Conquest of Wu by Jin
Sun Hao surrenders Jianye, completing Jin reunification
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1 May 280, at Jianye
The Eastern Wu ruler Sun Hao capitulated at Jianye — modern Nanjing — on 1 May 280. A modern Cambridge history identifies this surrender as the act that marked imperial reunification.
Several Jin commanders were converging on the city. Wang Jun arrived by fleet and accepted the surrender ahead of the others.
Bound, with a coffin
Sun Hao presented himself bound and accompanied by a coffin — a ritual acknowledgment that his life was at the victor's disposal. Wang Jun released him and burned the coffin.
Getting there had taken engineering: Wang Jun's fleet neutralized Wu's submerged iron spikes with great timber rafts and burned through the river chains with oil-soaked torches.
The maps and registers changed hands
Eastern Wu's government ended immediately, and its maps and registers were seized: four provinces, 43 commanderies and 313 counties, with 2.3 million people in 523,000 households.
Those are figures transmitted from captured official registers, not modern census measurements. Sun Hao and his household were sent on to the Jin capital, Luoyang.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources not yet audited Date corrected
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Date corrected. The research places this at 0280-05-01.
What the sources leave uncertain
- The surrender itself is secure, but the transmitted Sanguozhi cyclical-day notation is defective. The Zizhi Tongjian, Wang Jun's memorial and modern chronological work support the renyin day conventionally converted to 1 May 280.
- The population, troop and administrative totals are figures transmitted from captured official registers; they should not be treated as modern census measurements.