AD 265

AD 265 marks a decisive dynastic transfer: Cao Huan abdicated, Sima Yan became emperor of the Great Jin, and Sun Hao was proclaimed emperor of Wu. In the book’s account, the year closes the Wei dynasty’s claim to rule and opens the Sima family’s rule over a China that would be unified only later.

The transfer of the Mandate

The abdication of Cao Huan is presented not simply as a change of ruler but as the latest turn in a recurring argument about political legitimacy. Earlier, Cao Pi had received the throne from the Han emperor through an abdication staged as a transfer modeled on the ancient precedent of Yao. The ceremony claimed that Heaven’s favor and the people’s hopes had moved from one ruling house to another. The later transfer from Wei to Jin repeats that logic: the mandate, once said to have passed from Han to Wei, is now declared to have passed from Wei to the Sima family.

Sima Yan’s accession

Early in AD 265, Cao Huan abdicated and Sima Yan ascended the throne. Jia Chong read the pronouncement that Heaven and Earth had chosen the Sima family after Wei, like Han before it, had lost the right to rule. Cao Huan was reduced to a minor title, and Sima Yan became emperor of the new Great Jin dynasty. The account treats this as the end of Wei rule, while the transfer’s orderly language of abdication stands in contrast to the coercive political reality surrounding a deposed emperor.

The succession in Wu

The same year brought a separate succession crisis in Wu. After Sun Xiu was gravely ill and unable to speak, he indicated his heir, Sun Wan, to Prime Minister Puyang Xing. But military officers objected that Sun Wan was too young to lead the state under the circumstances. They pressed instead for Sun Hao, son of Sun He, and Sun Wan was assigned a small region to govern. Sun Hao was proclaimed emperor in AD 265.

Sun Hao’s accession did not produce a stable or benevolent rule. He soon displayed cruelty and extreme violence, made the eunuch Cen Hun his close associate, and had Puyang Xing and others executed after they protested. His oppressive measures and heavy taxes brought poverty across broad areas, and he also seized private funds and family fortunes. Thus the year that established Jin also began a harsh period of Wu rule, even as Wu remained a separate kingdom.

A transition, not reunification

AD 265 therefore marks a change in the dynasty claiming authority over the realm, not the immediate end of the Three Kingdoms. Shu had already surrendered to Wei, but Wu was still ruled independently under Sun Hao. Only later did Sun Hao surrender and the kingdoms become united. The year’s significance lies in this gap between claims and control: Wei’s mandate was declared lost, Jin began under Sima Yan, and the final unification remained to come.