Sun Xiu

Sixth son of Sun Quan and Prince of Langye, fetched from Hulin after dreaming he rode a tailless dragon into the sky, warned on the road at Que by an old man calling himself Gan Xiu that 'Your Majesty should move faster, for things may change swiftly'. Refuses the state chariot sent to meet him, travels in his own carriage, dismounts to return the officials' salutations, and declines the throne three times before taking it. Then spends the autumn outwardly favouring Sun Chen and secretly watching him; is told of the drunken boast by Zhang Bu, of the arsenals by Wei Miao and Shi Shuo, takes Ding Feng into his confidence, and springs the banquet. Refuses the plea for exile, executes the whole family, has Sun Jun's tomb opened and the corpse beheaded, and raises magnificent tombs to Zhuge Ke, Teng Yin, Lu Ju and Wang Chun. His sigh over Xue Xu's report on Shu is the chapter's epitaph: 'Ah! If only Zhuge Liang the Martial Lord was still alive---how different all would be!'

Answers the appeal from Mianzhu at once: 'The land of Shu being in danger, I cannot sit and look on unconcerned.' Commits fifty thousand troops under Ding Feng with Sun Yin and Ding Fung as assistants, in three divisions - twenty thousand toward Mianzhu and thirty thousand against Shouchun as a diversion.

Named in Deng Ai's memorial as the objective of the next war and as the reason for handling Liu Shan gently: 'generous treatment of Liu Shan will tend to weaken Sun Xiu; but if Liu Shan be removed to Luoyang, the people of Wu will be perplexed and doubtful about what may happen to them, and they will not be amenable.'

Acts on Hua Jiao's warning at once, and the dispositions he makes are Wu's defence for the rest of the book: Lu Xun's son Lu Kang over the army of Jingzhou and the river ports as General Who Guards the East, Sun Yin to Nanxu, and Ding Feng to set up several hundred garrisons along the river banks.

Dies in the chapter's opening paragraph, and the manner of it is the last of the novel's failed handovers: knowing that Jin will come for Wu next, 'The anxiety made him ill, so that he took to his bed and was like to die.' He summons Puyang Xing and his heir Sun Wan, and they arrive almost too late - 'The dying Ruler, with his last effort, took the Minister by the hand, but could only point to his son. Then he died.' The son is passed over within the hour.