Wuling commandery (武陵郡) lay in Jing Province, south of the middle Yangtze. Its territory covered river valleys and mountain country inhabited by various non‑Han groups as well as Han settlers.
In the late Han and Three Kingdoms periods, control of Wuling mattered for securing the southern flank of Jing Province and the routes towards the far south. Later stories of Zhuge Liang’s southern campaigns often treat Wuling as part of the wider region pacified by Shu.