to test his perseverance and worthiness for Zhuge Liang to join. He also takes a majority of accomplishment in the famed Battle of the Red Cliffs, including predicting and summoning the winds to help burn Cao Cao's fleets (most of them, without mystical helps, were accomplished by Wu general Zhou Yu in history). But even then, going with the novel's theme trying to make the Shu Kingdom look like tragic heroes, Zhuge Liang is constantly screwed by fate, which leads to his demise in Wuzhang Plains.
Regardless, due to the novel's widespread influence, Zhuge Liang more or less becomes known as one of the greatest military strategists from China, comparable with Sun Tzu (ironically, his talent as a statesman are often forgotten). The trope Kaizo Trap was originally referred in Japan as "Kongming's Trap/Koumei no Wana", from his tendencies to create ridiculous traps after lulling his enemies to a sense of relief. Zhuge Liang is practically third in the most known names in the Three Kingdoms era, behind only Guan Yu and Lü Bu.
Zhuge Liang's appearances in other media
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Koei): Zhuge Liang is a mainstay officer throughout the whole series, usually possessing excellent Politics and Intelligence scores, but ultimately low War values (his Leadership is either low to decent). This is to show that he is the archetypical strategist and statesman, very good at managing cities, debating, and pulling battle strategies, but horrible in direct fighting.
- Dynasty Warriors: Zhuge Liang starts out as a secret character in the original fighting game, and has been a mainstay of the series where he is upgraded into some sort of Taoist wizard who can shoot out laser beams from his fan. In this game, he is joined by his classmate Pang Tong, his wife Huang Yueying (who's upgraded into a complete knocker instead of being plain/ugly), and his archrival Sima Yi.
- Ikki Tousen: The manga being a Gender Flip of the majority of Three Kingdoms people, Zhuge Liang's counterpart is Shokatsuryou (his name read in Japanese on'yomi), who is surprisingly a Token Mini-Moe rather than being a voluptuous schoolgirl. Regardless, she retains Zhuge Liang's strategic brilliance.
- Koihime†Musou: Another work that induces Gender Flip to the Three Kingdoms people, Zhuge Liang's counterpart is simply 'Koumei' (his style name in Japanese on'yomi) rather than 'Shoukatsuryou', but at least she gets the simpler private name Shuri. She's still a Adorably Precocious Child with a brilliant mind, but also generally nice.
- Ya Boy Kongming!: The manga/anime is about Zhuge Liang being transported into modern day Shibuya, Japan, right after his death with his body at his prime age. After a chance meeting with aspiring singer Eiko Tsukimi, Zhuge Liang then dedicates his life to help her reach peak popularity, using whatever strategies he can come up with.
- Honor of Kings: Zhuge Liang (rendered just as Kongming, his stylename, in the global version) is one of the playable mage heroes who uses technology-based magic to zap his enemies with high burst damage. Looking mostly youthful without his signature goatee and his feather fan basically being a virtual construct, he's known as one of the most versatile mages in the game. His moveset is inherited in Arena of Valor by the demigod Tulen, who uses literal lightning and is generally more arrogant than narcissistic than Zhuge Liang.
- Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty: In this game, Zhuge Liang is actually the Blindfolded Boy possessed by the Taoist in Black (Gan/Yu Ji). His identity is only confirmed at the end of the game, where he foresees his future of dying in Wuzhang Plains, then whips out his signature feather fan.
- Fate/Grand Order: Zhuge Liang doesn't appear in person, but he is the pseudo-Servant inhabiting the body of Waver Velvet, becoming a 5-Star Caster Servant who has been there in the beginning of the game, but continues to stay relevant throughout the game's long run. Waver's younger and older selves make a perfect blend to Zhuge Liang's younger and older lives. As a bonus, his rival Sima Yi also becomes a pseudo-Servant inhabiting the body of Reines El-Melloi Archisorte.
- Suikoden: While the franchise is majorly referring to Water Margin, at least two characters holding the 'main strategist' places are referencing Zhuge Liang:
- Suikoden II: Shu (name comes from Zhuge Liang's kingdom) is a subtler reference. He is a brilliant strategist who studied under Mathiu Silverberg (as a parallel to Sima Hui), but somehow got kicked out for trying to use the teaching for personal interests. In order to recruit him, the hero must confront him three times (because Shu rejects him) until he finally relents, just like Liu Bei's three visits in the novel. Additionally, his sister figure/junior strategist Apple may also count as a reference to Zhuge Liang's wife Huang Yueying, since Apple, while brilliant on her own, looks like a plainer nerd.
- Suikoden V: Lucretia Merces is a clearer reference. As a brilliant strategist despite being female, she is distinguished with a feather fan just like Zhuge Liang. She may also combine elements from Huang Yueying as well, due to legends that Yueying may be beautiful on her own, but she's tan-skinned with unnatural hair color which would make her ugly by Ancient China standards. Lucretia has tanned skin (implying Karaya descent) and blonde hair.
- Total War: Three Kingdoms: Zhuge Liang is one of the unique chief Strategist-type heroes who will initially serve Liu Bei.
- Red Cliff: As a film chronicling the famed Battle of Red Cliff, Zhuge Liang is nonetheless present. He's also one of the two characters in the film, filled with Chinese characters, played by a Japanese actor of Taiwanese descent (Takeshi Kaneshiro)
