Grand Administrator of Poyang. Sent seven articles of false intelligence, cut his hair before his own king, and pulled a hundred thousand men into an ambush.
He sent false intelligence to the north in seven articles and cut his hair before his own king's court; it is one of the few stratagems of the age whose price is recorded with the trick.Sanguozhi, Wu shu 12, Biography of Zhou Fang; Zizhi Tongjian, scroll 71
Appears in
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Relations
- Sun Quan subject & king — Sent his letters with the king's knowledge and cut his hair before the king's own court.
- Cao Xiu deceiver & deceived — Fed him seven articles of false intelligence and drew a hundred thousand men into the hills.
- Lu Xun co-authors of the trap — His years of letters made the ambush Lu Xun sprang at Shiting possible.
Myth vs record
The story you may know
He cut his hair to Cao Xiu himself, in the Wei camp, as a defector's oath.
What the sources say
The sources put the haircut at home, before his own king's court, as the token the northern spies demanded — and they mark it as grave self-mutilation, since the hair is received from one's parents. It was a price paid inside Wu, not an oath sworn inside Wei.