Guanqiu Jian 毌丘儉

His father Guanqiu Xing distinguished himself as Administrator of Wuwei during the Huangchu era and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Gaoyang District. Guanqiu Jian inherited his father's title and became Literary Scholar (wenxue) to the Marquis of Pingyuan, and when Emperor Ming, Cao Rui, took the throne, he became a Gentleman of the Imperial Secretariat and was promoted to Supervisor of the Feathered Forest Guard. As an old retainer from the Eastern Palace days, he was treated with great intimacy. While serving as Agricultural Officer of Luoyang, when farmers were conscripted to build palaces, he submitted a memorial saying that what must urgently be eliminated were the two enemies and what must urgently be attended to were clothing and food. He later became Inspector of Jing Province. Records, Wei 28 §12–13

During the Qinglong era, when Emperor Ming planned to attack Liaodong, Guanqiu Jian, deemed to have ability and strategy in handling affairs, was transferred to Inspector of You Province and given the additional titles of General Who Crosses the Liao and Colonel Protector of the Wuhuan. Guanqiu Jian memorialized that Liaodong could be pacified with the idle troops of this region, but Wei Zhen opposed it as a petty stratagem of the Warring States. Guanqiu Jian encamped at Liaosui, and the Wuhuan chanyu Koulou Dun and others came with more than five thousand followers to surrender. In the 1st year of Jingchu (237) he went with a sealed letter to summon Gongsun Yuan, but Gongsun Yuan raised troops and met him in battle at Liaosui, and as the fighting went badly he withdrew. Gongsun Yuan afterwards proclaimed himself King of Yan. The following year, when Sima Yi, leading Guanqiu Jian and others with tens of thousands of troops, pacified Liaodong, Guanqiu Jian was promoted to Marquis of Anyi with a fief of 3,900 households. Records, Wei 22 §84–85Records, Wei 28 §14–15Records, Wei 8 §46Records, Wei 3 §54

During the Zhengshi era, when Goguryeo repeatedly raided and rebelled, Guanqiu Jian led ten thousand infantry and cavalry out from Xuantu. Gung, the king of Goguryeo, came out to the Feiliu River with twenty thousand men but was defeated time after time at Liangkou, and Guanqiu Jian, tethering his horses and hoisting his carts over the rugged roads, climbed to Wandu and massacred its capital. For the peizhe Delai, who had repeatedly remonstrated with Gung and starved himself to death, he forbade the destruction of his tomb or the felling of its trees and released his wife and children. In the 6th year of Zhengshi (245) he attacked again, and when Gung fled to Maigou, he sent the Administrator of Xuantu in pursuit for more than a thousand li past Woju; reaching the southern border of the Sushen, they carved a record of their achievement in stone. Those killed or taken in surrender numbered more than eight thousand. Records, Wei 28 §16–18

After serving as General of the Left and Inspector of Yu Province, he became General Who Guards the South. In the 11th month of the 4th year of Jiaping (252), by edict he attacked Wu together with Wang Chang and Hu Zun; according to the biography of Sun Liang, Guanqiu Jian headed for Wuchang at this time. In the 12th month Zhuge Ke crushed the Wei forces at Dongguan, and all returned without success. Because Zhuge Dan, who had fought at Dongguan, had fared badly, the two men's posts were exchanged, and Guanqiu Jian became General Who Guards the East commanding Yang Province. The following year, when Zhuge Ke besieged the New City of Hefei, he and Wen Qin held him off, and when the Grand Commandant Sima Fu came with the central army and lifted the siege, Zhuge Ke withdrew. Records, Wei 28 §19Records, Wei 4 §34–35Records, Wu 3 §4

Guanqiu Jian was on close terms with Xiahou Xuan, Li Feng and others. Wen Qin, Inspector of Yang Province, was a man from the same town as Cao Shuang and had many battle merits, but he had inflated his counts of spoils in hope of rewards and was refused, so he bore a deep grudge; Guanqiu Jian treated him generously and won his heart. In the 1st month of the 2nd year of Zhengyuan (255), when a comet rising from the field of Wu and Chu stretched across the sky to the northwest, the two took it as an auspicious omen for themselves. They then forged an edict of the Empress Dowager, circulated an indictment of the General-in-Chief Sima Shi to the commanderies and kingdoms, and rebelled. They made all the commanders, officials and people of Huainan enter the city of Shouchun, swore an oath at an altar west of the city, and, leading fifty or sixty thousand men, crossed the Huai and reached Xiang County. Records, Wei 28 §20–21

Sima Shi had Zhuge Dan threaten Shouchun from Anfengjin and had Hu Zun cut off their line of retreat, had the Army Supervisor Wang Ji occupy Nandun, and ordered all his armies to hold firm and not give battle. Guanqiu Jian and Wen Qin could neither advance to fight nor retreat for fear that Shouchun would be attacked, and they were at their wits' end. Since the families of the officers and men of Huainan were all in the north, one after another they surrendered. When Deng Ai feigned weakness at Lejia, Wen Qin came to attack him by night, but at daybreak he saw the main army and withdrew; pursued by swift cavalry, he was badly defeated and fled. Records, Wei 28 §22–24

On hearing that Wen Qin had been defeated, Guanqiu Jian fled in fear by night and his forces collapsed. By the time he neared Shen County, even his attendants and soldiers had left him, and taking only his younger brother Guanqiu Xiu and his grandson Guanqiu Zhong, he hid in the grass by the water. Zhang Shu, a commoner under the Chief Commandant of Anfengjin, approached and shot him dead and sent his head to the capital, and Zhang Shu was made a marquis. Guanqiu Xiu and Guanqiu Zhong fled to Wu. His son Guanqiu Dian, knowing that the uprising was about to break out, had fled with his family to Mount Ling in Xin'an, but the place was taken, and Guanqiu Jian's three sets of kin were exterminated. Earlier, Guan Lu, passing Guanqiu Jian's family tombs, had said that within two years the clan would be destroyed, and it turned out as he said. Records, Wei 28 §24–25Records, Wei 4 §54Records, Wei 29 §81

In his assessment, Chen Shou named him together with Wang Ling, Zhuge Dan and Zhong Hui, writing that Guanqiu Jian was outstanding in talent and insight and capable, so that he made his name and rose to honored posts; but that all of them had great ambitions while their aims went astray, failed to foresee calamity, and when their revolts sprang like a released crossbow, their clans were crushed into the earth. Records, Wei 28 §140