Lu Kai 陸凱

Lu Kai, courtesy name Jingfeng, was a man of Wu County in Wu Commandery and a clan nephew of the Chancellor Lu Xun. At the beginning of Huangwu he became Chief of Yongxing County and of Zhuji County, and left a record of good governance wherever he went, so he was appointed Chief Commandant Who Establishes Martial Might and given command of troops. Though he commanded an army, he never let a book leave his hand; he loved the Taixuan, discussed and expounded its meaning, and whenever he used it for divination the result came true. Records, Wu 16 §9

In the Chiwu era he was appointed Administrator of Dan'er and campaigned against Zhuya, and for the enemies he beheaded and captured he was transferred to Colonel Who Establishes Martial Might. The Biography of the Lord of Wu records that in the 7th month, in autumn, of the 5th year of Chiwu (242) the general Nie You and the colonel Lu Kai were sent with thirty thousand troops to subdue Zhuya and Dan'er. It also records that in the 12th month of the 13th year of Chiwu (early 251 CE), when the Wei General-in-Chief Wang Chang besieged Nan Commandery and the Inspector of Jing Province, Wang Ji, attacked Xiling, the generals Dai Lie and Lu Kai were sent to resist them, and the Wei forces all withdrew. Records, Wu 16 §9Records, Wu 2 §97–98 · 108–109

In the 2nd year of Wufeng (255) he campaigned against the mountain bandit Chen Bi in Lingling, beheading him and winning victory, and was appointed Area Commander of Baqiu and Lieutenant General, enfeoffed as Marquis of a Chief District, and transferred to Area Commander of the Right Division at Wuchang. He went to Shouchun with the other generals, and after returning was promoted repeatedly to General Who Sweeps Away Wei and General Who Pacifies the Distant. When Sun Xiu took the throne, he was appointed General Who Conquers the North, granted provisional authority and made concurrently Governor of Yu Province. When Sun Hao took the throne, he was transferred to Senior General Who Guards the West, commanding Baqiu and concurrently Governor of Jing Province, and was advanced to Marquis of Jiaxing. Records, Wu 16 §9–10

In the 1st month of the 1st year of Baoding (266), when Ding Zhong, General of the Household for the Five Offices, returned from offering condolences on the death of Emperor Wen of Jin and said that the north had made no preparations for defense or battle and Yiyang could be taken by surprise, Sun Hao consulted his ministers. Lu Kai, Senior General Who Guards the West, said that arms were to be used only when unavoidable, and that the powerful enemy, having just annexed Ba and Shu, was still sending envoys to seek friendship, so seeking victory by trusting to luck would bring no advantage. Sun Hao privately accepted the advice of Liu Zuan, General of Chariots and Cavalry, but did not act on it because Shu had only just been pacified. In the 8th month of that year Lu Kai became Left Chancellor, and the Regular Attendant Wan Yu became Right Chancellor. Records, Wu 16 §10Records, Wu 3 §55–57

Sun Hao disliked being looked at, so his ministers did not dare to look him in the face when attending on him. When Lu Kai persuaded him that if ruler and ministers could not recognize one another, they would not know where to go should something unexpected suddenly happen, Sun Hao allowed Lu Kai alone to look at him. Records, Wu 16 §11

When Sun Hao moved the capital to Wuchang, the people of Yang Province suffered from having to send supplies upstream, and the government went so badly astray that the people were impoverished. Lu Kai submitted a memorial saying that when the people are at peace the ruler is at peace, yet in recent years the people's lives were being exhausted though there had been no disaster, and the state's wealth was empty though nothing had been undertaken. He cited as clear present proof how the Cao family had lost its authority and Jin had taken over its government, and how the Liu family in rugged Yi Province had misapplied rewards and punishments and been conquered by Jin, ruler and ministers taken captive. He also said that Wuchang was rugged and barren and no place for a royal capital, citing the children's song 'Rather drink the water of Jianye than eat the fish of Wuchang.' Records, Wu 16 §12–18

In the same memorial he condemned the high ministers for offering petty gains to win favor while the state had not even a single year's reserves, and asked that the supervising officials who oppressed the people be abolished. He also urged that the palace women and weavers, whose numbers had grown, be sent out and married to men without wives. Further, saying that favored ministers formed factions, harmed the loyal and kept the worthy hidden, he asked that civil and military officials be carefully chosen so that each would devote himself to his duties. Records, Wu 16 §20–26

At this time He Ding, a general serving in the palace hall, was flattering and cunning and enjoyed high favor and authority. Lu Kai rebuked him to his face: 'Have you ever seen, among those who served their lord disloyally and threw the state's government into disorder, any who lived out their natural span?' He Ding bore him a deep grudge and sought to slander him, but Lu Kai paid it no mind to the end. Chen Shou wrote that his memorials and petitions all pointed straight at the issue without embellishment, their loyalty and earnestness coming from within. Records, Wu 16 §27

When he fell ill in the 1st year of Jianheng (269), Sun Hao sent the Prefect of the Palace Secretariat Dong Chao to ask what he wished to say. Lu Kai said that He Ding should be sent to a post outside the capital and must not be entrusted with affairs of state, and that Xi Xi's plan to open fields at Puli should not be approved either. Then, after recommending Yao Xin, Lou Xuan, He Shao, Zhang Ti, Guo Chuo, Xue Ying, Teng Xiu and his clan brothers Lu Xi and Lu Kang as pillars of the altars of state and fine supporters of the nation, he died at the age of seventy-two. The Biography of the Three Successor Rulers records that Left Chancellor Lu Kai died in the 11th month of that year. Records, Wu 16 §28–29Records, Wu 3 §61

Sun Hao always resented Lu Kai for repeatedly offending him to his face and defying his will, and He Ding's slanders were frequent, but since Lu Kai was already a senior minister and hard to bind by law, and Lu Kang was on the frontier as a senior general, Sun Hao restrained himself. After Lu Kang died, he finally moved Lu Kai's family to Jian'an. Chen Shou added a story introduced with 'Some say': in the 12th month of the 1st year of Baoding, Lu Kai, together with the Grand Marshal Ding Feng and the Imperial Counselor Ding Gu, planned to depose Sun Hao while he was visiting the ancestral temple and set up a son of Sun Xiu, but the plan came to nothing because Liu Ping, General of the Left, who was to lead the advance, refused. Records, Wu 16 §32–33

From people who came from Jing and Yang Provinces Chen Shou obtained twenty matters on which Lu Kai was said to have remonstrated with Sun Hao, but since their truth was hard to establish he did not include them in the main text and copied them after the biography. In that text Sun Hao sent Zhao Qin to retort that he always followed the late emperor in all he did, and Lu Kai listed twenty matters, such as the execution of the Regular Palace Attendant Wang Fan, the elevation of Wan Yu to high office and the useless hoarding of palace women, to show that Sun Hao did not follow the late emperor. The Biographies of Wang, Lou, He, Wei and Hua also contain a memorial in which the Chancellor Lu Kai mourned Wang Fan's death. Records, Wu 16 §34–48Records, Wu 20 §5

In his assessment Chen Shou called him, together with Pan Jun, 'loyal and stalwart, plain and upright, both of firm integrity and spirit, with the character and achievements of true men.' Records, Wu 16 §57