Lady Fan 樊氏

In Chapter 52 of the Romance, Zhao Fan, Administrator of Guiyang, surrenders to Zhao Yun and, saying that they share a surname and come from the same district, asks to swear brotherhood with him. Comparing their ages, they find they were born in the same year, but Zhao Yun is four months older, so Zhao Fan takes Zhao Yun as his elder brother. The next day Zhao Fan invites Zhao Yun into the city and holds a banquet, and when the wine has begun to take effect, he invites him deep into the rear hall and pours wine for him again. Romance, Ch. 52 §31–33

When Zhao Yun is slightly drunk, Zhao Fan calls out a woman and has her offer wine to him. She is dressed in white mourning clothes and has a beauty that could topple a state and overturn a city, and when Zhao Yun asks who she is, Zhao Fan answers that she is his sister-in-law, Lady Fan. Zhao Yun changes his expression and treats her with respect. After Lady Fan has offered the cup, Zhao Fan bids her sit, but Zhao Yun declines, and Lady Fan takes her leave and returns to the rear hall. Romance, Ch. 52 §34

Zhao Fan says that his elder brother has already been dead for three years, that it would be no good end for his sister-in-law to live on alone, and that he has always urged her to remarry. Lady Fan, he says, declared that she would marry only a man who had all three of these qualities: first, to be accomplished in both letters and arms with a name known throughout the realm; second, to be of imposing appearance and outstanding dignity; and third, to have the same surname as her late husband. Zhao Fan says that Zhao Yun fits exactly what his sister-in-law described, and asks that, if Zhao Yun does not disdain her plain looks, he may provide a dowry, give her to him as his wife and bind their families by marriage for generations. Romance, Ch. 52 §35–36

Zhao Yun rises in a great rage and rebukes him, saying that since they have already sworn brotherhood, Zhao Fan's sister-in-law is his own sister-in-law, so how could he do something that throws the bonds of human relations into disorder? When Zhao Fan, ashamed, glances at his attendants to show his intention of harming him, Zhao Yun knocks Zhao Fan down with a single blow of his fist and leaves the city. That night Zhao Fan's subordinates Chen Ying and Bao Long, who come to surrender falsely, say that Zhao Fan meant to deceive Zhao Yun with the ploy of a beautiful woman, wait until he was drunk, help him into the rear hall and kill him. Romance, Ch. 52 §36–39

After Zhao Yun takes the city of Guiyang and captures Zhao Fan, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang come to Guiyang, and Zhao Fan relates in full how he tried to marry off his sister-in-law. When Zhuge Liang asks why he acted so, since this too would have been a fine thing, Zhao Yun gives three reasons: taking the sister-in-law of his sworn brother would bring people's spitting and abuse on him, the lady's remarrying would make her lose her great virtue of chastity, and Zhao Fan had only just surrendered, so his true intentions were hard to gauge. When Liu Bei says that, since the great undertaking is now settled, he might let Zhao Yun take the woman as wife, Zhao Yun declines, saying that there is no shortage of women in the world, and Liu Bei says that Zilong is truly a real man. Lady Fan does not appear again in the Romance after this. Romance, Ch. 52 §41–43