When Yi Province was settled by Liu Bei. Liu Ba presented his excuses but Liu Bei did not hold him culpable. Moreover, Zhuge Liang repeatedly praised and recommended him for high position therefore Liu Bei appointed him as staff member to his office as Senior West Department Official (軍西曹掾).
Conflict with Zhang Fei Zhang Fei once visited Liu Ba's home. However, Liu Ba refused to speak with him. Because of this, Zhang Fei was angered and furious. Therefore Zhuge Liang said to Liu Ba: "Although Zhang Fei is a martial person, he deeply admires and respects you. Right now, our lord needs to gather many civil and military officers to help him accomplish his great mission. Even if you are a man of high moral and bright talents, you should be less condescending of others." Liu Ba's reply to Zhuge Liang was "When a real man is born in this world, he must associate himself with the greatest heroes. How can I speak with a mere soldier?" When he heard about this conversation, Liu Bei was furious. He said: "I wish to secure the empire however, Zichu (Liu Ba) wishes to throw it into disorder. His desire is to leave and return North; he is only borrowing this road. How could he help me settle my affairs?" Liu Bei also said "Zichu's ability and wisdom are far superior to any men. However even if I can employ him, I fear others wouldn't be able to." Zhuge Liang further said about Liu Ba "In logistics planning and strategies inside the tent curtains, I'm not the equal of Zichu. However if it's about beating the drums, gathering the army encampments and encouraging the common people to do their utmost, I can discuss this with others."
Zhang Zhao, advisor of the rival warlord
Sun Quan, once criticized Liu Ba that he was condescending and should not have been so extreme in his refusal of Zhang Fei. Sun Quan's reply to Zhang Zhao was: "If Zichu had chosen to be insincere and follow the oscillation of the world, only acting to please Liu Bei rather than behaving as his own self then how could he be worthy to be praised as a
lingshi (令士; a virtuous scholarly gentleman)?"
Managing Liu Bei's economy '' coin issued from Liu Ba's suggestion When Liu Bei started his campaign against Liu Zhang, he made an oath with his soldiers. That If their great enterprise is successful then the government treasury with all his goods shall be all theirs. And so when his army conquered Chengdu, all the soldiers threw away their shields and spears and compete with one another to the various stores to take valuable items. Soon the military supplies were falling and Liu Bei was deeply worried about this. Liu Ba told him: "It is simple! You simply have to issue coins worth a hundred coins (直百五銖;
zhi bai wu zhu), have the price for them stable and order your officials to manage the government markets." Liu Bei followed his advice and within several months, all the government treasury was full again.
Liu Bei's imperial pretensions and death In 219, Liu Bei declared himself King of Hanzhong and Liu Ba was promoted to be the Master of Writing (尚書) and soon took Fa Zheng's position as Prefect of the Masters of Writing (尚書令). Liu Ba himself conducted with purity and integrity. He would not engage in the management of property or production. Moreover, because he was not originally an officer of Liu Bei, he feared that he would face jealousy, doubt and suspicion. Therefore, Liu Ba was also respectful and always kept his composure. He was tranquil and did not engage in personal matters. He would speak of nothing but official business. Around this time, Liu Bei was set to claim the imperial title for himself. Liu Ba did not think that Liu Bei should take the imperial throne yet and wanted him to change his mind. He joined with the registrar, Yong Mao (雍茂) to disagree with Liu Bei. Later, Liu Bei used another problem as an excuse to have Yong Mao killed. And so people from far away stopped joining him. When Liu Bei took the title of Emperor, he had Liu Ba write all the documents, admonitions and decrees. He died in 222. After his death, when
Chen Qun of the enemy state of
Wei wrote to Zhuge Liang, when they would speak about Liu Ba, Chen Qun referred to him as "Lord Liu Zichu" (劉君子初) in his letter as a sign of his great respect for Liu Ba. Of Liu Ba's objection to Liu Bei's imperial pretensions, Liu Qingzhi (劉清植) remarks that since Liu Ba was tasked to write all the documents, orders and decrees, he would not have been opposed to Liu Bei assuming the imperial throne. Liu Qingzhi also says that the
Traditions of the Former Worthies would have used critical language when speaking of people of the enemy state and that it should not be trusted. ==Appraisal==