Lu Xun卢循

Style & Daoist names

Yuxian, Yuanlong

Period

Eastern Jin

Dates

? — 411

School

Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao)

Role

Leader of the Way of the Celestial MastersRebellion Leader

Birthplace

Fanyang Zhuo (present-day Zhuozhou, Hebei)

Life

Lu Xun, styled Yuxian, with the childhood name Yuanlong, was a leader of the Celestial Masters uprising at the end of the Eastern Jin, brother-in-law of Sun En, and a descendant of the Lu family of Fanyang. After Sun En's death, Lu Xun was chosen as the new leader; in the second year of the Yuanxing era (403) he attacked Guangzhou and, holding Panyu, styled himself General Who Pacifies the South and Governor of Guangzhou; the Eastern Jin court at one point granted him official titles. In the sixth year of the Yixi era (410), taking advantage of Liu Yu's northern campaign against Southern Yan, Lu Xun and Xu Daofu led their forces north, decisively defeating He Wuji and Liu Yi and advancing as far as the gates of Jiankang, but were then defeated by Liu Yu's forces returning from the north and driven back to Guangzhou; the following year (411) Guangzhou fell, and Lu Xun fled south to Jiaozhou, where, defeated, he drowned himself. The rebellion of Lu Xun lasted more than a decade, continuing that of Sun En, and its defeat marked the end of large-scale armed activity by the Celestial Masters at the close of the Eastern Jin.

Contributions & Influence

• Led the Celestial Masters uprising for more than a decade after Sun En