State of Yan: Notes |
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The Abdication of King Kuài and Subsequent Events (310s BC) The Historical Records, after mentioning a failed attack on Qin by Yan and allies in a regnal year equated with 318 BC in the annual tables in ch. 15 (the 3rd year of king Kuài of Yan in ch. 34, the 7th royal year of Huìwén wáng (惠文王) of Qin in ch. 5, etc.), states that the king abdicated (ràng|讓; ch. 5 and 15) in favor of his minister, or at least subordinated the country to him (shǔ|屬; ch. 34). [1] In the Historical Records, ch. 34, no year is indicated, implying that this happened in the same year as the preceding events, 318 BC. According to the annual tables (ch. 15), the event took place in the king's 5th year (equated with 316 BC). A reversal of roles between the ruler and the minister of Yan is also reported in ch. 43 under the 10th year of Wǔlíng wáng (武靈王) of Zhao (equated with 316 in the Historical Records, ch. 15, but adjusted to 315 BC). [2] In the Historical Records, ch. 5, however, the abdication is reported as such in the 11th royal year of Huìwén wáng of Qin (as above equated with 314 BC). The minister is then given a rule of variously one (ch. 43), two (ch. 15) or three years (ch. 34), ending accordingly in 314 (adjusted from 315), 314, 315, or one to three years after 314 BC (ch. 5). The annual tables (ch. 15) simply state that the ruler, Kuài, the crown prince and the minister died in the same year. Ch. 34 specifies that the crown prince, Píng (平), led a failed coup against the minister, which was eventually followed by an intervention by neighboring Qi, in the course of which Kuài was killed. The Contemporary Bamboo Annals, which dates the intervention to the 1st year of Yǐn wáng (隱王) of Zhou (314 BC), indicates that it was prompted by the minister killing the crown prince and that the minister was then executed for treason by the intervening forces. The chapters 15 and 34 of the Historical Records then give a two-year interregnum that ended with the people of Yan enthroning prince Píng as the new king of Yan. The Historical Records, ch. 43, on the other hand, reports that in the 11th year of Wǔlíng wáng (武靈王) of Zhao (314 BC as explained below), the State of Zhao, rather than the people of Yan, picked the new king and that the choice fell on prince Zhí (職), rather than Píng, who, after all and as indicated above, had already been executed after the failed coup against the minister. A reference to Zhí is found, e.g., as part of the inscription on a bronzeware acquired by the Shanghai Museum. The precise reading of the inscription is open to interpretation, but it appears to refer to the allied campaign against Qi in 284 BC in the 30th year of King Zhí of Yan (Yǎn wáng Zhí|郾王職). Based on this interpretation, Zhí acceded in 314 BC, thus confirming the Zhao account in ch. 43 (Huang 2002). |
- The minister is routinely called 子之 (Zǐ Zhī or Zǐzhī) in the Historical Records and other near-contemporary texts, which is difficult to interpret as 子 could be either a surname (Zǐ), a title (zǐ) or part of a bisyllabic given name (Zǐzhī). The Contemporary Bamboo Annals however first refer to the minister as 燕子之, subsequently shortened to 子之, which demonstrates that 子 is not a surname here. The annalistic context also makes it unlikely that 燕 (Yān) is here meant as a geographic specifier as might be used in biographies or genealogical treatises (i.e. Zhī of the Zǐ clan of Yan). The interpretation of 子 (zǐ) as an actual 'feudal' title (commonly equated with 'viscount') can be ruled out, as the title of the rulers of Yan then was wáng. The king, Kuài, being called 子噲 (zǐ Kuài) in some texts however points to the possibility of 子 (zǐ) being a generic placeholder title, not only for the king, but also for the minister (i.e. one Zhī, or the man Zhī of Yan), the writer preferring not to use and thus recognize the actual (royal) title for political reasons. The absence of a surname, other than Yān, would then indicate that the minister was indeed a member of the ruling family, i.e. the Yan (燕) branch of the Jī (姬) clan.
- The Historical Records, ch. 43, dates the abdication of Wǔlíng wáng (武靈王) of Zhao to day wù shēn (戊申) in the fifth month of his 27th year (equated with 299 BC in the Historical Records, ch. 15). However, there was no wù shēn in the fifth month of 299 BC. While wù shēn might be a mistake for wù chén (戊辰) or gēng shēn (庚申), which there were, a much more likely explanation is that the day is correct but that the year is not. In the following year, 298 BC, wù shēn was the first day of the fifth month, corresponding to 7 Apr 298, and indicating that the abdicating king's last year was actually changed (calendrically) into the first year of his successor, Huìwén wáng (惠文王). Such an unusual transition would explain the one-year misalignment of this and the preceding reigns in the Historical Records, ch. 15.