That is an old nobleman with the blood of the son of heaven. From beginning to end, they have been earnestly adhering to the distant tradition and tirelessly pursuing the benevolent governance and kingliness of their ancestors. They came from the depths of history, even if they fell down again and again, even if they became the laughing stock of the world again and again, even if they fell into the abyss of history again and again, they never disdained it. When they stand up, they still stick to their original selves. He disdains improvement and innovation. Until the disaster comes, the country still has no sense of guilt and still believes that the sky will not die.
In fact, Yan State in the Warring States period is a very special case, which is different from other countries in development, unlike Korea, Zhao and Wei, and they have many similarities with Jin State. Chyi Chin is both a border country and an orthodox vassal country, and its development is similar. Although Chu in the south stood on its own as king, it was not influenced by the Western Zhou Dynasty and was a legal vassal state in the later period. Only Yan State is a very special country, which can be said to be a microcosm of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
The vassal state of 800 years spanned the whole Warring States period.
Let's first look at the first special point of Yan State. This special feature is that Yan State is the oldest and longest-existing vassal state, and it is also the only vassal state in the history of China that spans the whole great dynasty. From the establishment of the vassal state in the early Western Zhou Dynasty to its demise at the end of the Warring States Period, Yan State experienced more than 40 generations of monarchs, which lasted more than 800 years. Only in the Warring States period, from 430 BC, when Han, Zhao and Wei separated and entered Jin, until 222 years before Yan was captured as a civilian, Yan experienced a total of 1 1 monarch, 18655.
Yan was the founding vassal of the Western Zhou Dynasty and Qin was the founding vassal of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. These two countries can't be compared in time, which is why Yan became the only vassal state with aristocratic lineage in the Western Zhou Dynasty during the Warring States Period.
Zhou Wuwang enfeoffed the vassal state of Ji.
The second feature is that Yan State is a vassal state of the imperial family named Ji who was enfeoffed. In fact, among the vassal States left over from the Warring States, especially among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, there is no royal family named Ji except Yan.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the military dogs of the old vassal States were replaced by new gentry, and even the Qi State of Jiang, the first hero of the Western Zhou Dynasty, was replaced by Tian. The three clans of Han, Zhao and Wei also carved up the State of Jin, and the four Warring States in the Central Plains became the regime of the new gentry.
At this time, there were only three frontier powers, Qin, Chu and Yan. There was no monarchy revolution and no struggle for royal reform, and the blood line of succession of their monarchs did not change. However, among these three countries, Yan is the only ancient vassal state with the blood of the Zhou Emperor. Yan did not change into the warring States period and became one of the seven heroes of the warring States period. This is unique among more than 50 princes named Ji who were enfeoffed in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, this is the second special feature of Yan.
The historical record of Yan State is very vague.
The third characteristic of Yan State is that its history is the most vague and the simplest. Apart from the founding of the People's Republic of China, the history of Yan State in the Western Zhou Dynasty is almost vague, similar to myths and legends, and even there is a big gap in the inheritance of their monarchs. The Historical Records compiled by Tai Shigong did not record the history of Yan State in detail. Except for the simple record of their founding monarch Zhao, everything else is just a passing, which lightly ends the previous history of Yan State. After nine generations, that is to say, there is a blank of nine generations of monarchs in Yan State, which is unique among the major vassal States.
The events in the Spring and Autumn Period and the history of Yan State in the early Warring States Period were simply passed on several times. It can be said that the historical lines of Yan State before Yan Zhaowang were extremely rough and the footprints were extremely vague, which is actually an abnormal phenomenon. Generally speaking, at that time, every country needed to record its own history, so as to pass on its achievements to future generations. However, there is a big historical gap in Yan State, and later people can't find out what happened in Yan State in that historical period.
Even the history of Tianqi, Korea, Zhao and Wei, which were later established, was much more detailed than that of Yan, which became the shortest among the seven vassal States. So what does this mean?