Sun Quan (孫權), courtesy name Zhongmou (仲謀), posthumously known as Emperor Da of Wu (吳大帝), was the founder of the Eastern Wu dynasty, one of the Three Kingdoms of China.
After Sun Jian's death in the early 190s, he and his family lived at various cities on the lower Yangtze River, until Sun Ce carved out a warlord regime in the Jiangdong region, based on his own followers and a number of local clan allegiances. When Sun Ce was assassinated, Sun Quan inherited the lands southeast of the Yangtze River from his brother.
In winter of 207, the northern warlord Cao Cao led an army of approximately 220,000 to conquer the south to complete the reunification of China. Two distinct factions emerged at his court on how to handle the situation. One, led by Zhang Zhao, urged surrender whilst the other, led by Zhou Yu and Lu Su and with support from a diplomatic mission by Zhuge Liang, opposed Cao Cao. Eventually Sun Quan decided to ally with Liu Bei and employing the combined strategies of Zhou Yu and Huang Gai, they defeated Cao Cao decisively at the Battle of Red Cliffs.
In late 220, Cao Pi, King of Wei, Cao Cao's son and successor, seized the throne and proclaimed himself to be the Emperor of China, ending and succeeding the nominal rule of the Han dynasty. At first Sun Quan nominally served as a Wei vassal with the Wei-created title of King of Wu, but after Cao Pi demanded that he send his son Sun Deng as a hostage to the Wei capital Luoyang and he refused and declared himself independent by changing his era name. It was not until May 229 that he formally declared himself emperor.
After the death of his original crown prince, Sun Deng, two opposing factions supporting different potential successors slowly emerged. Sun Quan harshly settled the conflict between the two factions by exiling Sun He and forcing Sun Ba to commit suicide. Sun Quan died in May 252 at the age of 70 (by East Asian reckoning). He enjoyed the longest reign among all the founders of the Three Kingdoms and was succeeded by his son, Sun Liang.
