Sun Quan

Sun Quan the Chinese warlord and ruler of the Three Kingdoms period (182-252 AD), who founded the state of Wu in the southeast and ruled it as emperor for more than two decades. He inherited a regional power from his father and brother, defended it against overwhelming forces, and built it into one of the three great states of the age.

Early Life and Inheritance

Sun Quan was born in 182 AD in the region of present-day Zhejiang, the son of Sun Jian, a capable general who had fought in the campaigns against the Yellow Turbans and against Dong Zhuo. His elder brother Sun Ce, a brilliant young commander, carved out a territory in the lower Yangzi region after the collapse of the Han order, and Sun Quan grew up in the shadow of these imposing figures.

When Sun Ce died in 200 AD, at the age of only about twenty-six, he passed his domains and his followers to his younger brother Sun Quan, then in his late teens. The succession was unexpected and precarious, for many of Sun Ce's officers were older and more experienced than the youth who now led them, and rival powers were quick to test the strength of the new regime.

Sun Quan proved equal to the challenge. He gathered around him the veteran commanders and advisers whom his brother had recruited, including Zhou Yu and Zhang Zhao, and he maintained the loyalty of the government and the army. With their support he consolidated his hold on the territory in the southeast and began to develop it as an independent base.

The Defence of the South and Red Cliffs

The decisive moment of Sun Quan's early career came in 208 AD, when Cao Cao advanced southward with a vast army, intending to conquer the whole of China. Sun Quan faced a choice between submission and resistance. His court was divided, with some advisers urging surrender, but his trusted commander Zhou Yu argued that the south could be defended, and Sun Quan resolved to fight.

He formed an alliance with Liu Bei, whose forces were also threatened by Cao Cao, and the combined armies met the invader at the Red Cliffs on the Yangzi. The allied fleet, using fire ships and exploiting the inexperience of the northern soldiers at river warfare, inflicted a crushing defeat on Cao Cao's much larger force. The victory secured the independence of the south and made possible the threefold division of the empire.

The battle of Red Cliffs was the foundation of Sun Quan's power. He followed it by consolidating his hold on the Yangzi valley and by extending his territory into the south. His state, which he eventually named Wu, was based on the fertile lands of the lower Yangzi and on the trade and agriculture of the region, and it developed a distinct political and cultural character of its own.

Founding and Ruling the State of Wu

For many years Sun Quan ruled as a regional warlord under the nominal authority of the Han, and then as a vassal of the state of Wei. In 229 AD, after the rival emperors of Wei and Shu had each claimed the imperial title, Sun Quan followed suit and declared himself emperor of Wu, with his capital at Jianye, the site of the modern city of Nanjing.

As emperor he governed a rich and populous territory. He promoted the development of agriculture and of water transport, encouraged the settlement of the river valleys, and supported trade, including trade by sea with distant lands. Wu maintained contacts along the coast and with the south, and its ships are said to have reached as far as the islands of the southern seas and to have made journeys that later tradition associated with Fulin, or the Roman Empire.

His government was built on a partnership with the great families of the southeast, whose support he cultivated and whose power he acknowledged. This gave the state of Wu a stable base but also made it dependent on aristocratic interests. Under Sun Quan the territory of the south began to emerge as a distinct and increasingly important centre of Chinese life.

Court, Culture and Later Troubles

Sun Quan's court at Jianye became a gathering place for scholars, poets and officials, and the state of Wu produced a notable culture of letters and of scholarship. He supported the study of the classics and the compilation of historical and literary works, and his capital grew into a substantial city. The Wu elite cultivated a refined and literary style that left its mark on the culture of the south.

The great military talent of the reign was Lu Xun, who commanded the Wu armies in a series of campaigns against Wei and Shu. Lu Xun's victory at the battle of Yiling in 222 AD, where he destroyed the army of Liu Bei, preserved the southern state and made his reputation. Sun Quan valued him highly and entrusted him with the highest military office, and his career illustrated the depth of talent that Wu could command.

The last years of Sun Quan's reign were troubled by disputes over the succession. He had named a crown prince and then quarrelled with him and with his favourites, and the conflicts among his sons and their supporters weakened the court and divided the great families. The instability that followed his death in 252 AD did lasting damage to the state, which survived for another two decades before its conquest by the northern power in 280 AD.

Death and Legacy

Sun Quan died in 252 AD at the age of about seventy, having ruled his territories for more than fifty years and reigned as emperor for twenty-three. He was one of the longest-lived and most successful of the rulers of the Three Kingdoms, a man who inherited a precarious position and turned it into a durable state that endured for decades after his death.

He is remembered as the founder of Wu and as the ruler who preserved the independence of the south. His decision to resist Cao Cao at Red Cliffs, and his willingness to ally with Liu Bei when circumstances demanded and to break with him when they changed, displayed a flexible and pragmatic statesmanship well suited to an age of shifting alliances.

Under his rule the southeast, which had been a frontier region of the Chinese world, grew into a wealthy and populous heartland. The development of the south that would continue in later centuries, and that would eventually make it the economic centre of China, owed much to the stability and the prosperity that Wu enjoyed, and Sun Quan stands at the head of that long transformation.

He remains one of the three great sovereigns of the period, the counterpart to Cao Cao in the north and Liu Bei in the west. In the popular tradition of the Three Kingdoms he appears as a shrewd and sometimes calculating ruler, the master of the rich south, whose calculations of advantage shaped the balance of power among the three states.

See also

• Three Kingdoms
• Eastern Wu
• Battle of Red Cliffs
• Lu Xun