Biography
Family Background and Early Years
Lu Kang came from the Lu clan of Wu Commandery, one of the prominent families of Jiangdong. His father Lu Xun was chancellor of Wu and a central pillar of the state who defeated Liu Bei at the Battle of Yiling. Lu Kang's mother was a daughter of Sun Ce, so he was both a member of the prominent Lu clan and related by blood to the Sun ruling house. His elder brother Lu Yan died young, leaving Lu Kang, the second son, as Lu Xun's heir.
Lu Kang received a good education from childhood and was deeply influenced by his father. Lu Xun was known for loyalty, integrity, and strict military discipline, qualities that Lu Kang inherited. In 245, the eighth year of the Chiwu era, Lu Xun became entangled in the succession dispute between the princes of Nan and Lu, was repeatedly reproached by Sun Quan, and died in grief at the age of sixty-three. Lu Kang, then twenty, inherited the title Marquis of Jiangling County, was appointed Commandant Who Establishes Martial Might, and took command of five thousand of his father's troops at Wuchang.
After burying his father, Lu Kang returned to the capital to give thanks. Sun Quan produced twenty accusations previously made against Lu Xun by Yang Zhu and questioned Lu Kang about them. Lu Kang answered each point clearly and defended his father, dispelling Sun Quan's anger toward Lu Xun. The episode demonstrated Lu Kang's eloquence and filial devotion and helped establish his own position at the Wu court.
Emergence as a Commander
In 246, Sun Quan promoted Lu Kang to General of the Household Who Establishes Integrity and ordered him to exchange defense sectors with Zhuge Ke, after which Lu Kang was stationed at Chaisang. Before leaving his old post, Lu Kang ensured that its fortifications, walls, buildings, mulberry trees, and fruit trees were all carefully maintained. Zhuge Ke arrived to find the place as if newly built, whereas the position he had left to Lu Kang was in poor condition. Zhuge Ke was deeply embarrassed. The episode illustrated Lu Kang's careful approach to military administration in contrast to Zhuge Ke's negligence.
In 251, Lu Kang returned to the capital for medical treatment. When he recovered and was about to return to his post, Sun Quan summoned him and tearfully admitted that he had listened to slander about Lu Xun and had failed in the proper relationship between ruler and minister. Sun Quan said he would burn all the documents in which he had questioned Lu Xun and would not allow anyone to see them again. The gesture both apologized to Lu Kang and reassured the Lu family.
In 252, Sun Quan died and Sun Liang succeeded him. Lu Kang was appointed General Who Displays Might. In 253, the powerful minister Zhuge Ke was killed and his relatives by marriage were implicated. Lu Kang's wife was a daughter of Zhang Cheng, whose wife was a daughter of Zhuge Jin, making Lu Kang's wife Zhuge Ke's niece. Lu Kang therefore divorced her to avoid implication. The episode reflected the instability of Wu politics and the difficult choices imposed by factional purges.
Guarding Xiling
In 257, the Wei general Zhuge Dan rebelled at Shouchun and submitted to Wu. Sun Liang appointed Lu Kang Commander of Chaisang and sent him to assist at Shouchun. Lu Kang defeated a Wei field officer and was promoted to General Who Attacks the North. In 259, he was appointed General Who Guards the Army and sent to defend Xiling, present-day northwestern Yichang in Hubei, with responsibility for the region from Guanyu Rapids to Baidicheng. The following year he received the authority of the imperial tally. Xiling was Wu's western gateway and held major strategic importance. Lu Kang spent years developing the defenses, repairing fortifications, and stockpiling supplies, laying the groundwork for the later Battle of Xiling.
In 263, Cao Wei attacked Shu Han. Sun Xiu ordered Ding Feng, Liu Ping, Shi Ji, and other forces to move toward Shouchun and Mianzhong in support of Shu. Soon afterward Liu Shan surrendered to Wei. Lu Kang reported this to Sun Xiu, who ordered Ding Feng and the others to withdraw. With the fall of Shu Han, Wu lost its western buffer and directly faced the pressure of Cao Wei, later the Western Jin.
