A dive into the real life of the guy who ran the family business for 50-plus years. Transcript Sun Quan (Source: Dhugal Fletcher, via Wikipedia) Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is a supplemental episode. In this episode, we are delving into the life of the real Sun Quan, the longtime ruler of the Southlands. In the novel, Sun Quan took over the reins of his family’s enterprise at the age of 18, and he kept the Southlands safe for the next 52 years of his life, until his death at the age of 70. He was painted as a generally wise, if sometimes quick-to-anger, ruler. Let’s see if the real history bears this out. Sun Quan was born in the year 182, a couple years before the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion that kicked off our novel. Now, according to the author of the historical text the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, the Sun family came from humble backgrounds. But there’s a legend that they were actually descendants of Sun Zi (3), he who wrote the now famous text the Art of War. But there is no proof of that, and it sounds like the kind of embellishment one might go back and tack onto one’s family history after one had become the ruler of his own kingdom. While Sun Quan’s more distant family roots may be ordinary, his more immediate connections definitely made names for themselves. His father Sun Jian (1) made his name in helping to put down the Yellow Turban Rebellion and then became a prominent player in the early period of the novel. He was one of the 18 warlords who joined forces to take on the tyrannical prime minister Dong Zhuo. That coalition quickly dissolved, and Sun Jian went home to the Southlands to begin building his empire. But he was killed in the year 191 while waging war against Liu Biao, the imperial protector of Jing Province. Four years after Sun Jian’s death, his eldest son Sun Ce began his grand enterprise of carving out an empire in the Southlands. Sun Quan was only about 13 years old at this point, but he accompanied his brother on campaign and was said to have been one of his advisers. In fact, Sun Ce was so impressed by his younger brother that he felt Sun Quan was even more talented than himself. When they feasted with guests, Sun Ce apparently would often turn to Sun Quan and tell him, “All of these people will one day serve you.” By the time he was 17 years old, Sun Quan had begun leading troops for Sun Ce. A year later, Sun Ce was assassinated, and at the age of 18 or 19, Sun Quan became the patriarch of his family. The early years of Sun Quan’s reign were unsteady to say the least. At that point, his domain consisted only of six districts, and after he came into power, five of those six districts fell into rebellion. Even members of his own clan were plotting against him. One of his cousins was in secret contact with Cao Cao. Another launched an attack on one of the districts. And several other officials also staged insurrections. To his credit, though, Sun Quan faced them all down. After a series of battles over three or four years, he managed to pacify the districts and bring some stability to his reign. I think this was more or less glossed over in the novel, which made it seem like Sun Quan was inexperienced and relatively untested when he was facing Cao Cao’s invasion at Red Cliff. In reality, he had been fighting for his throne from the moment he sat down in it.