The Trials of Sun Ce (孫策幻影戦, Son Saku Gen'eisen; lit. Sun Ce's Phantom Battle) is a fictional battle where Sun Ce combats Yu Ji. It ends with Sun Ce killing Yu Ji but is cursed by the sorcerer and dies after the battle.
Role in Games
Introduced in Dynasty Warriors 4: Xtreme Legends as "The Shadow of Sun Ce", the stage takes place inside Jian Ye Castle where Yu Ji calls upon his doubles to attack the player. After the defeating all of the clones, Yu Ji decides to personally kill Sun Ce himself while summoning phantom troops to aid him. The illusions disappear after his defeat.
In Dynasty Warriors 5, the battle begins with a one-on-one match by Sun Ce and Yu Ji. After Yu Ji is defeated he will summon clones of himself that the player has to defeat. The third test now is battling new clones of Yu Ji while battling phantoms. The fourth test after is defeating newly hypnotized Wu soldiers. By defeating fifty of the soldiers, Yu Ji will once again appear with clones that the player has to defeat to get to the next test. The following test is activated after Yu Ji summons phantoms of Sun Ce's wife and father. After Sun Ce defeats the two phantoms Yu Ji will once again summon clones of himself. By defeating a few of them the real Yu Ji will appear and will power-up his clone each of the phantoms defeat.
Dynasty Warriors 7 has the battle use the map of Xuchang. In this battle, Yu Ji tries to use phantoms of Sun Ce's previous enemies including Taishi Ci and his father against him.
Dynasty Warriors 8 changes the name of the stage to Defeat Gan Ji, and uses the map of Luoyang. Sun Quan and his forces fight against the phantoms of Gan Ji in order to lift the curse on Sun Ce. To open the hypothetical route, the player must find the urn that fuels the wizard's magic and break it.
Historical Information
Many historians reject the account of Yu Ji and Sun Ce, suggesting that it is propaganda or just fiction. Reasons for this include Yu Ji's previously recorded activities (which would have made Yu Ji quite old by the time he met Sun Ce). Only a select few historical texts mention Yu Ji being killed by Sun Ce.
In folklore, after Sun Ce's plot to attack Xuchang failed, some people believe Sun Ce, at that time, met Yu Ji and killed him for spreading nonsense. One day, Sun Ce was told by the physician to rest still to allow the wound to heal. However, he looked into the mirror one day and saw Yu Ji's face, whereupon he let out a cry and slammed the mirror. His wound opened and he died shortly.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
In the novel, Yu Ji once walked around the Wu castle for a few days, talking with soldiers and civilians everywhere and made everyone believe he was a magician and healer. The leader of Wu at that time, Sun Ce, had heard of his magic and grew suspicious of this magician. Sun thought that he was putting spells on everyone. Soon he decided to kill Yu Ji. But killing the innocent Yu Ji cursed Sun Ce in his dreams and eventually led to his death.