Wei Yan
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Wèi Yán (魏延, ?–234), courtesy name Wéncháng (文長), was a distinguished officer of Shu.
The novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms suggested that Wei Yan originally served as a mid-ranked military officer of Liu Biao, but the history books didn't officially recognize that.
He joined Liu Bei's army after Liu captured Changsha in about 209. His talent helped him to be a major general of Liu's Army in very few years. Liu offered him the place of chief executive at Hanzhong (漢中) in 219, made him be the sixth most important military man of the kingdom after the Five Tiger Generals.
After Liu's death in 223, Zhuge Liang employed him for the war with Wei. He had suggested some radical plans in order to win the war but Zhuge Liang rejected them.
When Zhuge Liang died in 234, some officers under him (including Jiang Wei) killed Wei Yan, in the title of "rebellion".
Both the history and the novel suggested that Wei Yan intended to attack Sima Yi, the general of Wei, but people including Jiang Wei objected to the plan and ordered Wei Yan to retreat. Wei refused and thus attempted to kill those officers by burning down the wooden walkway and preventing them from returning to Shu. Those officers thus claimed him "rebelling" and killed him with a plot.
In the novel, Zhuge Liang had foreseen Wei Yan's revolt before his death, and secretly left instructions to be carried out to deal with it when it came. When Wei Yan rebelled, Ma Dai pretended to join him, and earned his trust, so that later, following Zhuge's instructions, he was able to strike down Wei Yan from behind without the latter suspecting.
According to SGZ, Wei Yan was a very arrogant man and others tended to avoid him. Some people believe that Wei was an aggressive person, which is incompatible to Zhuge Liang. Moreover, Wei Yan's personality made Zhuge's followers fear him and finally decide to get rid of him. He was killed by Ma Dai. Others believe that Zhuge Liang was unfairly biased against Wei Yan, beginning when Wei Yan rescued Huang Zhong from execution and surrendered a city to Liu Bei, slaying the prefect in the process. While Zhuge Liang welcomed Huang Zhong, he ordered Wei Yan executed, saying that anyone who would betray their lord so easily was untrustworthy. Liu Bei ordered Wei Yan's life spared and welcomed him into his forces. This is from the novel, of course. Based on the one example of Zhuge Liang's entrusting his student Ma Su to an important task despite Liu Bei's warning that he was unsuited for anything important, Wei Yan's supporters believe that this was simply another example of Zhuge Liang's poor judgement of character as opposed to his supreme judgement of warfare. It was said that even the great general Zhange He both respected and feared Wei Yan's abilities.
During the showdown on Wu Xhang Plains, Zhuge Liang imposed an extremely defensive strategy. Wei Ya obeyed these orders until the final seige, when he was unable to control his blood-lust any longer. In direct defiance of command, Wei Yan charged the enemy and slaughtered every enemy in his bloody rage. Sima Yi noticed that Wei Yan was not trusted by Zhuge Liang, and attempted to call off the attack on this officer's unit. But by then, his army was all but destroyed. Wei Yan disappeared after the battle, leaving no trace. As soon as he defied Zhuge Liang he became a traitor to Shu and had no place there any more.
Perhaps he knew this also...
Dynasty Warriors
Beginning with Dynasty Warriors 3, Wei Yan is one of the many playable characters. Armed with a weapon identified as a double volge, his fighting style involves a lot of rolling and vaguely resembles a sort of dance (possibly based on one of his more famous actions in the novel where he attempted to assassinate an enemy general during a sword dance under Zhuge Liang's orders).
He is portrayed as a rather barbaric warrior or perhaps a lunatic, speaking slowly in a low guttural tone (e.g. "I...Wei Yan...Liu Bei...new...master...") while his face is hidden behind a mask. He dislikes Zhuge Liang, who in turn talks down to him (again, this is likely based on their relationship in the novel). He is, however, fiercely loyal to Liu Bei and his apparent insubordination is said to be due to his eagerness to repay Liu Bei's trust by butchering all of his enemies.
In the Japanese version of the games, Wei Yan uses a very old-fashioned talking style used by samurai and shogun as opposed to the more humble talking styles of his fellows such as Guan Yu and Zhao Yun. This could be seen as portraying his sense of self importance despite his seeming lack of mental capability.Template:China-bio-stub