Prince Danzhi of Yan died in Qin and returned
This article in Warring States Policy details the story of Prince Dan of Yan from fleeing Qin to seeking an assassin to assassinate the King of Qin, and his failure. After that, the whole process of Yan's demise.
Stills of Prince Dan
Prince Dan of Yan State was detained as a hostage in Qin State, but seeing the tyranny and ambition of King Qin, he fled back to Yan State. The traitor of Qin came to the State of Yan and begged to take him in. Prince Dan couldn't bear to refuse. Prince's teacher advised that taking General Fan in would only bring blame from the State of Qin, so he should refuse. But Prince Dan didn't listen. Prince Dan asked Tian Guang for advice, and Tian Guang recommended Jing Ke with his life. Jing Ke then planned to assassinate Qin. Jing Ke wanted to please the King of Qin, so he asked for a map of Yan's fertile lands and the head of General Fan who rebelled against Qin. Prince Dan took General Fan in and couldn't bear to harm him. Jing Ke personally persuaded General Fan that he would kill the King of Qin with a dagger, but he only needed the general's cooperation. General Fan learned that it was to kill the King of Qin, so he cut himself with a sword and offered his head.
Jing Ke was waiting for his friends to go with him in Yan. The prince urged him to say goodbye to his friends and righteous men, and he took the map with him and set out on the road. When they arrived at the Qin Palace, Qin Wuyang was afraid, but Jing Ke was calm and natural. However, when he was trying to assassinate the King of Qin, he broke away and could not pursue him. In the end, he was outnumbered and the assassination failed and he died in the Qin Palace. Although Jing Ke died, the King of Qin was furious and sent a large army to attack Yan. King Yan united other countries to fight, but was defeated and fled to Liaodong with Prince Dan of Yan. Someone offered a plan to kill the prince and offered pills to the King of Qin to save his life. King Yan followed. However, after the death of Prince Dan of Yan, the Qin army did not stop attacking. The king of Yan died, and the country of Yan perished. Gao Jianli, a good friend of Jing Ke, often built buildings and sang farewell songs to Jing Ke. When he heard that Jing Ke was dead, he decided to replace him and wait for an opportunity to kill the King of Qin. Gao Jianli approached the King of Qin and attacked the King of Qin with a building. He failed and was killed. Jing Ke and Prince Dan
In 232 BC, five years had passed since Prince Dan escaped from Qin and returned to Yan. However, he could not let go of the fact that King Qin had a cold attitude towards him as a hostage in Qin, and he had thoughts of revenge. However, Yan's national power was too weak and it could only form alliances with other countries. This will make the process very long. So Prince Dan thought of assassinating the King of Qin.
Jing Ke stills
At first, Prince Dan targeted Tian Guang and wanted Tian Guang to assassinate the King of Qin. Tian Guang felt that he was too old and recommended Jing Ke to Prince Dan. Jing Ke's father and Tian Guang were both martial arts masters at the time, but Jing Ke did not fully inherit his father's swordsmanship. On the contrary, I studied more in reading. At that time, Fan Yuqi fled from Qin to Yan, and Fan Yuqi was a rebel general of Qin. Prince Dan took him in out of hatred for Qin. Jing Ke came up with a plan to donate Fan Yuqi's head to the King of Qin to gain the King of Qin's trust and then complete the subsequent tasks. Prince Dan couldn't bear to kill Fan Yuqi. So Jing Ke, considering the overall situation, met with Fan Yuqi in private and told him his interests. Fan Yuqi committed suicide in order to enable Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin.
In 227 BC, Jing Ke went to Qin and embarked on the road of assassinating the King of Qin. Along with him were Fan Yuqi's head and Dukang's map. When he was leaving, Prince Dan of Yan, Gao Jianli and others saw him off by the Yishui River. The scene was solemn and solemn. After Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang arrived in Qin, they went to see the King of Qin on the pretext of presenting Fan Yuqi's head and the map of Dukang. King Qin was very happy. When unfolding the map of Dukang, Jing Ke hid the dagger at the end of the map. Unfortunately, Jing Ke did not stab the King of Qin, but was seriously injured by the King of Qin with his sword, and was then killed by the prince's bodyguard. Prince Dan of Yan Kingdom
During the Warring States Period, King Yan liked to make Dan the prince. However, the Yan Kingdom was defeated in many wars. He first sent Prince Dan to Zhao to seek peace. Zhao was destroyed by Qin, and Qin became a powerful country. Prince Dan He was also sent to Qin as a hostage to prevent Qin from attacking Yan.
Stills of Prince Dan
The Yan country is weak, so it is even more afraid of invasion by powerful countries. Prince Dan met Ying Zheng in Zhao State and became friends with Ying Zheng. However, the current situation changed and Ying Zheng returned to Qin State. His father ascended the throne and passed it to Ying Zheng after his death. He won the government and became the king of Qin, put great emphasis on reforms, worked hard to govern, and the country became strong. Qin liked to fight and had the ambition to annex the six countries and dominate the world.
When Prince Dan returned to Yan, what awaited him was Qin's invasion of surrounding countries.
Is there no talented person in Yan State? Does Yan have a strategy to unite other countries? The State of Yan could not send the prince to the State of Qin as a hostage to once again seek short-term comfort.
Prince Dan was in Qin. He noticed King Qin’s ambition to dominate and knew that King Qin would not stop entering the palace. He was frightened and hurriedly fled back to Yan to find a way.
