Wu 吳

In the 5th year of Jian'an (200) Sun Ce, on his death, entrusted his affairs to Sun Quan, and thus the Sun Ce faction passed to Sun Quan. At that time the Sun clan held only Kuaiji, Wu, Danyang, Yuzhang and Luling, and the remote and rugged lands had not yet all submitted, but Zhang Zhao, Zhou Yu and others served him wholeheartedly. Sun Quan received Lu Su, Zhuge Jin and others as guests, and divided his generals among the Shanyue to suppress and pacify them. Records, Wu 2 §3–5

Sun Quan attacked Huang Zu to the west in the 8th (203) and 12th (207) years of Jian'an, and in the renewed attack in the spring of the 13th year (208) Ling Tong, Dong Xi and others put his city to the sword. When Liu Biao died and his son Liu Cong surrendered to Cao Cao, most of those in council urged Sun Quan to welcome Cao Cao, but Zhou Yu and Lu Su alone held to the view of resisting, agreeing with Sun Quan. Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu, as Commanders of the Left and Right, each leading ten thousand men, advanced with Liu Bei and crushed Cao Cao's army at the Red Cliffs. Records, Wu 2 §7 · 10–13

In the 14th year of Jian'an (209), when Cao Ren abandoned Jiangling and fled, Sun Quan made Zhou Yu Administrator of Nan Commandery. In the 16th year (211) he moved his seat to Moling, and the following year he built a city at Shitou, renamed Moling as Jianye, and built the Ruxu fortress. In the 1st month of the 18th year (213) Cao Cao attacked Ruxu, and after facing Sun Quan for over a month he admired the orderly discipline of Sun Quan's army and withdrew. Records, Wu 2 §13 · 15 · 17–18

In the 19th year of Jian'an (214), when Liu Bei obtained Yi Province, Sun Quan asked for the return of the commanderies of Jing Province, but Liu Bei would not listen, and Guan Yu drove out all the officials Sun Quan had placed in the three southern commanderies. When Lü Meng took the three commanderies of Changsha, Lingling and Guiyang, Liu Bei, seeing that Cao Cao had entered Hanzhong and fearing to lose Yi Province, asked for peace and they divided Jing Province. In the 24th year (219) Sun Quan asked Cao Cao for leave to attack Guan Yu, and in the intercalary month Lü Meng surprised Gong'an, received Mi Fang's surrender and took Jiangling. In the 12th month (early 220 CE) Ma Zhong, Major under Pan Zhang, captured Guan Yu at Zhangxiang and pacified Jing Province. Records, Wu 2 §19–21 · 26–28

In the 25th year of Jian'an (220) Cao Cao died, and when Cao Pi took the imperial title that winter, Sun Quan called himself a vassal and sent back Yu Jin and others. In the 4th month of the 2nd year of Huangchu (221), when Liu Bei proclaimed himself emperor in Shu, Sun Quan moved his capital from Gong'an to E and renamed it Wuchang. In the 11th month the Wei emperor issued a patent enfeoffing Sun Quan as King of Wu and adding the Nine Bestowments. Records, Wu 2 §30–32 · 35–36

That year, when Liu Bei invaded, Sun Quan made Lu Xun Area Commander to resist him, and Lu Xun fought from the 1st month to the intercalary month of the 1st year of Huangwu (222) and crushed the Shu army. When Sun Quan declined Wei's demand that he send his son as a hostage, in the 9th month Wei sent Cao Xiu, Cao Ren, Cao Zhen and others against Dongkou, Ruxu and Nan Commandery, and Sun Quan changed the era name and held the line along the Yangtze. In the 12th month he sent Zheng Quan to Baidi to pay a call on Liu Bei, and relations with Shu were at last restored. In the 7th year of Huangwu (228) Lu Xun crushed Cao Xiu of Wei at Shiting. Records, Wu 2 §39 · 41–42 · 47 · 60

On the bingshen day of the 4th month of the 1st year of Huanglong (229), Sun Quan ascended the imperial throne in the southern suburbs, posthumously honored his father Sun Jian as Emperor Wulie and his elder brother Sun Ce as Prince Huan of Changsha, and made Sun Deng Crown Prince. In the 6th month, when Shu sent Chen Zhen to congratulate him on his accession, they made a covenant dividing the realm: Yu, Qing, Xu and You Provinces would belong to Wu, Yan, Ji, Bing and Liang Provinces to Shu, and Si Province would be split at Hangu Pass. The covenant asked to whom the destruction of the Cao clan could be entrusted if not to Shu-Han and Eastern Wu. In the 9th month Sun Quan moved the capital to Jianye and left Lu Xun to assist the Crown Prince and take charge of affairs remaining at Wuchang. Records, Wu 2 §61–63 · 66–67

