Lady Sun - in Fiction

In Fiction

In the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lady Sun was known as "Sun Ren" (孫仁), possibly a corruption of her name "Sun Renxian" (孫仁獻) as recorded in the unofficial historical text Hanjin Chunqiu. In the novel, she is depicted as a very fiery and determined woman; however, the footnotes of the novel state that she was considered a handful to deal with and Liu Bei's followers had to keep an eye on her to make sure she did not run amok.

Sun Quan invited Liu Bei, governor of Jing Province at the time, to travel to Eastern Wu. Liu Bei was told that the purpose of the visit was to marry Sun Shangxiang and to strengthen their alliance with the deed. However, the marriage proposal turned out to be a lethal trap set by Sun Quan's strategist Zhou Yu. The plan was to lure Liu into Eastern Wu unarmed, and then hold him hostage in exchange for Jing Province. Liu got word of the plot and fled back to Jing Province with Sun Shangxiang. However, on the way back, the two were stopped by Eastern Wu guards who had received orders to recapture Liu Bei at all costs. Sun scolded the guards and forced them to give way.

After the first plan failed, Sun Quan spread fake news that Lady Wu, Sun Shangxiang's mother, was extremely ill and wished to see her daughter and step-grandson, Liu Shan. Sun Quan planned to then capture Liu Shan and hold him captive, once more asking for Jing Province in return for the boy's freedom. Very distressed, Sun Shangxiang attempted to leave with her stepson. However, Zhao Yun blocked the way and retrieved Liu Shan. Undeterred, Sun Shangxiang travelled on back to Eastern Wu where she would remain for the remainder of her life. Upon hearing rumors of Liu Bei's supposed death at the Battle of Xiaoting (He actually survived, but died a year later), she rode out to a forest and threw herself in a river. There is no historical record of this event.