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Liu Kun
Western Jin general and poet who held Jinyang against the Xiongnu Han and Shi Le for a decade and was strangled by his Xianbei ally Duan Pidi in 318
At dusk on a hilltop, a large tent stands open with a table holding a map marked with small stones inside, a saddled horse tethered outside, and fire stands burning; campfires dot the river plain below, and one tiny sentry stands on the slope.
Also known as Zi Yueshi
Liu Kun, courtesy name Yueshi, came from Weichang in Zhongshan and claimed descent from a Han prince; as a young man he was counted among Jia Mi's twenty-four friends. Serving with Zu Ti as a clerk in Si province, he shared a bed with him, and the History of Jin (Jinshu) tells how Zu woke him at cock-crow in the night to practise swordplay. Appointed inspector of Bing province in 306, he found Jinyang in ruins, gathered refugees and rebuilt it, and with help from the Tuoba chief Yilu held out for ten years against Liu Yuan's Han state and Shi Le. Beaten by Shi Le in 316, he lost Bing province and took refuge with Duan Pidi, the Xianbei governor of You province, with whom he swore brotherhood and urged Sima Rui to take the throne. In 318 Duan, grown suspicious, had him strangled at forty-eight. A poem he wrote to Lu Chen laments tempered steel turned soft enough to wind round a finger.
Life and times
Dates 270 CE–318 CE (birth by another account 271)