Liu PeiPinyin Liu BeiBeiWade-Giles romanization Liu Pei, posthumous name , or shih, Chao-lieh Ti, or Hsien Chu (shi) Zhaoliedi, temple name (miaohao) Xianzu  ( born AD 162 , , Chihli, now Hopeh Province  Zhu Xian [now in Hebei province], China—died 223 , Szechwan Province  Sichuan province ruler of founder of the Shu-Han dynasty (AD 221–263/264), one of the three kingdoms Three Kingdoms (Sanguo) into which China was divided at the end of the Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220).

Although Liu claimed descent from one of the early Han emperors, he grew up in poverty. Distinguishing himself in battle in the great Yellow Turban Rebellion that broke out at the end of the Han, he eventually became one of the leading Han generals and a rival of the other great general, Ts’ao Ts’ao. After P’eiCao Cao. Liu Bei occupied the area in central China around Sichuan. After Cao Pi, the son of Ts’ao Ts’aoCao Cao, usurped the Han throne in 220, Liu Pei occupied the area in central China around Szechwan and Bei founded his own dynasty. Liu retained the name Han for his new dynasty, and his is usually known as the Shu, or Minor, - (“Minor”) Han to distinguish it from the Great Han dynastyproper. As one of the heroes of the 14th-century Chinese historical novel San Kuo chih yen-i Sanguozhi Yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), Liu has been celebrated and romanticized in Chinese history. The dynasty that he founded, however, never expanded much beyond Szechwan Sichuan and lasted only from 221 to until 263 or /264.