Liu Pi was one of the Yellow Turban leaders at the end of the Eastern Han. Wikidata's Chinese label and the Chinese Wikipedia article title are both Liu Pi, so the heading stays the same. This entry records his death as 201 and his birth as around 150. The article notes that his death year is given as either 196 or 201 in conflicting accounts.[1][2]
Career
The Chinese Wikipedia article says that after Zhang Jue died and Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao were killed by Huangfu Song, the main Yellow Turban force was destroyed. Liu Pi led his followers into Runan commandery as bandits, while the remnants of the Yellow Turbans rose in revolt elsewhere. During the Guandu campaign he turned against Cao Cao and helped Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao sent Liu Bei to support him, and Cao Ren drove them back. What happened to him afterwards is unclear.[2]
The conflicting accounts of his death
The article points out that Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms is inconsistent on his death. The annals of Emperor Wu say that in the first year of Jian'an the Yellow Turbans of Runan and Yingchuan, He Yi, Liu Pi, Huang Shao, He Man and others, each with tens of thousands of followers, at first answered Yuan Shu and then attached themselves to Sun Jian. In the second month Cao Cao advanced, broke them and beheaded Liu Pi and Huang Shao. Yet the biography of the First Lord says that when Cao Cao and Yuan Shao faced each other at Guandu, the Yellow Turban Liu Pi and others in Runan turned on Cao Cao in support of Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao sent Liu Bei with troops to raid the Xu area with Liu Pi. The annals of Emperor Wu also record, for the eighth month of Jian'an 5, that surrendered rebels in Runan under Liu Pi revolted for Yuan Shao and that Cao Cao sent Cao Ren to defeat them, which would put his death after Jian'an 5. The article says the two accounts contradict each other and that it is not known which is right. Another account says he fell in battle after Cao Ren defeated him, and another that he was killed in 196 after Cao Cao broke Runan. Because the sources disagree, this entry follows only Wikidata in giving 201.[2][1]
In the novel
The article records that in chapter 31 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, when Gao Lan attacks Runan, Liu Pi shields Liu Bei as he breaks out and is killed by Gao Lan, who is in turn killed by Zhao Yun.[2]