Liu Bei — Emperor Zhaolie of Shu Han

A mat-weaver's son who claimed distant imperial descent and spent thirty years losing battles without ever quite disappearing. When Cao Pi took the Han throne in 220 Liu Bei declared that the dynasty continued in him, ruled from Chengdu for two years, and destroyed his own army trying to avenge Guan Yu.

His reputation — the ruler who wins loyalty rather than battles — is largely the work of the fourteenth-century novel, but the loyalty was real enough: Zhuge Liang held the state together for a decade after his death on the strength of a deathbed conversation.

The Shu Han silk holds the empresses of both its reigns: Liu Bei's Empress Wu, and the two daughters of Zhang Fei who were married in turn to his son. When Chengdu fell in 263 the imperial family went north as prisoners.