Lord Xinling (Wei Wuji)

Biography

A prince of Wei celebrated as one of the 'Four Lords of the Warring States,' Wei Wuji kept thousands of retainers and was famous for treating men of low birth as honored guests. When Qin besieged the Zhao capital Handan after Changping and Wei's king, cowed by Qin threats, halted his army rather than intervene, Xinling took matters into his own hands: guided by an old gatekeeper's counsel and a royal concubine he had once helped, he stole the king's bronze troop-tally, had the reluctant Wei general killed, seized command by force, and marched to smash the Qin siege lines — saving Zhao in 257 BC. Years later, with Qin again pressing, he led a five-state coalition that drove the Qin armies back inside their passes, the last time the eastern states cooperated effectively. But Qin agents spread rumors that he sought the Wei throne; his own king grew jealous and stripped him of command. Embittered and idle, Xinling drank himself to death, and Wei — and with it the old world of aristocratic chivalry — did not long survive him.

Key Battles