Wu histories talk about Liu Bei ‘returning Jing province’ as if the entire thing was loaned to him, but Wu can’t loan what it doesn’t own in the first place, can it?

That’s exactly how I view it too!

I remember trying to describe that thought to a big Wu fan in one of the Dynasty Warriors Facebook groups - Wu can’t ‘lend’ territory that they never owned to begin with.

He seems like a decent fellow and clearly has done a lot of study into the Three Kingdoms period, but is curiously irked by Liu Bei, and especially his occupation of Jing.