Qin Zongquan
It is not known when Sun Ru was born. His family was from Henan County, one of the two counties making up the Tang Dynasty eastern capital Luoyang. At some point, he became a low-level officer at Zhongwu Circuit (忠武, headquartered in modern Xuchang, Henan), where he befriended fellow officer Liu Jianfeng. Later, during the rebellion by the major agrarian rebel Huang Chao, Sun served under the command of Qin Zongquan.