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Zhang Zhao
Senior statesman of Wu entrusted by Sun Ce with guiding Sun Quan, who urged submission to Cao Cao before Red Cliffs.
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
Also known as Zi Zibu · Marquis of Lou · Marquis Wen
- Roles
- Chief Ministers
Zhang Zhao, courtesy name Zibu, was a learned man from Pengcheng who fled the chaos of the late Han to the lower Yangtze. Sun Ce made him chief clerk and entrusted him with both civil and military affairs, and on his deathbed charged him with guiding Sun Quan; Zhang rallied the officials behind the young ruler. When Cao Cao swept south in 208 he led the party urging submission, against Lu Su and Zhou Yu who argued for war. After Sun Quan took the imperial title he became General Who Assists Wu and Marquis of Lou, and died in 236 with the posthumous title Marquis Wen. He voices the case for surrender in the Zizhi Tongjian account of Red Cliffs.
Life and times
Dates 156–236 CE