In the 2nd year of Jiahe (233), ignoring the remonstrances of the whole court, Sun Quan sent ten thousand troops and the gifts of the Nine Bestowments across the sea to Gongsun Yuan, Wei's Administrator of Liaodong, who had professed himself his vassal, but Gongsun Yuan beheaded Zhang Mi and the others and sent their heads to Wei. He also made Zhuge Ke Administrator of Danyang to attack the Shanyue, completing their pacification in the 6th year of Jiahe (237). In the 13th year of Chiwu (250) he deposed the Crown Prince Sun He, ordered Sun Ba, Prince of Lu, to die, and made Sun Liang Crown Prince, and he died in the 4th month of the 1st year of Shenfeng (252) at the age of seventy-one. Records, Wu 2 §72 · 75–76 · 78 · 86 · 108–109 · 113

When Sun Liang succeeded, the Grand Tutor Zhuge Ke took charge of the government. In the 12th month of that year, when seventy thousand Wei infantry and cavalry besieged Dongxing, Zhuge Ke advanced with a great army and crushed the Wei forces. The following year (253) he besieged the New City but returned after losing more than half his soldiers to a great epidemic, and in the 10th month the General of the Martial Guard Sun Jun killed Zhuge Ke in the palace hall and became Chancellor. When Sun Jun died in the 1st year of Taiping (256), his cousin Sun Chen took command of all the armies inside and outside the capital; Teng Yin, who opposed him, had his whole clan wiped out, and Lü Ju was captured. In the 3rd year of Taiping (258), when Sun Liang plotted with Quan Shang and Liu Cheng to kill Sun Chen, Sun Chen deposed Sun Liang and made him Prince of Kuaiji. Sun Liang was then sixteen years old. Records, Wu 3 §2–7 · 12–14 · 18 · 20

Sun Chen brought in and set up Sun Xiu, Sun Quan's sixth son, and Sun Xiu changed the era name on the day he took the throne (1st year of Yong'an, 258). Five men of Sun Chen's family were marquises, all in command of palace troops, and his power overshadowed the ruler, so Sun Xiu secretly plotted with Zhang Bu, and at the court audience on the La festival in the 12th month he had armed men bind Sun Chen and executed him that same day. In the 6th year of Yong'an (263) he sent troops to rescue Shu, which was under attack by Wei, but called them off on hearing that Liu Shan had surrendered to Wei; in Jiaozhi, Lü Xing and others killed the Administrator Sun Xu and asked Wei for an administrator and troops. In the 7th year of Yong'an (264) Sun Xiu died at the age of thirty. Records, Wu 3 §20–21 · 23–24 · 26 · 28 · 43–44 · 46

Because Shu had just fallen and Jiaozhi had rebelled, the people of the state wanted a ruler of mature years, so Puyang Xing and Zhang Bu persuaded the Empress Dowager Zhu to bring in and set up Sun Hao, son of Sun He. Once he had his way, Sun Hao became coarse and violent, and in the 11th month of the 1st year of Yuanxing (264) he killed Puyang Xing and Zhang Bu. In the 9th month of the 1st year of Ganlu (265) he moved the capital to Wuchang, returning to Jianye in the 12th month of the 1st year of Baoding (266), and in the meantime Jin received the abdication. In the winter of the 3rd year of Tianji (279) Jin sent Sima Zhou, Du Yu and others by several routes and sent Wang Jun and Tang Bin down the river; Chen Shou wrote that because Sun Hao's evil deeds had piled up, high and low had lost heart and no one exerted himself for him. On the renshen day of the 3rd month of the 4th year of Tianji (280) Wang Jun received Sun Hao's surrender, and Sun Hao was moved to Luoyang and made Marquis Who Returned to Allegiance, dying at Luoyang in the 5th year of Taikang (284). Records, Wu 3 §48–49 · 51 · 54 · 58 · 78 · 80 · 85–86

In his assessment Chen Shou said that Sun Quan, by humbling himself and bearing disgrace and entrusting affairs to men of talent, achieved the great enterprise of standing like one leg of a tripod, but that he was full of suspicion and jealousy, so that in his last years his heirs were deposed and killed, and that it could not be said that the later overthrow of the state did not stem from this. He also wrote that Sun Liang had no worthy helpers and Sun Xiu could not promote outstanding talent, and that Sun Hao, who deserved to be cut in two at the waist or beheaded to atone to the people, instead received the favor of being made Marquis Who Returned to Allegiance. Records, Wu 2 §115Records, Wu 3 §88–90