Sun jian

Sun Jian was born in Fuchun (富春) County, Wu (吳郡) County, on the territory of the modern urban county of Fuyang, a city of sub-provincial significance, Hangzhou , Zhejiang . It is believed that he was a descendant of the famous strategist Sun Tzu , but there is no documentary evidence of this. Apparently, his family did not play a significant role during the Han Dynasty - even the name of Father Sun Jiang did not survive, although the folk tradition says that his name was Sun Zhong.

Upon reaching the age of sixteen, Sun Jian went with his father to Qiantang (on the territory of modern Hangzhou), and dispersed a gang of robbers along the way, which made his name widely known.

In 184, the Yellow Armband revolt began under the leadership of Zhang Jiao . Sun Jian joined the forces of General Zhu Jun , who suppressed the uprisings in the Yuzhou region (the south of modern Henan and the north of modern Anhui ). The soldiers fought bravely and drove the rebels into the city of Wancheng . Sun Jian rushed forward and climbed the city wall first. Carried away by his impulse, the troops took the city and defeated the rebels.

Around this time, Bian Zhang and Han Sui conspired with the Qiang tribes and rebelled in the Liangzhou region (west of the modern Gansu province). After Dong Zhuo could not deal with him, the central government sent Minister Zhang Wen to suppress him, who took Sun Jiang with him as an adviser. When Zhang Wen called Dong Zhuo at his headquarters in Chang'an , Dong Zhuo hesitated, and when he finally appeared, he acted disrespectfully. Sun Jian advised Zhang Wen to execute Dong Zhuo, but he did not dare to do so, since Dong Zhuo was very popular in the western regions of the country.

Upon learning of the arrival of a large army, the rebels preferred to surrender. However, when Zhang Wen and the others returned to the capital, the city of Luoyang , they decided at the court that since the army had not entered the battle with the enemy, then they should not be honored. Meanwhile, another uprising broke out in the Changsha area, and the rebels besieged the city. Sun Jian was put in charge of Changsha, and managed to cope with the uprising in just a month. During this time, the uprising managed to spread to neighboring Lingling and Guiyang , but Sun Jian managed to crush him there too, having received the title of "Wucheng Hou " (烏 程 侯) for this.

In 189, the emperor Ling-di died, and He Jin - the brother of the widowed concubine He - when he learned that the influential eunuch Jian Sho intends to kill him, preventively proclaimed the 13-year-old imperial son Liu Bian emperor, which immediately made him powerful as the emperor’s uncle figure at court. In autumn, He Jin decided to get rid of influential palace eunuchs, and invited Dong Zhuo to come to the capital with his troops. When Dong Zhuo with the troops approached the capital, the Dowager Empress He forced the influential eunuchs to leave the palace and return to their specific possessions, however, later Zhang Jean persuaded the empress to return them to the court. The eunuchs learned that He Jin planned to get rid of them, and killed him. The allies of He Jin, led by Yuan Shao , surrounded the palace, and then the eunuchs, taking hostage the Empress Dowager Empress He, the young emperor and his younger brother Liu Xie, fled. Meanwhile, Yuan Shao massacred the remaining eunuchs.

Two days later, the eunuchs who escaped from the palace, pursued on their heels, released the hostages and committed suicide by drowning in the Yellow River . When the persecuting eunuchs Lu Zhi and Ming Gong returned with the emperor and his relatives to the palace, they were intercepted by Dong Zhuo's troops. The emperor looked nervous and scared, while his younger brother remained calm and collected, and ordered Dong Zhuo to take them back to the palace. Dong Zhuo seized the opportunity to seize power and introduced his army into the capital. Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, seeing that they could not resist the experienced troops, fled from the capital. After that, Dong Zhuo replaced the emperor, lowering him in title to the Hunnun prince, and enthroned his younger brother Liu Xie, who received the throne name Xian-di .

In the spring of 190, a number of provincial governors and military leaders formed a coalition against Dong Zhuo, declaring that he usurped the throne and was holding the emperor virtually hostage. In China, a civil war broke out, leading to the collapse of the Han empire. Sun Jian joined the coalition and also gathered a ten-thousand-strong army, and joined Yuan Shu in the Luoyang area, who made Sun Jiang governor of the Yuzhou region. Meanwhile, Dong Zhuo, warned of coalition plans, moved the capital west to Chang'an, taking the emperor with him. While the coalition was making plans, Sun Jian took calculated risks and attacked Dong Zhuo near Luoyang . Having gained a number of victories over his troops, Sun Jian forced Dong Zhuo to retreat to Chang'an, and Luoyang came under the control of the coalition.

In 191, Yuan Shu sent Sun Jiang to attack Liu Biao in the Jingzhou region (the territory of the modern provinces of Hubei and Hunan ). Sun Jian defeated the troops commanded by his subordinate Liu Biao, Huang Zu, and pursued them to Xianyang, but was ambushed and killed by an arrow.

After the death of Sun Jiang, his five sons remained - Sun Tse , Sun Quan , Sun Kuan, Sun Yi and Sun Lan. Sun Jiang also had a daughter, whose real name was not preserved in history, but it is customary to call her "Shangxiang" in the sources. She was the wife of the first emperor of the Shu kingdom - Liu Bei .

Sun Jian was bred by Luo Guangzhong in the novel The Three Kingdoms . He also appears in the video games of the Dynasty Warriors and Warriors Orochi series .

• The official biography of Sun Jiang in " San-go-ji " ( Chinese )