Sun He was the third son of Sun Quan, the founding emperor of Wu.
36 Facts About Sun He
1.
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Sun He was born as the third son of Sun Quan, a warlord of the late Eastern Han dynasty who became the founding emperor of the Eastern Wu state in the Three Kingdoms period; he had two elder brothers, Sun Deng and Sun Lu.
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Sun He's mother was Lady Wang, one of Sun Quan's concubines; she was posthumously honoured as "Empress Dayi" in 264.
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Sun He was genuinely interested in getting to know people.
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Sun He only put aside his worries upon seeing his father return safely to Wu.
8.
Sun He heard that Cai Ying, a member of his personal staff, enjoyed playing weiqi and that many of Cai Ying's subordinates picked up the game and spent a lot of time playing.
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Sun He thus came up with an idea to subtly remind and motivate his subordinates.
10.
Sun He called for a meeting and asked them to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of playing weiqi.
11.
One of them, Wei Yao, went home, wrote an essay on this topic and presented it to Sun He, who had copies of it distributed among his personal staff.
12.
On one occasion, Sun Quan could not attend a ceremony at the imperial ancestral temple because he was sick, so he ordered Sun He to take his place.
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Sun Luban sent her servants to spy on Sun He and reported to her father that Sun He was not in the imperial ancestral temple and was instead staying with his in-laws and plotting something.
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Sun He Quan believed his daughter and became furious with Lady Wang.
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Sun He fell out of his father's favour as a result and he became worried that his father would remove him from his position as Crown Prince.
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Sometime in the 240s, Sun He became embroiled in a power struggle against his fourth brother, Sun Ba, the Prince of Lu, who wanted to seize the position of Crown Prince from him.
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For example, Sun He should be accorded greater honours and privileges as compared to Sun Ba because he, as the Crown Prince, was in a higher position compared to the other princes.
19.
Two opposing factions emerged from among Sun Quan's subjects: On one side, Lu Xun, Zhuge Ke, Gu Tan, Zhu Ju, Teng Yin, Shi Ji, Ding Mi and Wu Can believed that Sun He was the rightful heir apparent so they supported him.
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Sun He wanted to end the power struggle and designate a new heir apparent, so he started taking action against some of the officials involved: Wu Can was imprisoned and executed later; Gu Tan was exiled to Jiao Province; Yang Zhu was executed and his body dumped into the river; Quan Ji, Wu An and Sun Qi were executed.
21.
Sun He commented that Sun Quan was worse than Yuan Shao and Liu Biao because, unlike Yuan Shao and Liu Biao who defied traditional norms of succession and made it clear that they wanted a younger son to succeed them, Sun Quan created ambiguity and uncertainty when he favoured Sun Ba despite having already designated Sun Sun He as his heir apparent.
22.
Sun He remarked that this incident had a huge negative impact on Bu Zhi in particular, because Bu Zhi had a reputation for being virtuous and generous.
23.
When Sun He Quan saw them, he felt angry and scolded them for creating a disturbance.
24.
Later, he had the intention of deposing Sun He and replacing him with Sun Liang, his youngest son.
25.
Two officials, Chen Zheng and Chen Xiang, wrote a memorial to Sun He Quan, citing the historical example of Shensheng and Xiqi to warn Sun He Quan that changing the Crown Prince could lead to a civil war in the future.
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Sun He Quan got fed up with them, so he executed Chen Zheng and Chen Xiang and had Zhu Ju and Qu Huang flogged 100 times.
27.
When Sun Quan became critically ill between 250 and 252, he regretted his decision to depose Sun He and thought of restoring Sun He as Crown Prince.
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Some people interpreted this as a sign that disaster would befall Sun He, while others thought that it was an auspicious sign since Sun He had now been restored to noble status after being deposed.
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Sun He's behaviour became even more suspicious when he floated the idea of moving the imperial capital from Jianye to Wuchang.
30.
Sun He appointed an Administrator to govern Wuxing Commandery and put him in charge of the organising the ceremonies to honour his father every season.
31.
Sun He then put Xue Xu in charge of overseeing the construction of the temple, which was named "Qing Temple".
32.
Sun He Hao ordered the Imperial Chancellor Lu Kai to oversee the sacrificing of animals in the neighbouring villages as offerings to his father's spirit.
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Sun He only stopped doing so when an official told him that the entire ceremony would lose its sacredness if he performed it excessively.
34.
Sun He probably died early, or else Sun Hao might have purged him too.
35.
Sun He had a daughter who was born to Crown Princess Zhang.
36.
Sun He married Lu Jing, who was born to Lu Kang and another daughter of Zhang Cheng; both Sun He's daughter and Lu Jing therefore were Zhang Cheng's maternal grandchildren.