Prince Dan was anxious day and night, and thought of a way to directly assassinate King Qin. At this time, the rebellious generals of the Qin State came to the Yan State and asked to be taken in. The prince of Yan did not listen to the advice and left the rebellious generals behind. Isn't this causing trouble for yourself? On the one hand, he was afraid of Qin, and on the other hand, he did things that disobeyed the king of Qin.
Later, he planned to assassinate Qin and was too anxious to rush the assassins. The assassination failed, angered the king of Qin, and even attracted the army to destroy Yan.
In the end, the King of Yan and the prince were hunted down by the Qin army. The King of Yan fled to the Liaodong area, and the Qin army pursued him. The officials of the Yan State suggested that the prince be killed and dedicated to the King of Qin to eliminate the anger of the King of Qin. Prince Dan was killed by him. His father, King Yan, was killed. The death of Prince Dan did not stop King Qin from destroying Yan. King Yan was also destroyed and the Kingdom of Yan perished.
Later generations have mixed reviews of Taizi Dan. The literati of the Song Dynasty believed that Prince Dan was unfilial and disloyal. However, the King of Qin's annexation of the Yan Kingdom was not caused by the assassination of Qin. The demise of the Yan Kingdom was the inevitable outcome of the weakening of the national power. Prince Dan of Yan was therefore a hostage in Zhao
Zi Chu, the father of King Qin Yingzheng, once served as a hostage in Zhao. There was a wealthy businessman named Lu Buwei in the State of Zhao. Lu Buwei wanted to use Qin's crown prince Zi Chu to control the Qin government and gain power, so he had a good relationship with Zi Chu and gave him the beauty Zhao Ji in his palace.
Stills of Prince Dan
Zhao Ji is the mother of King Qin Yingzheng. Therefore, Yingzheng was born in the State of Zhao. Lu Buwei had strong financial resources, smoothed relationships, gathered connections, and supported Zi Chu to become the monarch of Qin. So what does this have to do with the Prince of Yan? It turned out that when Ying Zheng was living in Zhao State, the crown prince of Yan State was also in Zhao State. King Yan liked to provoke a war between Yan and Zhao, but was besieged by Zhao, so he sent Prince Dan to Zhao to sue for peace. Prince Dan met Ying Zheng in Zhao State, and the relationship between the two was quite good. Maybe they both had the same sympathy and sympathy for each other in a foreign land. But later Yingzheng's father returned to Qin to become king, and Yingzheng also returned to Qin.
The Qin State was powerful and captured the Zhao State. In order to protect itself, the Yan State sent Prince Dan to Qin as a hostage. Poor Prince Dan cannot return to his homeland. Although the country of Qin he went to is the country of his former friends, did King Qin Yingzheng remember his old friendship and treat Prince Dan well? Historical records record that Prince Dan was humiliated by Qin. Perhaps in the eyes of King Qin Yingzheng, the friendship in the past had no use value. Yingzheng only believed in power. Prince Dan is just a pawn in the war. As a powerful king of Qin, Yingzheng had nothing wrong with treating the prince, the hostage of a small country, humiliating and belittling him. But Prince Dan felt unbalanced and resentful. This is probably the reason why this sentence is mentioned in the assassin's biography, to lay the groundwork for Prince Dan's plan to assassinate Qin later. The Treatise on Prince Elixir
The Treatise on Prince Elixir is an article written by literati in the Qing Dynasty. It mainly talks about the different evaluations of the prince of Yan in history. The people of the Song Dynasty believed that Prince Dan of Yan State should not plot to assassinate the King of Qin. They believed that Prince Dan was unfaithful and unfilial, and assassinating the King of Qin was a crime of treason. Therefore, it was recorded that Prince Dan was beheaded, and he was beheaded instead of killed. This is the meaning. Since Prince Dan of Yan was classified as treason, then Jing Ke was also classified as treason.
Stills of Prince Dan
This is the Confucianism advocated by people in the Song Dynasty. This situation is like a doctor treating a patient. Without carefully diagnosing the location of the disease, we just assume that the body is not in good health and the qi and blood are not flowing smoothly, so we prescribe some medicine to regulate the gastrointestinal tract. However, the symptom lies in the malignant tumor that has grown. How can such a medical treatment not kill the patient and eventually lead to his death? The Song Dynasty court was full of jesters like Qin Hui. They used powerful connections every day to blackmail loyal ministers and soldiers and advocate the benefits of peace. How could their thoughts not harm the country?
Looking at it today, Prince Dan was not a traitor, but a loyal minister. Prince Dan was a filial son, and Jing Ke was also a people's hero. If Jing Ke had been used by someone else, the outcome might have been different. The character of Prince Dan of Yan State can shine with the sun and moon of heaven and earth.
In the Qing Dynasty, after the historical era of the Song Dynasty when Qin Hui made peace and betrayed the country, writers in the Qing Dynasty commented on the ancient story of Prince Dan. They used ancient metaphors to describe the present, denounced the evil ministers who were traitors and made peace, and admired Jing Ke's heroic integrity. It is indeed of great significance for Prince Dan to be passed down to future generations. When the country faced aggression, the peace advocates denied Prince Dan's actions and believed that he would bring destruction to the country. However, the invasion of powerful countries was not caused by Jing Ke's failure to assassinate Qin, but because of the weak national power of Yan. Therefore, when looking at the practice of Prince Dan, we should evaluate it objectively from its essence. The story of Prince Dan of Yan State inspires us that what we should do most is not to surrender and make peace, but to strive for self-improvement.