公元207年，北方的曹操已基本统一中原，正把目光投向荆州；孙权继承父兄基业，据有江东；荆州牧刘表年老多病，坐守一方。刘备寄居新野，年近五十，屡遭挫折，仍然没有一块可以立足的根据地。
By 207 AD, Cao Cao had largely unified the Central Plains and was turning his eyes toward Jing Province; Sun Quan, having inherited his father’s and brother’s legacy, held Jiangdong; and Liu Biao, governor of Jing, was old and sick, holding his ground and little more. Liu Bei lodged at Xinye, close to fifty, repeatedly defeated, and still without a single base to stand on.
刘备身边缺少能够统筹全局的谋士。徐庶向他推荐诸葛亮，说此人“有经天纬地之才”，并劝他亲自登门，不可召之即来。刘备于是前往隆中。
Liu Bei lacked an adviser capable of grasping the whole board. Xu Shu recommended Zhuge Liang, saying the man had “the talent to order heaven and earth”, and urged Liu Bei to call on him in person rather than summon him. So Liu Bei set out for Longzhong.
《三国志》只留下寥寥数语：“由是先主遂诣亮，凡三往，乃见。”短短十个字，背后是三次长途跋涉：前两次都扑了空，第三次才见到这位隐居的年轻人。后世小说又添上风雪、空跑、张飞发怒等情节，使这段经历更加曲折。
The Records of the Three Kingdoms leave only a few words: “Thereupon the Former Lord went to Zhuge Liang, and only after three journeys did he obtain a meeting.” Behind those ten characters lie three long journeys: the first two came to nothing, and only the third brought him before the young recluse. Later fiction added snowstorms, wasted trips and Zhang Fei’s outbursts, making the episode more dramatic still.
见面之后，刘备坦陈自己的困境：汉室倾颓，奸臣窃命，他想伸张大义，却智术短浅，屡战屡败，但志向至今未改。他问诸葛亮：天下如此，应当如何？
When they met, Liu Bei laid out his predicament plainly: the Han house was crumbling, usurping ministers had seized authority, and though he wished to uphold the great cause, his wisdom and strategy were shallow and he had lost battle after battle — yet his resolve had never changed. He asked Zhuge Liang: with the realm in such a state, what should be done?
诸葛亮从容作答。他指出：曹操拥兵百万，挟天子以令诸侯，不可与之争锋；孙权据有江东，已历三世，国险而民附，可为援而不可图。荆州北据汉、沔，利尽南海，东连吴会，西通巴蜀，是用武之地；益州沃野千里，天府之土，而刘璋暗弱，民殷国富却不知存恤。
Zhuge Liang answered with composure. Cao Cao, he said, commanded a million troops and used the emperor to order the lords: he was not to be opposed directly. Sun Quan held Jiangdong across three generations, with a defensible land and a people loyal to him: he could be made an ally but not a target. Jing Province, backed by the Han and Mian rivers to the north, reaching the riches of the South Sea, linked to Wu and Kuaiji in the east and Ba and Shu in the west, was ground on which armies could win an empire; Yi Province, a thousand li of fertile fields, was a land of heaven’s bounty, yet Liu Zhang was weak and unperceptive, and though his people were prosperous he did not know how to care for them.
他随即提出全局方略：先跨有荆、益二州，守住险阻，西和诸戎，南抚夷越，外结孙权，内修政理；一旦天下有变，则命一上将率荆州之军直指宛、洛，刘备亲率益州之众出于秦川。到那时，霸业可成，汉室可兴。这就是后人所说的“隆中对”。
He then set out a strategy for the whole realm: first hold both Jing and Yi, guard their natural defences, make peace with the Rong tribes to the west, conciliate the Yi and Yue to the south, ally with Sun Quan abroad and order the government at home; and once the realm showed a crack, send one great general to lead the Jing army toward Wan and Luoyang while Liu Bei himself led the host of Yi out through the Qin river valley. Then hegemony could be achieved and the Han restored. This is what later ages called the “Longzhong Plan”.
刘备听后茅塞顿开，恳请他出山。诸葛亮感其诚意，答应“遂许先帝以驱驰”。刘备对人说：“孤之有孔明，犹鱼之有水也。”从此，诸葛亮成为刘备集团最重要的谋臣，隆中对策也成为此后十余年战略的蓝图。
Liu Bei’s eyes were opened, and he begged Zhuge Liang to enter his service. Moved by such sincerity, Zhuge Liang agreed — in his own later words, “I pledged myself to the Former Lord’s service”. Liu Bei told others: “With Kongming, I am as a fish with water.” From then on Zhuge Liang was the most important strategist in Liu Bei’s camp, and the Longzhong Plan became the blueprint for more than a decade of strategy.
公元227年，诸葛亮北伐前夕写下《出师表》，回顾当年：“先帝不以臣卑鄙，猥自枉屈，三顾臣于草庐之中，咨臣以当世之事，由是感激，遂许先帝以驱驰。”从此，“三顾茅庐”成为求贤若渴、礼贤下士的象征，而四字成语的定型和流传，则是后世语言习惯逐渐固定的结果。
In 227, on the eve of the northern expeditions, Zhuge Liang wrote the Memorial on Dispatching the Army and looked back on that time: “The Former Lord did not disdain my low estate, but stooped to come in person, visiting my thatched cottage three times and asking my counsel on the affairs of the age. Moved by this, I pledged myself to his service.” Ever since, 三顾茅庐 has stood for a thirst for talent and respect for the worthy — though the four-character idiom itself took its final form only as later usage fixed it.