Gongsun Zan

Depiction of Gongsun Zan from the Qing period

Gōngsūn Zàn ( Chinese  公孫瓚  /  公孙瓒 ) († 199 ) was a Chinese warlord after the uprising of the Yellow Turban .

His father came from a senior civil servant family, but his mother was of simple descent. Gongsun Zan studied for some time with the academic Lu Zhi, where he made the acquaintance of Liu Bei , who admired Gongsun Zan. He made a career in the military and rose to a rider general. In this capacity he successfully fought against rebels; so he defeated the rebels Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju in 188. He fought against non-Chinese peoples on the northern and eastern borders .

In 191, Gongsun Zan took part in the coalition against Dong Zhuo , which he used as an opportunity to create his own power base. During this time the imperial central government was only formally ruling, the real power lay with the various warlords who fought for power.

In the 190s, Gongsun Zan fought repeatedly against the warlord Yuan Shao . During this time he succeeded in expanding and largely maintaining his position of power in the northeast. However, in 195 riots broke out against him and Yuan Shao retaliated, which shook Gongsun Zan's rule. He was forced to retire and was eventually defeated by Yuan Shao in 199; he killed his wife and children and then himself.

literature

• Rafe de Crespigny : A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2007, p. 271 f.