Xu Gong

Xu Gong wrote a letter that got him strangled, and his retainers killed the man who had done it. He was Administrator of Wu commandery in the lower Yangtze at the end of the Han, when the dynasty had collapsed into warlord provinces and the region was being taken by Sun Ce, a commander in his twenties who had conquered most of the south-east in about five years. The office mattered. A commandery administrator collected the taxes, ran the courts and recommended men for appointment across a district of several counties, and the households he raised that way were his personally rather than the throne's. That is why his opinion was worth sending to the capital, and why men who owed him everything were still willing to act two years after he was dead. Xu Gong wrote privately to the imperial court at Xu, which was under Cao Cao's control, advising that Sun Ce was dangerous and should be summoned to the capital where he could be watched - which is to say, removed from his army. The letter was intercepted. Sun Ce had him brought in, confronted him with it, and had him strangled. In 200, hunting alone and ahead of his escort, Sun Ce was ambushed by three of Xu Gong's former retainers, who shot him in the face with an arrow. He died of the wound within months, at twenty-five, having told his brother Sun Quan that in open battle Sun Quan was no match for him, but in holding what they had and choosing men, he was no match for Sun Quan. Sun Quan held it for fifty-two years and became the founding emperor of Wu. The episode is one of the clearest cases in the period of a private grievance changing a succession: three men with no army and no title removed the most successful young commander in China, and the state that resulted was shaped by the brother who inherited it instead.

• Lived: 150 CE – 200 CE
• Nationality: Chinese
• Roles: politician