Three Kingdoms EncyclopediaRomance · Records
Menu

Figures

Lu Ji

Records

From Wu commandery, son of Lu Kang the elder. At six he hid oranges at a feast to take home to his mother. He later worked on astronomy and the classics and spoke bluntly to Sun Quan. He died of illness at thirty-two in the late Jian’an years. He is not Lu Xun’s son Lu Kang.

Courtesy name
Gongji
Faction
Eastern Wu
Dates
188–219

Records of the Three Kingdoms

Lu Ji, courtesy name Gongji, was from Wu commandery. His father Lu Kang was governor of Lujiang — not the later general Lu Kang. At six, as a guest of Yuan Shu, Lu Ji hid three oranges in his sleeve. They fell out as he was leaving. Yuan Shu asked why. He said they were for his mother. The biography opens with that.

Grown, he was learned in astronomy and the Changes, and he held office under Sun Quan. He criticized Zhang Zhao and Sun Quan to their faces, fell out of favor, and was sent to Yulin as governor, with the title of a side general and two thousand soldiers. He is not known for battles. He died of illness at the end of Jian’an, at thirty-two. He and Lu Xun belong to the same Wu commandery clan and to different generations. Lu Xun’s son is Lu Kang. This Lu Ji is also not Lu Ji the author of the Wen fu.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The oranges entered primers and later storytelling more than they entered the Romance. The novel does not give Lu Ji a plot of his own. He is not a battlefield figure. When the book wants the Lu clan of Wu, it uses Lu Xun and Lu Kang.

Reference: Wikipedia · Lu Ji