Gongsun Zan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Names | |
|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese: | 公孙瓒 |
| Traditional Chinese: | 公孫瓚 |
| Pinyin: | Gōngsūn Zàn |
| Wade-Giles: | Kungsun Ts'an |
| Zi: | Bogui (伯珪) |
Gongsun Zan (? - 199) was a warlord of northern China active toward the end of the second century AD.
He was commander of a cavalry force and served on the northern and eastern frontiers of the Han Dynasty empire fighting against various non-Chinese peoples. In 191, Gongsun enlisted as part of the coalition against Dong Zhuo, the nobleman who had seized power in Luoyang and held the emperor hostage, but used the opportunity to enlarge his territories. In late 191, Gongsun Zan appointed the later great Shu general, Zhao Yun. Zhao Yun later joined another member of the attack on Dong Zhuo, Liu Bei. Throughout the 190s he fought a series of battles with the warlord Yuan Shao for control of north China, starting with the Battle of Jieqiao. He was defeated by Yuan in 199 in the Battle of Yijing and committed suicide by burning the pagoda he was on.
Gongsun Zan was known as the 'General of Baima' and renowned for his brigade of elite cavalry from Baima, made up completely of horses of pure white (Bai Ma means white horse in Chinese). It seems he hit on the tactic of using all white horses in battle when he learned the barbarians he was then fighting against considered the animals sacred and would run from them instead of fighting.
He had one son, Gongsun Xu.
 |
This Chinese biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
