In the Romance, it's stated that Guan Yu left behind three main commanders--Mi Feng, Fu Shiren, and Pan Jun--to block Wu so he could attack Fan. Fu Shiren and Mi Feng are well known, but can you tell us about the third guy, Pan Jun? All the Romance says of him is that he's kind of a jerk and that Guan Yu should have left a different officer (it names Zhao Lei in particular) to block Wu instead.
Let's review everyone here.
SGZ 45.4 tells us that Shi Ren (Junyi) was from Guangyang. He was assigned to guard Gong'an under Guan Yu but betrayed him to Sun Quan. Guan Yu's biography (SGZ 36.1) concurs with this. It inserts the character 傅 in front of his name (leading to the misnomer Fushi Ren). SGZ 2 and SGZ 54.3 both agree with SGZ 45, so we can conclude that the character 傅 is a corruption or an error.
Mi Fang was the brother of Mi Zhu (SGZ 38.2). Their sister was married to Liu Bei before he fled to Jing province. At the time of the Fan campaign, Mi Fang was the head of Nan canton, with his headquarters at Jiangling (which he shared with Guan Yu). His family had a reputation for being skilled at the horse and bow, and he successfully helped suppress a revolt after defecting to Wu, so he was not without some talents.
Pan Jun was by far the most important and interesting of these men. His biography (SGZ 61.1) is a bit on the longer side.
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Pan Jun was from Wuling in the unfashionable part of Jing. He distinguished himself as a scholar when he was young and became a military adviser in Jiangxia (where he would have served Huang Zu. He was later made magistrate of Xiangyang, making him a figure of substantial note at Liu Biao's court. When Liu Bei took over, Pan Jun became one his advisers. During the campaign for Yi province, Pan Jun was left in Jing to manage the province's affairs.
Pan Jun initially refused to serve Sun Quan when he annexed Jing but changed his mind after receiving a personal visit. He subsequently advised Sun Quan in securing the territory. When Sun Quan took the imperial title, Pan Jun was made one of the Nine Ministers. Eventually he became Minister of Ceremonies (which Wu appears to have treated as the chief of the Excellencies), a title he retained for the rest of his life.
The most notable exploit of Pan Jun's career was a campaign in the 230s. Over the course of several years he subdued the various tribes of western Jing, bringing the territory firmly under Sun Quan's control. Many of Wu's future commanders first saw serious campaigning during this episode.
However, Pan Jun and Sun Quan started to fall out later in life. Sun Quan began listening to corrupt officials and Pan Jun had no patience for that. Back when he was just a military advisor he had executed the corrupt chief of Shaxian. He wrote repeated letters to Sun Quan warning him about the unscrupulous officials at his court but to no avail. A particularly powerful official, Lu Yi, tried to have Pan Jun ousted but failed.
Eventually Pan Jun got fed up with being nice. He traveled to Jianye attempting to simply murder Lu Yi himself and face the consequences. However, Lu Yi avoided the meeting. Soon, the officials were able to prevail upon Sun Quan to punish Lu Yi, who was duly executed. Nevertheless, the rift between Sun Quan and his advisers never fully healed, and Pan Jun himself died not long after this.
Hey man, just wanted to ask what's known about Lady Mi, MI Zhu and Mi Fang's sister and Liu Bei's wife?
Mi Zhu was from an extremely wealthy family of merchants. He was known for his generosity, though he was not a man of any great skills. He helped Liu Bei succeed Tao Qian and remained loyal to him until the end of his life. After Lu Bu destroyed Liu Bei’s army in 196, Mi Zhu used his fortune to help Liu Bei rebuild, and also arranged the marriage between Liu Bei and his sister. He was given honorary titles in Liu Bei’s court, though since he was not skilled in domestic or military afffairs, he never had any responsibilities.
Mi Fang was a bit more martially minded than Mi Zhu, and more talented. He was given important positions by Liu Bei and eventually became Grand Administrator of Nan commandery. However, he had to share his city (Jiangling) with Guan Yu (who was Grand Administrator of Xiangyang but couldn’t capture the city) and the two came to hate each other. Guan Yu bullied Mi Fang and eventually drove him to defect. After joining Wu, he helped defeat a rebellion along with He Qi and had some fame there.
Both Mi Zhu and Mi Fang were skilled at horsemanship and archery.
There isn’t much recorded about Lady Mi. She married Liu Bei in 196, and he abaondoned her at some point , as he had a habit of doing. This treatment migth have been another factor in Mi Fang’s eventual defection.
Do you blame Fu Shiren/Shi Ren and Mi Feng for defecting? The SGYY made it seem like they had no real choice. Were they reliable in general? Also, why does Shi Ren/Fu Shiren have 2 names?
It’s safe to ignore everything the SGYY has to say about everything. It is, after all, a work of fiction.
I do blame them, to some extent. They are, after all, responsible for their own actions and “Guan Yu’s a dick” doesn’t exactly justify turning Gong’an and Jiangling over to Lü Meng. Still, it’s easy to see where they were coming from, given the mess Guan Yu was making of everything and the attractive alternatives Lü Meng offered.
There isn’t much recorded about their careers prior to this. Mi Fang served under Tao Qian, then joined Liu Bei and remained with him until his defection in 219. He served as Grand Administrator of Nan since the commandery was given to Liu Bei in 210, though he had to share his headquarters with Guan Yu (who was Grand Administrator of Xiangyang but couldn’t capture the city). He was recorded as being a talented horseman and archer. After joining Wu, he helped He Qi suppress a rebellion, where he performed fairly well. That’s about all there is recorded of him, though. I know of no prior or subsequent records regarding Shi Ren.
Regarding Shi Ren’s name: Guan Yu’s SGZ gives his name as Fùshì Rén (傅士仁). However, all of the other accounts in different biographies (Liao Hua, Sun Quan, and Lü Meng) ommit the “fù/傅” character and just give his name as Shì Rén (士仁). The addition of “fù/傅” in Guan Yu’s biography appears to be some sort of error, since the use of Shì Rén (士仁) is consistent throughout the rest of the Sanguo Zhi. But Luo Guanzhong went with Fushi Ren in the Romance so that’s the one that stuck, even though it is obviously wrong.
