Zhang Da

Biography & Historical Record

Zhang Da was a military subordinate and officer who served under the renowned Shu Han general Zhang Fei during the late Eastern Han dynasty and early Three Kingdoms period. Historically documented in Chen Shou’s official dynastic history Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi – Book of Shu, Biography of Zhang Fei) and Sima Guang’s Zizhi Tongjian, Zhang Da achieved infamous immortality as one of the two disgruntled officers who assassinated Zhang Fei at Langzhong in 221 AD. Facing severe physical abuse and death threats under Zhang Fei’s harsh military discipline, Zhang Da and his co-conspirator Fan Qiang murdered their commander, decapitated his corpse, and fled across the Yangtze River to defect to Eastern Wu, serving as the tragic catalyst for Shu Han’s strategic disarray prior to the Battle of Yiling.

Following Guan Yu’s tragic defeat and execution by Eastern Wu forces in 219 AD, Emperor Liu Bei mobilized the full military power of Shu Han in 221 AD to launch a grand retaliatory expedition against Sun Quan. Operating from his military headquarters in Langzhong, General of Chariots and Cavalry Zhang Fei was ordered to mobilize ten thousand elite troops and march east to junction with Liu Bei’s main host at Jiangzhou. Consumed by unbearable grief and rage over Guan Yu’s death, Zhang Fei drank heavily every day and vented his frustration through extreme brutality toward his subordinate officers and soldiers, frequently flogging them for minor infractions before keeping them stationed closely by his side.

Fearing for their lives under Zhang Fei’s violent outbursts and impossible military demands, Zhang Da and Fan Qiang recognized that continued service meant certain death or execution. On a dark night in 221 AD, while Zhang Fei lay in a heavy, alcohol-induced stupor in his command tent at Langzhong, Zhang Da and Fan Qiang crept into his quarters armed with sharp daggers. The two officers stabbed Zhang Fei to death in his bed, severed his head, and fled downstream by boat under cover of darkness. Crossing into Eastern Wu territory, they presented Zhang Fei’s severed head to Sun Quan to pledge their allegiance and seek political asylum. In authentic historical archives, after their flight to Wu, Zhang Da and Fan Qiang vanish from official records, their ultimate fates lost to history amidst the chaotic border conflicts between Wu and Shu.

Role in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

In Chapter 81 of Luo Guanzhong’s classic 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhang Da’s treasonous act is depicted as a fatal turning point for Shu Han. When Zhang Fei orders Zhang Da and Fan Qiang to manufacture white armor and white banners for his entire army within three days to mourn Guan Yu, the two officers beg for an extension, explaining that the timeframe is physically impossible. Furious, Zhang Fei orders his guards to tie them to trees, whipping them fifty times until they bleed profusely, and threatens to execute them if the deadline is missed. Realizing that death is inevitable, Zhang Da and Fan Qiang exploit Zhang Fei’s drunken sleep—noting his legendary habit of sleeping with his eyes open—and assassinate him in his tent, severing his head and fleeing to Eastern Wu.

In Chapter 83, Luo Guanzhong crafts a brutal, poetic retribution for the traitors to uphold cosmic justice. As Liu Bei’s grand vengeance campaign crushes Eastern Wu’s frontline defenses and reaches Yiling, a terrified Sun Quan seeks peace. To appease Liu Bei and halt the invasion, Sun Quan orders Zhang Da and Fan Qiang bound in heavy cages and sent back to the Shu Han camp alongside Zhang Fei’s preserved head. Zhang Fei’s son, Zhang Bao, personally receives the traitors. Before a solemn sacrificial altar erected for his father, Zhang Bao flays Zhang Da and Fan Qiang alive, slicing off their flesh piece by piece to offer as a bloody sacrificial tribute to avenge his father’s murdered spirit.

Famous Quotes & Historical Sayings

In Chapter 81 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhang Da whispered his desperate plot to Fan Qiang after being mercilessly whipped by Zhang Fei: ‘He said if we fail to complete the white armor in three days, he will execute us! His nature is violent and unforgiving. If we stay, we die; if we strike first, we might live!’

Zhang Da (張達) — Historical & Literary Timeline

Key Relationships

Family

• No information

Friends

• Fan Qiang (范疆, Phạm Cương): Fellow subordinate officer under Shu Han and co-conspirator who endured Zhang Fei’s severe discipline, collaborated in assassinating and decapitating Zhang Fei at Langzhong in 221 AD, and fled together to defect to Eastern Wu.

Enemies

• Zhang Fei (张飞, Trương Phi): Superior commander whose violent abuse, severe floggings, and impossible deadlines provoked Zhang Da and Fan Qiang to assassinate and decapitate him in his sleep at Langzhong in 221 AD.
• Zhang Bao (张苞, Trương Bào): Zhang Fei’s eldest son who, in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, received Zhang Da upon his extradition from Eastern Wu in 222 AD and personally flayed him alive as a sacrificial offering before his father’s memorial altar.
• Liu Bei (刘备, Lưu Bị): Founding Emperor of Shu Han whose massive punitive expedition against Eastern Wu in 221–222 AD pressured Sun Quan into extraditing Zhang Da to sue for peace.

Other

• Sun Quan (孙权, Tôn Quyền): Ruler of Eastern Wu who initially granted Zhang Da political asylum upon receiving Zhang Fei’s severed head in 221 AD, but later had him caged and extradited back to Shu Han in 222 AD in a failed bid to avert Liu Bei’s invasion.