Lü Fan

Lü Fan is an assistant to Sun Quan who serves as an emissary in the politically fraught proposal that Xuande marry Sun Quan’s sister. His mission is presented as a means of uniting the two families and their forces against Cao Cao, but it takes place amid Zhou Yu’s separate scheme to capture Xuande and use him as leverage for the return of Jingzhou. Lü Fan’s role links the marriage diplomacy to the hazards surrounding it.

Service to Sun Quan

When Sun Quan considers how to carry out Zhou Yu’s plan, he selects Lü Fan to approach Xuande with a marriage proposal. The assignment is framed in public as an auspicious opportunity to bind the families and armies together as comrades against Cao Cao. Lü Fan therefore acts on Sun Quan’s authority, carrying a political offer whose stated purpose differs from Zhou Yu’s concealed design.

The mission to Xuande

Lü Fan travels by fast boat to Nanxu bearing two documents: a document from Xuande and a letter from Zhou Yu. Sun Quan first reads Xuande’s document, which prompts an angry response because of what Lü Su had agreed to; the letter then reveals Zhou Yu’s secret plan. Sun Quan nevertheless proceeds with the marriage proposal and charges Lü Fan to deliver it to Xuande. The episode places Lü Fan between competing messages: the official language of alliance and the private calculation of using a marriage visit to seize Xuande and press a territorial claim.

Xuande is grieving his wife when Lü Fan arrives. He conveys Sun Quan’s condolences before broaching the possibility of a new marriage. Xuande replies that he cannot consider another match while his wife’s body is scarcely cold in the grave. Kong Ming, already suspicious that the visit may be another of Zhou Yu’s plots, listens from behind a screen. Lü Fan’s diplomatic approach thus meets both personal grief and strategic distrust; the proposal cannot be treated as a straightforward family arrangement.

Advice and the temple meeting

The proposed visit to meet Sun Quan’s mother creates further danger. On Lü Fan’s advice, Sun Quan orders Jia Hua to take three hundred men to the temple in case the queen mother rejects Xuande and he must be killed. Xuande, meanwhile, is worried enough that Zhao Zilong promises to accompany him with soldiers. The meeting is therefore prepared as both a family introduction and a contingency for violence.

At Sweet Dew Temple, Xuande arrives with his officers and five hundred men. He wears a lightweight breastplate beneath his ceremonial clothes, while those accompanying him bear swords. The queen mother approves of him at first sight and declares him the son-in-law she wants. Lü Fan’s advice has helped shape the armed precautions surrounding the visit, but the queen mother’s welcome changes the immediate course of the encounter: rather than rejecting Xuande and triggering the feared contingency, she supports the marriage.

Narrative role

Lü Fan is defined in these scenes by delegated service and practical counsel, rather than by an extended personal history. His mission gives the marriage proposal its diplomatic form; his advice also exposes the danger beneath that form, as Sun Quan prepares for the possibility that Xuande may be rejected. The contrast between a public promise of alliance and a concealed plan to take a hostage makes Lü Fan’s embassy a compact example of how family ties and political maneuvering overlap in the novel.