Lu Su
Pei Songzhi, who annotated Lu Su's biography, argued that Lu Su was actually the first person to propose forming a Sun–Liu alliance against Cao Cao. When Lu Su told Zhuge Liang that he was Zhuge Jin's friend, Zhuge Liang would probably have already heard of Lu Su but had yet to meet him in person. Pei Songzhi pointed out that Zhuge Liang's biography in the "Shu Shu" (蜀書; "Book of Shu") recorded: "Zhuge Liang persuaded Sun Quan with his argument on forming an alliance. Sun Quan was very pleased." Going by the "Shu Shu" account, the first person who suggested the Sun–Liu alliance should be Zhuge Liang instead of Lu Su. Pei Songzhi commented that the historians in Eastern Wu and Shu Han gave conflicting accounts on who was the first person who conceived the idea of the Sun–Liu alliance because they wanted their respective states to claim that credit. Pei Songzhi also remarked that this was one of the flaws in the "Sanguozhi" because the author Chen Shou wrote both Lu Su and Zhuge Liang's biographies but the two biographies contradict each other on this point.