caption trad kingdom simp death_date wg pinyin image_size title zi birth_date image article_title other name
a qing dynasty block print of zhou yu 周瑜 sun quan 周瑜 210 -lrb- aged 35 -rrb- chou ¹ yü ² zhōu yú 200px general gongjin -lrb- -rrb- 175 zhouyu.jpg zhou yu
 `` mei zhou lang '' -lrb- -rrb- zhou yu
zhou yu

zhou yu -lrb- 175 -- 210 -rrb- , courtesy name gongjin , was a military general and strategist serving under the warlord sun ce in the late eastern han dynasty .
he continued serving under sun quan , sun ce 's younger brother and successor , after sun ce died in 200 ce .
around late 208 , the northern warlord cao cao led his forces south with the intention of conquering the jiangdong region , where sun quan 's territories were based , but was defeated by sun 's forces under zhou yu 's command at the decisive battle of red cliffs .
zhou yu served as the frontline commander of sun quan 's forces at the battle of jiangling and defeated cao cao 's forces again .
zhou yu 's victories helped to solidify the survivability of sun quan 's regime , which would serve as the foundation of the state of eastern wu in the three kingdoms period -lrb- 220 -- 280 -rrb- .
he died in 210 at a relatively young age of 35 while preparing for a conquest of the bashu region -lrb- covering present-day sichuan and chongqing -rrb- .
