So whose uncle is Liu Bei? It must be the emperor, otherwise it can't be called uncle. As we all know, the emperor at that time was Liu Xie. In this way, figuring out whether Liu Bei is an uncle or not becomes a problem of figuring out Liu Bei and Liu Xie. Liu Bei's lineage is clearly introduced in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms:
Emperor Xiaojing gave birth to fourteen sons. The seventh son is Liu Sheng, the king of Zhongshan. Born in Lucheng Hou Tingliu Town. Zhensheng Peihou Liu Ang. An Zhangsheng and Hou Liuliu. Lusheng Yishui Hou Liulian. Love to be born. Yingsheng anguo left Hou Jian. Jiansheng Guangling stays in Hou Ai. Love raw rubber Hou Liu Xian. Mr. Liu Shu, Zu Yihou. Shuyi. Yuan Ze Liu Hou finished his life. Will give birth to Ying Chuan Hou Liuda. Feng has no doubt about Liu. I don't doubt that I was born in Jichuan Hou Liuhui. Fan Ling and Liu Xiong of Huishengdong County. Xiongsheng ricas. Hongzhi is not official. Liu Bei is the son of Liu Hong.
After reading this genealogy introduction, many people probably don't know the relationship between Liu Bei and Emperor Xiaojing. It's okay. Let's chart their relationship, and everyone will see it at a glance.
It is not difficult to see that according to this genealogy, Liu Bei should be Han Jing's seventeenth grandson.
This genealogy table comes from the records in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which can't be regarded as the genealogy table of Liu Bei in history. We still need to study his authenticity. Through careful study, we will find that this lineage table is indeed wrong. According to "Liu in Pengcheng County Records", it is not doubtful about Liu, nor is it doubtful about Liu Da. So where did this Liu Da come from? It turns out that this Liu has two sons, one named Liu Buyi and the other named Liu Buyi. It is estimated that Liu Da here means that he is Liu's brother, not Liu's father.
Therefore, Liu Bei in history should be Han Jing's sixteenth grandson.
Find out the generation of Liu Bei, let's look at Liu Xie's lineage table:
Emperor Xiaojing gave birth to fourteen sons, and the sixth son was Changsha Wang, who was bought by Liu, our envoy from Yulin. The Julu born in Nantun was named Liu Hui, Liu Qin, Emperor Guangwu of Qin, Liu Zhuang, Zhuang Di and Liu Kai, who was born in Hejian.
Similarly, we will draw a diagram of the relationship between Liu and Emperor Han Jingdi:
We can easily see that Liu Xie should be Han Jing's twelfth grandson.
Now, let's compare the lineages of Liu Bei and Liu Xie:
By comparison, we can easily find that both Liu Bei and Liu Xie are descendants of Han Jing, Liu Bei is the16th grandson of Han Jing and Liu Xie is the12nd grandson of Han Jing. Obviously, Liu Xie is four generations older than Liu Bei, and he is the same generation as Liu Bei's grandfather, that is, he is the same generation as Liu Bei's great-grandfather. How can Liu Canbei be Liu Xie's uncle?
To sum up, the identity of Uncle Liu Bei in Romance of the Three Kingdoms is false. So, why did Luo Guanzhong make up an uncle's identity for Liu Bei?
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei was regarded as orthodox, and a positive image of Liu Bei was created everywhere. Personally, I think that setting Liu Bei as an uncle is to provide an identity basis for him to be an emperor in the future.