Xiahou Mao - in Fiction

In Fiction

Xiahou Mao's supposed impotence was dramatized in Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. When he was assigned to defend the Wei-Shu border, he was not well respected by his colleagues, who assumed that Xiahou Mao would be unable to fulfil his role. Xiahou Mao reportedly responded to such criticism as follows:

Ever since I was a boy, I have studied strategy, and I am well acquainted with army matters. Why do you despise my youth? Unless I capture this Zhuge Liang, I pledge myself never again to see the Emperor's face."

His early encounter against Shu turned out badly, and he was forced to flee. After consulting with his generals, he planned a successful ambush against famed Shu general Zhao Yun and fought a fifty pass duel against him. Unfortunately for Mao, this victory was only temporary, as Shu generals Zhang Bao and Guan Xing both arrived with ten thousand troops to save Zhao Yun; Xiahou Mao's army was utterly routed by nightfall. Mao escaped to the city of Nan'an with just one hundred horsemen. He managed to resist a siege for ten days until Zhuge Liang arrived and directed his efforts towards another city, Tianshui. A defeated Wei general named Cui Liang, who was on route to Tianshui, offered Zhuge Liang to convince the governor of Nan'an, Yang Ling, to turn the city over. In fact, he had no such intention, instead telling Yang Ling what had taken place, and the two of them and Xiahou Mao attempted to lure the Shu army into the city and massacre them.

Zhuge Liang saw through the plot, however, and both Cui Liang and Yang Ling were slain by Zhang Bao and Guan Xing, respectively, and Xiahou Mao was captured. He begged for his life and was released by Zhuge Liang on condition he convinced Jiang Wei to defect to Shu. In fact, Xiahou Mao was simply being played a fool, and was tricked into thinking that Jiang Wei had already defected. He went to Tianshui to meet the defender there, Ma Zun, and his false belief of Jiang Wei's defection was reinforced when a fake Jiang Wei led an attack upon the city. He was driven off, and so was the real Jiang Wei when he came to Tianshui later. Due to the later defection of Jiang Wei and the betrayal of Yin Shang and Liang Xu (friends of Jiang Wei), the city fell. Xiahou Mao fled with a few hundred loyalists and sought refuge with the Qiang tribe, and, staying true to his words, never returned.