Lady Pan (Sun Quan) 潘夫人

According to the Biographies of the Consorts in Records of Wu 5, Lady Pan, consort of Sun Quan, the Lord of Wu, was a native of Gouzhang in Kuaiji Commandery. Her father was an official who was executed for breaking the law, and she was sent with her elder sister to the Weaving Chamber. Sun Quan saw her, thought her remarkable, and summoned her to fill a place in his harem. When she was in favor and pregnant, she dreamed that someone handed her a dragon's head and she received it in her knee cover, and she then bore Sun Liang. Records, Wu 5 §25

In the 13th year of Chiwu (250) Sun Quan deposed the Crown Prince Sun He and confined him at Guzhang, and in the 11th month he made Sun Liang Crown Prince. When Sun Liang became Crown Prince, Lady Pan asked that her elder sister be released from the palace and married off, and Sun Quan granted this. The Biography of the Lord of Wu records that in that year a divine being handed over a document telling him to change the era name and establish an empress. In the 5th month of summer the next year, the 1st year of Taiyuan (251), Sun Quan made Madam Pan empress, proclaimed a general amnesty and changed the era name. Records, Wu 2 §108–110Records, Wu 5 §25Records, Wu 3 §3

According to the record of Sun Liang's consort Lady Quan, when Lady Pan and her son came into favor, Princess Quan, because she herself was on bad terms with Sun He's mother, urged Sun Quan to take Quan Shang's daughter as a wife for Madam Pan's son Sun Liang, and Sun Liang in the end became the heir. The Biographies of the Three Successor Rulers likewise records that Sun Liang's elder sister Princess Quan, uneasy because she had once slandered the Crown Prince Sun He and his mother, repeatedly praised Quan Shang's daughter and urged that she be taken as Sun Liang's wife. Records, Wu 5 §28Records, Wu 3 §2

Chen Shou wrote that Lady Pan was sinister, deeply jealous and given to flattery by nature, and that from beginning to end she slandered and harmed Lady Yuan and others a great many times. When Sun Quan was unwell, she sent someone to ask the Prefect of the Palace Secretariat Sun Hong about the old precedent of Empress Lü monopolizing power. Records, Wu 5 §26

According to the Biography of the Lord of Wu, in the 1st year of Taiyuan (251) Sun Quan returned from offering sacrifice at the southern suburb and took to his bed with illness. Lady Pan became weak and ill, worn out from nursing him, and the palace women, waiting until she lay in a heavy sleep, strangled her together and pretended that she had died suddenly, struck by a malign influence. When the matter later came to light, six or seven people were put to death for it. Records, Wu 2 §111–112Records, Wu 3 §3Records, Wu 5 §26

The Biography of the Lord of Wu records the death of Empress Pan after the entry for the 2nd month of the 2nd year of Taiyuan (252), when a general amnesty was proclaimed and the era name changed to Shenfeng. Sun Quan died in the 4th month of summer that year at the age of seventy-one, and Lady Pan was buried together with him at the Jiang Mausoleum. When Sun Liang took the throne he made Tan Shao, the husband of Lady Pan's elder sister, Chief Commandant of Cavalry and gave him troops, and when Sun Liang was deposed Tan Shao was sent back with his household to his home commandery of Luling. Records, Wu 2 §113Records, Wu 5 §26

In the assessment of Records of Wu 5, Chen Shou cited Duke Huan of Qi from long ago and Sun Quan from recent times, saying that both had a clear eye for recognizing men of talent and the aspirations of an outstanding man, but because they did not distinguish between the sons of the principal wife and those of concubines, the women's quarters and the court fell into disorder and calamity flowed down to their descendants. The assessment does not discuss Lady Pan separately. Records, Wu 5 §42