Han Xuan 韓玄

In Chapter 41 of the Romance, Wei Yan fights Wen Pin by the city of Xiangyang from the si hour to the wei hour (mid-morning to mid-afternoon) and loses all the soldiers under his command. He turns his horse and flees, but unable to find Liu Bei, he goes off on his own to entrust himself to Han Xuan, Administrator of Changsha. Romance, Ch. 41 §13–14

In Chapter 53, when Guan Yu sets out to take Changsha, Zhuge Liang says that Han Xuan, Administrator of Changsha, is not worth mentioning in himself, but that Huang Zhong, the senior general under him, must not be taken lightly. Guan Yu leaves, vowing that with only his 500 blade-bearing soldiers he will cut off the heads of Huang Zhong and Han Xuan and present them. The Romance depicts Han Xuan as hot-tempered by nature and quick to kill, so that everyone hated him. Hearing that Guan Yu's troops are coming, Han Xuan summons Huang Zhong to confer, and when Yang Ling, Commandant in Charge of Troops, steps forward, he is overjoyed and sends him out with 1,000 soldiers, but Yang Ling is cut down by Guan Yu in fewer than three bouts. Romance, Ch. 53 §6–7 · 9–10

Han Xuan goes up onto the city wall to watch the fighting. On the first day, when Huang Zhong and Guan Yu fight more than a hundred bouts without a decision, he fears that Huang Zhong may come to grief and sounds the gong to recall the troops. On the next day, when Huang Zhong's horse stumbles and throws him and yet Guan Yu does not kill him, Han Xuan asks why Huang Zhong, whose arrows hit the mark a hundred times out of a hundred, did not shoot him. When Huang Zhong says that tomorrow he will feign defeat, lure Guan Yu to the edge of the drawbridge and shoot him there, Han Xuan gives Huang Zhong the blue-gray horse he himself rode. Romance, Ch. 53 §11–15

On the third day Huang Zhong twice merely twangs his bowstring, and with his third arrow strikes only the base of the tassel on Guan Yu's helmet. When Huang Zhong returns to the wall, Han Xuan has his attendants seize him. Saying that from watching for three days he has seen that Huang Zhong did not fight with all his strength the day before yesterday, that Guan Yu did not kill him yesterday, and that today he hit only the helmet tassel, so that he must be in league with the enemy outside, Han Xuan orders the executioners to drag him out beyond the city gate and behead him. When the generals try to plead for him, he declares that anyone who asks pardon for Huang Zhong will be punished for the same crime. Romance, Ch. 53 §16–19

At that moment Wei Yan bursts in, cuts down the executioner and rescues Huang Zhong, crying out that Han Xuan is cruel, violent and inhumane, slights the worthy and scorns men of learning, and that they should all kill him together. Wei Yan had entrusted himself to Han Xuan, but Han Xuan, finding him arrogant and lacking in courtesy, had not given him an important post, so he had been languishing there. Several hundred people follow him and Huang Zhong cannot stop them; Wei Yan fights his way up onto the city tower, cuts Han Xuan in two with a single stroke, and leaves the city with his head to surrender to Guan Yu. Later, when Liu Bei enters Changsha and goes in person to Huang Zhong's house to invite him, Huang Zhong at last comes out and surrenders, and asks to be allowed to bury Han Xuan's body east of Changsha. Romance, Ch. 53 §19–20 · 23

When Zhuge Liang sees Wei Yan, he tries to behead him, saying that to eat a man's salary and then kill one's master is disloyal, but spares him at Liu Bei's urging. In Chapter 70, Cao Hong sends Xiahou Shang together with 'the surrendered general Han Hao, younger brother of Han Xuan' to help Zhang He. Han Hao says that ever since he was in Changsha he has known Huang Zhong to be formidable, and that since Huang Zhong, together with Wei Yan, handed over the city and brought harm to his own elder brother, he will surely take revenge. Romance, Ch. 53 §25–26Romance, Ch. 70 §30–31