Wang Jun was a general of the Western Jin. The Book of Jin says that his courtesy name was Shizhi and that he came from Hu county in Hongnong, and Chinese Wikipedia adds that his childhood name was Atong. Wikidata's label is 王濬, so the title is unchanged. Wikidata gives his life as 206 to 286 and the posthumous name as Wu.[1][3][2]
Youth and early career
The Book of Jin says that his family had held posts at the two-thousand-bushel rank for generations, that he read the old classics and was handsome, but that he did not cultivate his reputation and was not praised in his village, and that only late did his manner change, becoming open and far-sighted and filled with large ambition. Once he built a house and opened the road in front of the gate dozens of paces wide. When people said this was excessive, he answered that he wanted it to hold long halberds and banners, and when they all laughed he said that, as Chen Sheng had said, swallows and sparrows cannot know the aims of swans. The province called him as a clerk of Hedong, and corrupt local officials left of their own accord. Chinese Wikipedia adds that the governor Xu Miao's daughter was talented and unmarried, and Xu Miao had his subordinates gather while she watched in secret, and she chose Wang Jun, whom he then married to her. Yang Ji, brother of Yang Hu, judged that Wang Jun had large aims but extravagant habits and should not be given sole charge, while Yang Hu held that he had great ability and would be useful in carrying out his own aims.[3][2]
Governing Ba and Yi
He later became a senior clerk to the general of chariots and cavalry, then governor of Ba commandery, which bordered Wu. Labor service in Shu was so heavy that many families did not even raise their newborn sons, and Wang Jun, moved by this, tightened the regulations and lightened the burdens so that those who bore children could recover. The article says that several thousand children were saved. He then moved to be governor of Guanghan and gave generous governance there. He once dreamed of three knives hung on the beam of his bedroom, and soon a fourth was added. His chief secretary Li Yi interpreted it: three knives make the character for province, and one more on the beam means addition to Liang, that is, he would be shepherd of Yi province. When the rebel Zhang Hong killed Huangfu Yan, the inspector of Yi province, the court appointed Wang Jun inspector there. He killed Zhang Hong and others by strategy, was enfeoffed as Marquis within the Passes, and drew many peoples from beyond the frontier to submit. Yang Hu thought him a man of rare strategy and secretly petitioned to keep him in Yi province.[3][2]
The conquest of Wu
The article says that Yang Hu, Du Yu, Zhang Hua and others urged an attack on Wu and Emperor Wu of Jin agreed, so Wang Jun was ordered to build many ships in Yi province, which took nearly ten years. In the fourth month of 279, when court officials were opposed and the emperor hesitated, Wang Jun, then nearly seventy, wrote asking to march. He said Sun Hao was dissolute and cruel, all the wise and foolish of Jing and Yang lamented, and the ships in Yi had begun to rot, so that if the attack were delayed until Wu had a wise ruler or he himself had died, Wu would no longer be easy to take. The emperor agreed and made him General of the Dragon Charge to advance down the Yangtze. The children he had saved in Ba were now grown and had become his trusted troops. He broke through the iron chains on the river and took Xiling, Xiakou and Wuchang one after another, and reached Jianye, where Sun Hao came out and surrendered.[2]
The quarrel with Wang Hun
The article says Wang Jun was supposed to be under the command of Wang Hun, whose army had already taken Moling but did not dare advance and told him to wait. Wang Jun, citing high wind on the river that prevented mooring, set out anyway, forced Sun Hao to surrender and won the chief credit. Wang Hun accused him of disobeying orders, and the authorities wished to imprison him. Emperor Wu did not agree but issued a rebuke. Wang Jun answered that the emperor's own edict had put the commanders under Jia Chong, not also under Wang Hun, and when Wang Hun accused him of taking treasures of the Wu palace, he defended himself again. Back at the capital, the officials charged him with great disrespect and, separately, with burning more than three hundred captured Wu ships without approval, and the emperor stopped both. He made Wang Jun General Who Assists the State with the post of colonel of the infantry, enfeoffed him Marquis of Xiangyang with ten thousand households, made his youngest son Wang Yi a village-pavilion marquis, and gave ten thousand rolls of silk and other rewards. The article says that whenever Wang Jun saw the emperor he could not stop recounting his achievements and grievances and sometimes left in anger without taking leave, and that the emperor, generous by nature, forgave him each time. His relative Fan Tong advised him never again to mention the conquest of Wu, and if anyone did, to say that it was owed to the emperor's virtue and the efforts of the generals. He did so, and the court came to see him as under-rewarded. The scholar Qin Xiu and others petitioned for him, and the emperor promoted him to General Who Guards the Army with the office of attendant-in-ordinary and commander of the rear army.[2]
Death
In 285 he was given the rank of Specially Advanced with the rights of a minister of the three offices, and on the gengzi day of the twelfth month, 28 January 286, he died, was buried at Baigu Mountain, was given the posthumous title Marquis Wu, and was said to be eighty. His son Wang Ju inherited the title. In the chaos after Emperor Huai's reign only two grandsons fled south into the Eastern Jin, and the family register was lost. Huan Wen later petitioned for his descendants to be sought out, but both grandsons were past sixty and died before they were employed.[2]
Judgments
The article quotes Yang Hu, that he had great ability and would be useful; Yang Ji, that his ambition was large and his luxury unrestrained so that he should not be given sole charge; Fan Tong, that his merit was fine but the way he held it was not fully good; and Fang Xuanling, that of the two Wangs, Wang Hun had harmed the good and Wang Jun had boasted of his merit.[2]
Basic facts
- Name: Wang Jun, courtesy name Shizhi, childhood name Atong[3][2]
- Origin: Hu county in Hongnong[3]
- Life: 206 to 286[1]
- Offices: governor of Yi province, General of the Dragon Charge, and others[2]
- Posthumous name: Wu[1]
- Dynasty or state: Western Jin[1]
- Birthplace: Lingbao[1]
- Portrayal: 王濬 (character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms)