Shamoke

Shamoke
Traditional Chinese	沙摩柯
Simplified Chinese	沙摩柯
Transcriptions

File:Shamoke Qing portrait.jpg

A Qing dynasty illustration of Shamoke.

Shamoke (died 222) was the king of the tribal people of the five valleys in Wuling during the late Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. During the Battle of Xiaoting between the warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan, Shamoke led his troops to support Liu and was granted an official post by Liu. Shamoke was later killed in action when Sun Quan's forces, led by Lu Xun, defeated Liu's armies in a fire attack.

In fiction

In Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Shamoke is responsible for killing Sun Quan's general Gan Ning during the Battle of Xiaoting. Historically, Gan did not participate in the battle.

In the novel, Shamoke's appearance was described to be as such:

His face was spotted with red as if splashed with blood that is split from the mouth, and his eyes were blue and big. He rushed among Gan Ning's troops, mighty and fierce, wielding two spiked iron maces with long poles, with two bows slung at his belt.

Upon seeing this, Gan Ning, who was sick at the time, realized he could not win against Shamoke, and he began to retreat on horseback. As he tried to escape, however, Shamoke shot him in the back of the head with an arrow, killing him. Later in the battle, Shamoke was caught in the middle of a fire attack and fled, where he was pursued by Zhou Tai, who caught up and cut him down after a short fight.

See also

• List of people of the Three Kingdoms

References

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