In 264, Sun Xiu ordered General Bu Xie to advance west into Yizhou and attack Yong'an, but he was defeated by Luo Xian, the former Shu Han administrator of Badong. Sun Xiu then sent Lu Kang with thirty thousand troops to join Bu Xie, General Who Attacks the West Liu Ping, and Jianping Administrator Sheng Man in besieging Yong'an. The forces attacked from the second month to the seventh month without taking the city. When Wei ordered Hu Lie to advance toward Xiling to relieve Luo Xian, Lu Kang and the others had to withdraw. Although the campaign failed to capture Yong'an, Lu Kang displayed a steady style of command.
Command in Jingzhou
In 264, after Sun Hao took the throne, Lu Kang was promoted to Senior General Who Guards the Army and concurrently made Governor of Yizhou. In the fourth month of 270, after Left Grand Marshal Shi Ji died, Lu Kang was placed in charge of military affairs at Xinling, Xiling, Yidao, Lexiang, and Gong'an and stationed at Lexiang, southwest of present-day Jiangling in Hubei.
On taking command, Lu Kang discovered that subordinate units followed separate patrons rather than a unified chain of command. He memorialized Sun Hao, urging him to prevent eunuchs from manipulating power or interfering in military administration and submitting seventeen proposals that included assigning men to offices according to ability and suppressing petty favorites. His advice was not adopted. Lu Kang understood the corruption of Wu politics and Sun Hao's cruelty, yet continued to fulfill his military duties and strengthen the frontier.
While in Jingzhou, Lu Kang faced the Western Jin general Yang Hu. Yang Hu pursued a conciliatory policy toward Wu and, according to the source text, arranged times of battle in advance rather than launching surprise attacks. Lu Kang understood the purpose and warned his officers that if Yang Hu devoted himself to virtue while Wu practiced violence, Wu would submit without a battle; each side should therefore keep to its boundary and not seek petty advantages. When Sun Hao criticized this approach, Lu Kang answered that even a town or village could not exist without trust and righteousness, much less a great state, and that abandoning such conduct would merely make Yang Hu's virtue more visible.
Their relationship gave rise to the story known as the “friendship of Yang and Lu.” Lu Kang once sent Yang Hu fine wine, which Yang Hu drank without suspicion. When Lu Kang later fell ill, Yang Hu sent medicine. Wu officers feared deception and advised Lu Kang not to take it, but Lu Kang replied that Yang Hu was not a man who would poison another and swallowed it. Their relationship as both enemies and mutually respectful counterparts was unusual in the warfare of the period.
Battle of Xiling and Final Years
In the eighth month of 272, Sun Hao summoned Bu Chan, General Who Displays Martial Might and commander of Xiling. Because Bu Chan's family had held the Xiling command for generations, the sudden summons made him fear punishment or denunciation. In the ninth month he surrendered the city to Jin and sent his nephew Bu Ji to Luoyang as a hostage. Emperor Wu of Jin appointed Bu Chan to command military affairs at Xiling and made him General of the Guards.
In the tenth month, Lu Kang learned of the rebellion and quickly sent generals Zuo Yi, Wu Yan, Cai Gong, and others to encircle Xiling. Emperor Wu of Jin ordered Jingzhou Inspector Yang Zhao to assist Bu Chan, ordered General of Chariots and Cavalry Yang Hu to lead fifty thousand infantry against Jiangling, and sent Badong military supervisor Xu Yin with a fleet against Jianping in order to relieve Xiling.
