Sun Qian

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Sun Qian

孫乾

孙乾

Transliterations

Sun Qian, styled Gongyou (公祐), was an advisor and emissary to Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han Dynasty period. He was originally working for Tao Qian, the governor of Xuzhou (徐州), together with Mi Zhu, Mi Fang and Cao Pao. After the death of Tao Qian and Xuzhou was passed on to Liu Bei, Sun Qian and his colleagues served Liu Bei from then on. During his servitude to Liu Bei, he acted as an advisor and sometimes as an emissary, or on rare occasion as a commander during war. During Liu Beis' flight from Chang Ban, he bravely defended the eastern road to the Chang Jiang River. When Liu Bei established Shu Kingdom, Sun Qian was awarded a position almost higher than Zhuge Liang due to his long years of serving Liu Bei.

Although Liu Bei admired Sun Qian knowledge, but as he told Zhuge Liang at one point, Sun Qian and Mi Zhu although are intelligent and capable ministers, but they only learned from books and doesn't have much real life experience about people.

[edit] Romance of the Three Kingdom

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, when Liu Bei just lost his fiefdom Runan after a badly planned attack on Cao Cao, it was Sun Qians suggestion to seek refuge at Liu Biao kingdom. Liu Bei liked the idea and thus he send Sun Qian to do the negotiation with Liu Biao. When Sun Qian successfully talked into Liu Biao to help Liu Bei, Liu Biao general and also his brother in law Cai Mao was afraid that keeping Liu Bei would only anger Cao Cao, and he suggest to kill Sun Qian and hand over Liu Bei to Cao Cao. However Sun Qian became enraged hearing those words and shouted that he wasn't afraid to die and that his lord Liu Bei is fighting a just cause to restore the Han Kingdom, instead he threaten Cai Mao would bring dishonor to himself and his future generation as a coward throughout history. Liu Biao became angry and dismissed Cai Mao and continued his negotiation with Sun Qian in which he granted Liu Bei a small county to stay.