After Guo Jia, an important aide of Cao Cao, died at the age of 38, Cao Cao told Xun You that his death was "middle-aged" and he was very sad. (Biography of the Three Kingdoms, written by the author from this book, only indicates the biography title. It can be seen that although the average life expectancy was quite low due to years of war at that time, for political and military figures with certain status and the best medical conditions, 36 years old is far from a normal age of death. In fact, in the whole period of the Three Kingdoms after the Han Dynasty, few people reached the status of Zhou Yu (who was a partial general and a satrap in Nanjun) and died naturally when he was younger than Zhou Yu.
Perhaps the most famous one is Wei Mingdi Cao Cao, who died at the age of 35, and Wu Jingdi Sun Xiu, who died at the age of 30. The two emperors grew up in the palace and in the hands of women. However, Zhou Yu spent a long time in various places in his short life. Less than two years before his death from Battle of Red Cliffs, he was at the peak of his career.
If the story ends here, I'm afraid I can only sigh that nature played a trick on people and prematurely let a generation of famous players withdraw from the historical stage. However, if we carefully read the relevant historical materials, we will have some other questions about Zhou Yu's death.
"Early death" and "sudden death" are two completely different concepts in history books. Early death can be a long-term illness in bed, or a sudden death of a certain age group. According to common sense, it usually takes a process from infection to development to ultimate death. In the whole style of the Three Kingdoms, people who are recorded as "dead" or "sick" can generally be considered to have died peacefully. Take Luo Tong, an official of the State of Wu. Like Zhou Yu, he died at the age of 36, which is undoubtedly a "premature death." "Biography of Luo Tong" records: "Thirty-six years old, Huang Wu died in seven years." However, the record of his political and military activities is limited to the story of leading troops to crusade against Wei general Cao Ren in ruxu in his early years. For Luo Tong, his death is obviously not among the "sudden deaths".
As for the cause of Zhou Yu's death, this biography records that "... he went back to Jiangling to make a costume and died in Baqiu at the age of 36." Although the word used is "death", there is no doubt that this is a typical sudden death. To prove this conclusion, we first need to sort out the background of Zhou Yu's death.
After Battle of Red Cliffs's victory, Zhou Yu did not dispatch troops, but pursued Jingzhou under Cao Cao's control. After a stalemate for more than a year, Cao Cao appointed Coss, who was guarding Jiangling, to retreat, and Wu Dong Group took control of Nanjun area on the north bank of the Yangtze River. At the same time, Liu Bei Group, which was under the wing of Zhou Yu in Battle of Red Cliffs, took the opportunity to receive the Jingnan area with weak resistance, and once again had its own base area after Cao Cao's southern expedition.
At this time, there are two different ideas about Wu Dong's future long-term development strategy. The first is that Zhou Yu and others insist on "cutting Shu", and the second is that Lu Su and others insist on "borrowing Jingzhou". Zhou Yu returned to Jingkou from the front line and expounded his strategic ideas to Sun Quan. He said:
"Begging and forging ahead, Shu and Zhang Lu, because of staying awake to stick to their land, good with D .. Yu and the general are still exchanging exercises in Xiangyang, and the north can also make plans. "
What was Sun Quan's reaction? "The right to make it" refers to the approval of Sun Quan. On the way back to Jiangling, Zhou Yu died suddenly. Obviously, from the background at that time, no one expected Zhou Yu to die at such a moment, and his death could be called "sudden death".