Battle of Red Cliffs, AD 208: the fire that split China

By the numbers
Side	Strength	Losses
Sun Quan and Liu Bei	~50,000	Unknown
Cao Cao	~220,000-240,000	Heavy; figures unknown

By the numbers

Side

Strength

Losses

Sun Quan and Liu Bei

~50,000

Unknown

Cao Cao

~220,000-240,000

Heavy; figures unknown

Quick answer

The southern allies Sun Quan and Liu Bei won a decisive victory at Red Cliffs in the winter of AD 208¹, turning back the warlord Cao Cao's far larger army and fleet on the Yangtze with fire and cunning. One of the most famous battles in Chinese history, it prevented the reunification of China and seeded the Three Kingdoms era.

In the winter of AD 208, the warlord Cao Cao brought an enormous army and fleet down the Yangtze, intending to crush the southern lords and reunite a collapsing China under his control. On the river near the Red Cliffs, a much smaller allied force turned him back with fire and cunning, in one of the most famous battles in Chinese history and the seed of the Three Kingdoms era.

Cao Cao's grand design

By 208 Cao Cao dominated northern China and moved south to finish the job, taking the key region of Jing² and pressing on down the Yangtze with a force his propaganda numbered in the hundreds of thousands³. Against him, the southern warlord Sun Quan allied with the refugee lord Liu Bei, their combined armies far smaller but fighting on home waters they knew well.

Japanese woodblock print of a warlord in red robes holding a spear on the deck of a boat at night — Cao Cao on his warship beneath the moon on the eve of Red Cliffs, a woodblock print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi from the series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, 1885. Public domain

The northern army's weakness

Cao Cao's soldiers were mostly northerners, unused to the boats and the diseases of the south, and sickness spread through his camp³. His ships were moored close together, bow to stern (the novel later turned this into iron chains to cure his men's seasickness), making a stable platform, but also a single vulnerable mass. The southern commander Zhou Yu and his officers saw the opening.⁴

Chinese woodblock book illustration of officials conferring in a tent beside moored ships — The scheme to chain Cao Cao's ships together, the novel's version of the story, in a woodblock illustration from a 1591 Ming edition of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Public domain

A smaller fleet, a favourable wind, and fire undid the conqueror of the north.

Fire on the water

The allies sent a squadron of ships packed with kindling and oil³ toward Cao Cao's fleet, feigning surrender¹. With the wind behind them, they set the fire ships loose into the close-packed vessels, and the flames leapt from hull to hull. Cao Cao's fleet and much of his riverside camp burned, and his army, struck by fire, disease and a following attack, broke and retreated north.

Chinese woodblock book illustration of warriors fighting from boats amid flames and waves — The fire attack on Cao Cao's fleet in the same 1591 Ming edition: archers shoot from boats while ships burn on the Yangtze. Public domain

Three kingdoms from the ashes

The defeat ended Cao Cao's chance to reunify China in his lifetime. Sun Quan and Liu Bei secured the south and west, and within a dozen years China settled into three rival states¹, Wei, Shu and Wu. Retold in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and countless films and games, Red Cliffs became one of the most celebrated battles in East Asian culture.

Historical atlas map of China divided into three coloured kingdoms — The Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu that grew out of Red Cliffs, on a map from Albert Herrmann's Historical and Commercial Atlas of China, 1935. Public domain

Frequently asked questions

When and where was the Battle of Red Cliffs?

The battle was fought in the winter of AD 208 on the Yangtze River in central China, near the place known as the Red Cliffs, at the end of the Han dynasty.

Who fought at Red Cliffs?

The northern warlord Cao Cao faced an alliance of the southern warlords Sun Quan and Liu Bei, whose forces were led in the field by the general Zhou Yu.

How did the smaller army win?

The allies exploited Cao Cao's inexperience on water and the sickness in his army, then launched fire ships into his fleet, which had been linked together. The fire destroyed his ships and forced a retreat.

Why did the battle matter?

It stopped Cao Cao from reuniting China under one ruler and secured the south. Within a dozen or so years China divided into the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu.

Is Red Cliffs the battle from the novels and games?

Yes. Red Cliffs is a centrepiece of the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and inspires many later films, television series and video games, though those versions mix history with legend.

Sources and notes

Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.

World History Encyclopedia (Joshua J. Mark), “Battle of Red Cliffs” ↩ a b c d

Rafe de Crespigny, Imperial Warlord: A Biography of Cao Cao 155-220 AD (Brill (Sinica Leidensia 99), 2010). ↩

Chen Shou, Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi), Wei 1, Annals of Cao Cao (the defeat at Chibi, the epidemic that killed many of his men, the withdrawal); Wu 9, Biography of Zhou Yu (Cao Cao's ships moored bow to stern, Huang Gai's feigned surrender, fire ships loaded with dry reeds and brushwood soaked in oil, loosed with the wind behind them), with Pei Songzhi's commentary quoting the Jiangbiao zhuan on Cao Cao's boast of 800,000 men and Zhou Yu's far lower estimate. ↩ a b c

Rafe de Crespigny, Generals of the South: The Foundation and Early History of the Three Kingdoms State of Wu (Australian National University, Faculty of Asian Studies, 1990). ↩

Wikipedia, “Battle of Red Cliffs”