Lü Dai

Lü Dai (161 – 21 October 256), courtesy name Dinggong, was a military general of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. Born in the late Eastern Han dynasty, Lü Dai started his career as a minor official in his home commandery in present-day Taizhou, Jiangsu before migrating south to the Jiangdong (or Wu) region, where he became an assistant magistrate and later a county chief under the warlord Sun Quan. He rose to prominence after his successes in suppressing some rebellions in Sun Quan's territories. Around the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan, who later became the founding emperor of Eastern Wu, appointed Lü Dai as the governor of the restive Jiao Province in the south. During his ten-year-long tenure in Jiao Province, Lü Dai quelled a number of revolts, maintained peace in the area, and contacted some foreign kingdoms in Mainland Southeast Asia and made them pay tribute to Eastern Wu. In 231, he was recalled to Wuchang to oversee civil and military affairs in Jing Province (present-day Hubei and Hunan) alongside his colleague Lu Xun. Throughout the 230s, he suppressed a few rebellions in Wu territories. By 240, as he neared the age of 80, he was still in good physical health and competent enough to perform his duties. He rose to the position of Senior General-in-Chief in 246 and later Grand Marshal in 252 during the reign of Sun Quan's successor Sun Liang. He died aged 95 and was one of the longest-living notable persons of the Three Kingdoms period.