Sun Fen 孫奮

Sun Fen's courtesy name was Ziyang; he was the younger brother of Sun Ba, and his mother was Zhongji. According to the Biography of the Lord of Wu, in the 1st month of spring in the 2nd year of Taiyuan (252), Sun Quan made the former Heir Apparent Sun He Prince of Nanyang to reside at Changsha, made his son Sun Fen Prince of Qi to reside at Wuchang, and made his son Sun Xiu Prince of Langya to reside at Hulin. In the 4th month of summer that year Sun Quan died. The biography of Yuan Shu records that the daughter of Yuan Shu's son Yuan Yao was married to Sun Quan's son Sun Fen. Records, Wu 14 §45Records, Wu 2 §113Records, Wei 6 §80

When Sun Quan died, the Grand Tutor Zhuge Ke, not wanting the princes to stay in places along the Yangtze where there were troops and horses, had Sun Fen moved to Yuzhang. Sun Fen was angered and did not obey the order, and he also overstepped the rules many times. Zhuge Ke therefore submitted a letter remonstrating with him. Records, Wu 14 §45

Zhuge Ke first said that the dignity of an emperor stands in the same place as Heaven, so that even an enemy must be recommended if he has merit and even a kinsman must be punished if he has done evil. When the Han first arose, he said, many of the emperor's sons and brothers were made princes, but when they grew too strong they broke the rules; from Emperor Guangwu onward the princes could only amuse themselves within their palaces and could neither govern the people nor take part in government, and so each was able to preserve his good fortune. More recently, he said, Yuan Shao and Liu Biao did not distinguish between legitimate and secondary sons, so that the sacrifices of their ancestral temples were cut off, and the late Emperor, on the day he lay ill, had sent the princes early to their fiefs in order to keep the ancestral temple secure and keep the princes whole. Records, Wu 14 §45–47

Zhuge Ke went on to write that he had heard that since coming to Wuchang Sun Fen had often disobeyed edicts and orders and paid no heed to regulations, and had arbitrarily mobilized the troops of various generals to repair his palace. He said that Sun Fen had privately killed attendants who committed offenses instead of reporting them by memorial and handing them over to the authorities, had not followed the words of the Grand Marshal Lü Dai, who had received the former emperor's edict to assist him, and, angered at Hua Qi, a close minister of the former emperor, had even spoken of having him seized and bound. He also wrote that on the day it was heard that Sun Fen had said of Yang Rong, a Secretariat official who had received an edict and should have been treated with respect, 'I simply do not heed prohibitions; what can you do to me?', all, great and small, were shocked and chilled to the heart. Records, Wu 14 §48–49

Zhuge Ke told Sun Fen to take the Prince of Lu, Sun Ba, deeply to heart as a warning, amend his conduct and show full respect to the court. The ministers, he said, would rather fail His Highness than fail the former emperor's testamentary edict, and would rather incur His Highness's resentment than let edicts go unexecuted among the feudal princes. Had the Prince of Lu accepted loyal and honest counsel early, there would have been no calamity of destruction, he said, and he concluded by asking Sun Fen to think it over again and again, with the saying that good medicine is bitter to the mouth and loyal words grate on the ear. Records, Wu 14 §50–51

On receiving the letter Sun Fen was afraid and at last moved to Nanchang, but his hunting grew ever more excessive, and his officials could not bear his demands. When Zhuge Ke was executed, Sun Fen came down to stay at Wuhu, intending to go to Jianye to watch for upheaval. When his tutor and chancellor Xie Ci and others remonstrated, Sun Fen killed them, and for this he was deposed, reduced to a commoner and moved to Zhang'an County. According to the Biographies of the Three Successor Rulers, in the 7th month of autumn in the 3rd year of Taiping (258), the former Prince of Qi Sun Fen was enfeoffed as Marquis of Zhang'an. Records, Wu 14 §52Records, Wu 3 §18

In the 2nd year of Jianheng (270), Sun Hao's Consort of the Left, Lady Wang, died. Sun Hao grieved so excessively, wailing morning and evening and not coming out for several months, that among the people it was said that Sun Hao had died, and a false rumor spread that either Sun Fen or Sun Feng, the Marquis of Shangyu, would take the throne. The tomb of Sun Fen's mother Zhongji was in Yuzhang, and Zhang Jun, the Administrator of Yuzhang, thinking it might be so, swept and tended the tomb. When Sun Hao heard of this, he had Zhang Jun torn apart by chariots and his three sets of kin exterminated, and executed Sun Fen and his five sons, and the fief was abolished. Records, Wu 14 §53

The Biographies of the Three Successor Rulers record, in the entry for the 3rd year of Fenghuang (274), that an ominous saying spread in Kuaiji that 'Sun Fen, Marquis of Zhang'an, will become Son of Heaven'. Xi Xi, the Administrator of Linhai, sent a letter criticizing the government of the state to Guo Dan, the Administrator of Kuaiji; Guo Dan reported only Xi Xi's letter and not the ominous saying, and was sent to Jian'an to work at building ships. The biography of Sun Fen places the execution right after the entry for the 2nd year of Jianheng (270) and does not state separately the year in which he was executed. Records, Wu 3 §65 · 67Records, Wu 14 §53

In his assessment, Chen Shou said, 'Sun Ba, a son of a secondary consort, encroached upon the legitimate heir, and Sun Fen did not follow the rules, so both in truth chose the road to peril and ruin themselves. Yet Sun Fen's execution and the extermination of his line were a calamity that struck him unjustly and unexpectedly.' Records, Wu 14 §55