Jiang Wei is one of the most controversial figures in Chinese history. In Bo Yang's Modern Chinese Edition of Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian, for Example, Bo cited seven different and discordant views of Jiang's career — ranging from ringing endorsements of his recklessness and loyalty for the sake of Shu (Pei Songzhi, who annotated Records of the Three Kingdoms) to criticism of his constant draining campaigns (Chen Shou, the author of Records of the Three Kingdoms) to outright condemnation (Sun Sheng, author of the Spring and Autumn Annals of Jin), each of which could be considered a potentially valid view of his complicated character. (Bo himself declined comment, but later in an open letter to a reader suggested that all of the views were, indeed, correct — that Jiang Wei's fatal errors were to drain the Energy of his people, but that he was indeed a loyal man, willing to lay down his life in a futile attempt to reestablish Shu.) Xi Zheng, who served Shu along with Jiang Wei, confirms that Jiang Wei was a humble, and a capable man, who did not seek personal glory.
