I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked the real personal name of Lady Sun (Sun Quan’s sister) since Kongming’s Archives started, but I do know finding the answer at one point seemed as hopeless as finding Dian Wei’s style name (which I remember a lot of people listing as simply nonexistent). That’s why I was quite surprised to read a single little blurb of text in my copy of Moss Roberts Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Library Binding). It follows:
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, translated by Moss Roberts wrote:(48) See CZL, p. 61. For a discussion of the novel’s tendency to exaggerate the Riverlands’ importance at the expense of the Southland, see Zhang Huan, “Cong yongren deskhi lun Sun Wu jituan,” in YJJ, pp. 211-27. See also Liu Zhijian, “Du Dan dao hui zhaji,” in his Xinlun, pp. 134-53. The Yuan text, but not the Ming text, has Sun Quan conceding that Liu Xuande deserves some of Jingzhou territory to acknowledge his help in saving the Southland from Cao Cao. Lone Swordsman also raises the legitimacy question when Lord Guan denies the Southland claim to Jingzhou on the grounds that Liu Xuande’s place in the imperial line – after Gao Zu, Guang Wu, and Xiandi – entitles him to the Han throne and all the land in the empire. Sun An, the sister of Sun Quan and wife of Liu Xuande, makes the same point in A Battle of Wits Across the River (Gejiang douzhi): “As a member of the imperial house, Xuande is needed to bring Wu and Wei into a world [governed by] the house of Liu.”
Moss Roberts references Lady Sun here by the name Sun An, one I’ve not yet seen before (most of us have noticed the incorrect Sun Ren or Sun Li). Given how much studying Moss Roberts has actually done on the subject, I’m quite inclined to believe he knows where he’s coming from on this (unless I missed something of course). I’m more interested in finding out if, given this information, anyone can dig up more, such as where the reference(s) came/comes from. And finally, as icing on the cake though I don’t have my hopes up, the tone of her personal name. If anything, I thought this would be fun information to share with everyone.
). The people of Chinese opera (how to call them? 
) thought that the name Sun An was too normal and man-like. So, they changed it to Sun Shangxiang and it had been used until today. 
. Shangxiang is so girly... doesn't fit in with a family with girls called Sun Big Tiger and Sun Small Tiger... 
