Sun Quan 孫權

When his elder brother Sun Ce had pacified the various commanderies, Sun Quan, then fifteen, was made Chief of Yangxian, and his commandery recommended him as Filial and Incorrupt (xiaolian). The Han envoy Liu Wan said that of the Sun brothers only the middle younger brother, the Filial and Incorrupt, bore the signs of great nobility and would also live the longest. In the 5th year of Jian'an (200), when Sun Ce died and entrusted affairs to him, he could not stop weeping; the Chief Clerk Zhang Zhao told him this was like opening the gate and bowing to robbers, and had him change his clothes, mount a horse and go out to inspect the army. At this time the Sun family held only Kuaiji, Wu, Danyang, Yuzhang and Luling, but Zhang Zhao, Zhou Yu and others believed they could achieve a great enterprise together with Sun Quan and served him wholeheartedly. Records, Wu 2 §2–4

Cao Cao submitted a memorial appointing him General Who Attacks Barbarians (Taolu Jiangjun) and Administrator of Kuaiji. Stationed at Wu, Sun Quan treated Zhang Zhao with the courtesy due to a mentor and made Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu, Lü Fan and others his commanders, and it was at this time that Lu Su, Zhuge Jin and others first became his guests. In the 7th year of Jian'an (202) his mother, Lady Wu, died, and in the 9th year (204) his younger brother Sun Yi, Administrator of Danyang, was murdered by his own attendants. In the spring of the 13th year (208) he attacked Huang Zu: Lü Meng broke the vanguard, Ling Tong, Dong Xi and others put the city to the sword, and when Huang Zu fled, the cavalryman Feng Ze pursued him and cut off his head. Records, Wu 2 §5–6 · 8 · 11

That year Liu Biao, Governor of Jing Province, died and his son Liu Cong surrendered to Cao Cao. Lu Su met Liu Bei, who was about to cross the river southward, and conveyed Sun Quan's intentions, and Liu Bei sent Zhuge Liang to Sun Quan. Most of the advisers urged him to welcome Cao Cao, but Zhou Yu and Lu Su alone held firmly to resistance, which matched Sun Quan's own view. Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu, as Left and Right Commanders each leading 10,000 men, advanced together with Liu Bei and routed Cao Cao's army at Red Cliffs. Cao Cao burned his remaining ships and withdrew, and more than half of his soldiers died of hunger and disease. Records, Wu 2 §12–13

Sun Quan personally besieged Hefei but could not take it in more than a month, and withdrew before the cavalry of Zhang Xi, sent by Cao Cao, arrived. In the 16th year (211) he moved his seat of government to Moling, the next year renamed Moling as Jianye, and built the fort at Ruxu. In the first month of the 18th year (213) Cao Cao attacked Ruxu; after facing Sun Quan for more than a month, he saw how orderly and stern Sun Quan's army was, sighed in admiration and withdrew. In the 5th month of the 19th year (214) Sun Quan attacked Wan and captured Zhu Guang, Administrator of Lujiang. Records, Wu 2 §14 · 17–19

That year Liu Bei took Yi Province, and Sun Quan sent Zhuge Jin to ask for the return of the commanderies of Jing Province, but Liu Bei replied that he would hand them over after pacifying Liang Province. When Guan Yu drove out all the officials Sun Quan had placed in the three southern commanderies, Sun Quan, in great anger, had Lü Meng seize Changsha, Lingling and Guiyang with 20,000 troops. Just then Cao Cao entered Hanzhong, and Liu Bei, fearing the loss of Yi Province, sued for peace; Jing Province was divided, with Changsha, Jiangxia, Guiyang and the lands to their east belonging to Sun Quan, and Nan, Lingling, Wuling and the lands to their west to Liu Bei. Later, while withdrawing from an attack on Hefei, Sun Quan was ambushed by Zhang Liao north of the ford; Ling Tong and others defended him at the risk of their lives, and Sun Quan escaped by leaping his fine horse across the bridge at the ford. Records, Wu 2 §19–22

In the winter of the 21st year (216) Cao Cao again attacked Ruxu, and in the spring of the following year Sun Quan sent Commandant Xu Xiang to offer surrender; Cao Cao renewed friendly relations and swore to seal them again by marriage. In the 24th year (219), when Guan Yu besieged Cao Ren at Xiangyang and captured Yu Jin and 30,000 men, Sun Quan, inwardly wary of Guan Yu and outwardly wishing to claim this as his own merit, asked Cao Cao for leave to attack Guan Yu. In the intercalary month Lü Meng took Gong'an by surprise, capturing Shi Ren, received the surrender of Mi Fang, Administrator of Nan Commandery, and occupied Jiangling, while Lu Xun seized Yidu. Zhu Ran and Pan Zhang cut off Guan Yu's escape from Maicheng, and in the 12th month (early 220 CE) Ma Zhong, a Major under Pan Zhang, captured Guan Yu, his son Guan Ping and the Area Commander Zhao Lei at Zhangxiang, finally pacifying Jing Province. Records, Wu 2 §23–24 · 26–28

