Jianye

Jianye is the capital of Wu and the last-stand city in the account of Jin’s conquest of the south. Its surrender to the Jin army, after Wu’s defenses fail across the river and its cities, brings the kingdom’s resistance to an end and gives the city a decisive place in the narrative of reunification.

Capital and Strategic Objective

Jianye’s importance is established by the invasion’s direction: after Jin forces take cities and regions across Wu, the campaign becomes a race to capture the Wu capital. The advance comes by several routes, while Admiral Wang Jun leads a naval force down the river. In response, the Wu court tries to bar that approach with chains stretched across the river and iron spikes sunk in its channel. The plan makes the waterway itself a defensive barrier, but it cannot prevent the Jin advance from reaching the capital.

The City’s Surrender

As Wang Jun approaches Shitou, he is determined to be the commander who captures the final stronghold. Zhang Xiang’s surrender changes the situation at the gates: Wang Jun sends him at the head of the vanguard as a test of his new allegiance, and the defenders open the gates when they see him approaching with the Jin army. The city’s fall thus comes not through a described assault on its walls but through a change of loyalty that makes resistance give way from within.

Sun Hao recognizes that the cause is lost and initially considers suicide. He is persuaded instead to follow Liu Shan’s example and surrender. Wang Jun receives him as an honored guest and treats him like a prince. With the ruler’s surrender and the gates opened, Jianye’s capture becomes the concluding political reversal of the campaign: the capital that embodied Wu’s independence passes peacefully into Jin hands.

Jinling and the End of Wu

A poem cited in the account refers to Jianye as Jinling, linking the city’s fall to the disappearance of Wu’s royal rule. Its images join the river campaign, the extinguished authority of the southern king, the sinking iron chains, and the surrender flag over Shitou. The city is therefore more than a final military target: its surrender makes visible the failure of Wu’s effort to resist Jin and closes the narrative of the Three Kingdoms’ division with the absorption of the southern kingdom into a new united order.