BlackSaint09 said:
Should Zhuge Liang be on this list by definition? And if so are these people greater strategists than him?
I'm very glad and surprised that you have heard of Zhuge Liang, and admires him this much. Also, your English is pretty good. However, I disagree with you. He is not a great military commander. Let me explain very briefly:
Basically Liang is a great politician and administrator, not a great general or military commander. It is very important to note that he was not a commander before Liu Bei's death (hereafter refereed to as LB), and even after LB died he was one of two people LB left the Shu kingdom to (the other is Li Yan), so although he is now the chief military commander.
In terms of military achievements, he actually lost the vast majority of the battles he was commanding, i.e. all six Northern expeditions + five of the six southern expeditions. He was not a significant commander at 赤壁之戰 ("red cliffs", Wei invasion of Wu after uniting Northern China), which was commanded by ZhouYu. Also he did not have enough influence over LB to avert the disaster of 猇亭之戰 (Shu invasion of Wu after GuanYu's death), which was one of the three major battles of the era. He is also characteristic for being an extremely cautious commander, which is why "empty city" worked for him.
In history, he had two great achievements, neither are military:
1) Predicting the split of China into three kingdoms, and the basis for each kingdom's existence.
2) Aiding Liu Bei's son and administrating the kingdom and staying loyal to the Liu dynasty after the death of Liu Bei. Pursuing the dream of uniting China, which was the dream of his dead master (LB). This contrasts sharply with Li Yan's faction after LB's death, who were not loyal to LB. Li Yan probably was the majority faction within Shu after LB's death.
Although I do agree that there should be one or two Chinese military commanders on that list. Some of the great military commanders that comes to mind are:
1) Xie Xuan (343-388CE) -- He changed a few hundred years of Chinese history by recruiting, organizing and training 北府兵 "Bei Fu Bin", which was a very significant semi independent military organisation within China even into the reign of the Tang dynasty ~600CE. He defeated an 800,000 men invasion with a force of 80,000, without losses. Then when the news of the victory was brought to him, he was playing Go, and told the messenger to wait outside and not disturb him. After the game, he says, "yes, of course I knew we would win." This is in contrast to all of the other nobles preparing to abandon the capital.
2) Yu Qian (1398?1457CE) -- He also changed a few hundred years of Chinese history by defeating the Mongols with a much inferior force. Basically, after the military defeat at 土木堡 (TuMu), the Emperor has been captured by the Mongols, and Ming China had no military forces left to counter the Mongols, who will arrive within the month. He organised a military force from the local population and defeated the Mongols at the gates of Beijing, and thereby saving the Ming dynasty.
3) Guo Zi Yi (697-781CE) -- He saved the Tang dynasty at its darkest hour, but unlike the two people above, failed to change the course of history.
I researched a bit into Chinese history, and discovered since the unification of China in 221BCE, for two thirds of the time China was united, for the other one third of the time (total of about 700 years) China was divided. Without the military genius of the three people mentioned above, China would have been divided for a lot longer, and perhaps the definition of China as a nation would be different from what it is today. These people are simply amazing.