In the first month of the 25th year (220) Cao Cao died, and Cao Pi succeeded him and proclaimed himself emperor that winter. Sun Quan sent envoys declaring himself a vassal and returned Yu Jin and the 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 Cao Pi issued a decree enfeoffing Sun Quan as King of Wu and granting him the Nine Bestowments. That year Liu Bei invaded as far as Wu County and Zigui, and Sun Quan made Lu Xun Area Commander to resist him. Zhao Zi, sent as envoy to Wei, described the King of Wu as 'a sovereign intelligent, benevolent and wise, of grand strategy.' Records, Wu 2 §30–32 · 35 · 39

In the 1st year of Huangwu (222) Lu Xun fought from the first month through the intercalary month and routed the Shu army, and Liu Bei barely escaped with his life. Sun Quan declined Wei's demand that he send a son as hostage, and when in the 9th month Wei sent Cao Xiu, Cao Ren, Cao Zhen and others, he changed the era name and resisted, relying on the Yangtze. In the 12th month he sent Zheng Quan to Baidi to visit Liu Bei, and relations were at last resumed. In the 9th month of the 3rd year of Huangwu (224) Cao Pi came out to Guangling, gazed at the great river and said, 'Over there they have men of worth; they cannot yet be conquered,' and went back. In the 7th year (228) Lu Xun crushed Cao Xiu at Shiting after Zhou Fang had lured him out with a feigned defection. Records, Wu 2 §41–42 · 47 · 51 · 60

In the 1st year of Huanglong (229), urged by the high ministers and officials, he ascended the imperial throne in the southern suburb on the bingshen day of the 4th month. He 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, the two concluded a covenant dividing the realm: Yu, Qing, Xu and You provinces to Wu, Yan, Ji, Bing and Liang provinces to Shu, and Si Province split at the Hangu Pass. In the 9th month he moved the capital to Jianye and had Lu Xun assist the Crown Prince and take charge of Wuchang. Records, Wu 2 §61–62 · 67

In the 1st year of Jiahe (232), when Wei's Administrator of Liaodong, Gongsun Yuan, declared himself a vassal, Sun Quan was overjoyed, and the following year, although the whole court from Chancellor Gu Yong down remonstrated, he sent Zhang Mi and others across the sea with 10,000 troops and the regalia of the Nine Bestowments. Gongsun Yuan beheaded Zhang Mi and the others and sent their heads to Wei; Sun Quan wished to attack him in person but desisted at the remonstrance of Xue Zong and others. He also trusted the Inspector Lü Yi and would not heed even the remonstrances of Crown Prince Sun Deng, but when Lü Yi was executed he took the blame upon himself and, in an edict saying 'It is fifty years since I raised troops,' asked Zhuge Jin, Bu Zhi, Zhu Ran, Lü Dai and others for frank criticism. Records, Wu 2 §72 · 75–76 · 88 · 90

In the 5th month of the 4th year of Chiwu (241) Crown Prince Sun Deng died, and the following year Sun He was made Crown Prince and Sun Ba Prince of Lu. In the 8th month of the 13th year of Chiwu (250) Sun Quan deposed Sun He, confining him to Guzhang, and ordered Sun Ba to die; in the 11th month he made Sun Liang Crown Prince. In the 1st year of Taiyuan (251) Sun Quan fell ill after returning from sacrificing at the southern suburb, and in the 12th month he summoned Zhuge Ke and made him Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince. In the first month of the 2nd year of Taiyuan (252) he made the former Crown Prince Sun He Prince of Nanyang; in the 2nd month the era name was changed to Shenfeng, and in the 4th month he died at the age of seventy-one and was given the posthumous title Great Emperor. Records, Wu 2 §96–98 · 108–109 · 112–113

In his assessment, Chen Shou said that Sun Quan humbled himself and endured disgrace, entrusted affairs to men of talent and valued strategy, and had an extraordinary quality like that of Goujian, and so was able to hold Jiangbiao alone and achieve the great enterprise of standing as one leg of a tripod. But he wrote that Sun Quan was by nature suspicious and jealous and quick to kill, growing worse in his last years, so that slander led to his heirs being deposed and put to death, and that the later overthrow of the state could not be said not to have stemmed from this. Records, Wu 2 §115