To avoid being attacked from both sides, Lu Kang ordered the Wu forces at Xiling to construct a long wall from Chixi to Gushi, in present-day Yichang. The wall was designed both to contain Bu Chan and to block Jin relief forces, and Lu Kang refused to rush an assault on the city. His men worked on the encirclement day and night and repeatedly asked to storm Xiling. Lu Kang explained that the fortifications were strong, the terrain difficult, supplies abundant, and the defensive works and equipment had largely been planned by himself when he had earlier held the post. A rapid assault was unlikely to succeed, while northern reinforcements were certain to arrive. If Wu failed to prepare for those forces, it would be attacked from inside and outside. When Yidu Administrator Lei Tan pressed especially hard for an attack, Lu Kang permitted a single assault so that his officers could see the difficulty. It failed, and the construction of the enclosing defenses was completed.
Lu Kang was then stationed at Lexiang and wanted to go personally to Xiling. When the Wu generals learned that Yang Hu's fifty thousand troops had advanced toward Jiangling, they urged Lu Kang to defend Jiangling instead. Lu Kang argued that Jiangling's city walls were strong and its troops sufficient. Even if the enemy captured it, they would be unable to hold it and Wu's losses would be limited. If Xiling, however, joined with the enemy, the peoples of the southern mountains might rise in disorder, creating a much greater danger. He therefore chose Xiling over Jiangling.
Earlier, because the area around Jiangling was flat and open, Lu Kang had ordered Jiangling commander Zhang Xian to build a large dike and use the water as a defensive obstacle. Yang Hu planned to take advantage of the water to transport grain by boat and publicly announced that he would destroy the dike while relieving Bu Chan. Lu Kang ordered Zhang Xian to break the dike himself, cutting off the Jin army's waterborne grain route. Yang Hu, learning that the dike had been destroyed, had to move provisions by cart, slowing his main force.
In the eleventh month, Yang Zhao's Jin reinforcements reached Xiling and Xu Yin's fleet reached Jianping. Lu Kang ordered Zhang Xian to hold Jiangling; Gong'an commander Sun Zun to maneuver south of the Yangtze and guard against Yang Hu crossing; naval commander Liu Lü and General Who Guards the West Zhu Wan to block Xu Yin's fleet; and he personally held the long encircling works against Yang Zhao. At this point Wu officers Zhu Qiao and Yu Zan defected. Lu Kang reasoned that Yu Zan had long served in his army and knew its strengths and weaknesses, and that Jin would probably attack the poorly trained non-Han auxiliary troops first. He therefore replaced them overnight with experienced troops. The next day Yang Zhao concentrated his attack on that sector, only to meet strong resistance and a rain of arrows and stones. The Jin army was badly defeated.
In the twelfth month, with his options exhausted, Yang Zhao withdrew at night. Lu Kang wanted to pursue but feared that Bu Chan might attack from the city, so he had drums beaten as if a general pursuit were underway. Yang Zhao's troops panicked, discarded their armor, and fled. Lu Kang then sent light troops after them, inflicting another defeat. Yang Hu's other forces also withdrew. Lu Kang turned back to Xiling, captured the city, and killed Bu Chan and dozens of his close followers together with their families as specified in the source text, while pardoning tens of thousands who had been coerced into the rebellion.
In the campaign Lu Kang first broke the coordination of the Jin forces, used secondary forces to contain the main Jin formations, and concentrated his own strength on surrounding the city and defeating relief armies. After entering Xiling he repaired its defenses and returned east to Lexiang. Despite his victory, the source describes him as showing no pride and remaining modest as before, which won the loyalty of his troops. He was additionally appointed Protector-General.
In the third month of 273, Lu Kang became Grand Marshal and Governor of Jingzhou. He died in 274 at the age of forty-nine. Only after Lu Kang's death did Yang Hu petition the Jin court for a full conquest of Wu. Before dying, Lu Kang memorialized Sun Hao on the importance of Xiling and urged stronger defenses at Jianping and Xiling and the deployment of more elite troops against a future combined land-and-water Jin offensive. His recommendations were not adopted. Less than six years after his death, the Western Jin conquered Wu.