Zhuge Ke

First major appearance - Zhuge Jin's clever son, seven spans in height and especially apt at capping verses. At six he turns the donkey Sun Quan had chalked 'My friend Zhuge Jin' into 'My friend Zhuge Jin's donkey' and is given the donkey for it. Later, sent round with the wine at a large banquet, he answers Zhang Zhao's refusal by citing Lu Wang, who at ninety still 'gripped the signaling flags and wielded the axes of an army commander in the field. He never spoke of age. Nowadays in battle we put seniors behind, but at the banquet board we give them a front place' - and the old man has to drink. Made Left Companion of the Heir Apparent. The future regent of Wu.

Assassinated in this chapter. Made Imperial Guardian and regent at Sun Quan's deathbed, he puts Sun Liang on the throne and wins at Dongxing on Ding Feng's charge — and then over-reaches on the strength of it: 'Sima Zhao has suffered a defeat and retreated to the north. It is time to take the Middle Land!' Nearly executes Jiang Yan for reading the white rainbow as an ill omen, besieges Xincheng for months, is taken in by Zhang Te's hundred-day rule and lets him rebuild the wall, takes an arrow in the forehead, and threatens to behead anyone who mentions the plague in his camp — at which the army starts deserting in companies. Comes home beaten, refuses to attend court, and turns on his own officials with banishments and executions 'till everyone walked in terror'. The last day is one long omen: a stranger in mourning white inside a gate nobody entered by, the main beam of his hall breaking in the night, the ghosts of the men he executed for it holding their heads in their hands, washing water that smells of blood, a yellow dog howling at his sleeve, and a white rainbow rising out of the earth in front of his carriage. Beheaded at the banquet, thrown into a rubbish pit, and his household murdered — his own father had said of him 'This son will not safeguard the family.'

Named in passing only, and long dead, but first on the list of the rehabilitated: 'Magnificent tombs were raised to his victims---Zhuge Ke, Teng Yin, Lu Ju, Wang Chun, and others. Thus at last loyalty was rewarded.' The man Sun Jun murdered at a banquet in ch108 is honoured in the same hour Sun Jun's corpse is beheaded.