The Twilight of a Once-Mighty State

In the waning years of the Warring States period, the kingdom of Yan stood at a crossroads. The once-proud state, which had reached its zenith under King Zhao of Yan half a century earlier, now found itself in precipitous decline. Four successive rulers – King Hui, King Wucheng, King Xiao, and finally King Xi – had each presided over Yan’s gradual deterioration from regional power to vulnerable remnant.

The turning point came with King Hui’s disastrous decision to replace the brilliant general Yue Yi with the incompetent Qi Jie during Yan’s campaign against Qi. The catastrophic defeat at the hands of Tian Dan’s famous “fire oxen” formation marked the beginning of Yan’s irreversible decline. Subsequent rulers proved either ineffectual or short-lived, with King Xi inheriting a kingdom that had lost both its military prowess and political stability.

King Xi’s Ill-Fated Ambitions

King Xi, ascending the throne in 254 BCE, initially harbored dreams of restoring Yan to its former glory. His early reign coincided with Zhao’s recovery from the devastating Battle of Changping against Qin, presenting what seemed like an opportune moment for Yan to reassert itself. The king found a willing partner in his chancellor Li Fu, who devised a bold strategy: first lull Zhao into complacency through diplomacy, then launch a surprise attack.

The plan unfolded with Li Fu presenting lavish gifts to King Xiaocheng of Zhao while secretly assessing Zhao’s military readiness. Returning with reports that Zhao’s forces were depleted from the Changping losses, Li Fu convinced King Xi that the time was ripe for invasion. Despite warnings from the experienced general Le Xian (son of the legendary Yue Yi) that Zhao’s martial culture remained formidable, King Xi dismissed all caution. In 251 BCE, Yan launched a two-pronged invasion with 300,000 troops against Zhao’s northern territories.

The Devastating Consequences

The campaign proved disastrous. Zhao’s veteran generals Lian Po and Le Cheng decisively defeated both Yan armies, killing Li Fu and capturing the other Yan commander Qing Qin. Zhao forces pursued the retreating Yan troops over 500 li, laying siege to Yan’s capital Ji. Only through desperate diplomacy – including appointing the previously disgraced minister Jiang Qu as chancellor and ceding 300 li of territory – did Yan secure peace.

This catastrophic failure left Yan militarily crippled and economically exhausted. Yet King Xi, rather than learning humility, sought to blame circumstances rather than strategy. When another opportunity seemed to present itself eight years later with political turmoil in Zhao, the king again gambled on invasion, this time under the aged minister Ju Xin. The result was another crushing defeat, with Ju Xin killed in battle and Yan’s military capacity effectively destroyed.

The Arrival of Crown Prince Dan

By 232 BCE, when Crown Prince Dan returned from his captivity in Qin, Yan stood on the brink of extinction. The prince’s dramatic escape from Qin (where he had been held as a hostage alongside the young Ying Zheng, future First Emperor) marked a turning point. Recognizing Qin’s inevitable push for unification, Prince Dan dedicated himself to organizing resistance.

His most famous initiative would be the plot to assassinate Ying Zheng, involving the legendary figures Fan Wuji (a Qin defector) and Jing Ke. The elaborate scheme, which included obtaining the famed Xu Furen dagger and presenting the head of Fan Wuji as a gift to gain access to the Qin king, ultimately failed when Jing Ke’s attempt in 227 BCE was thwarted in the Qin court.

Cultural Impact and Historical Legacy

The story of Yan’s decline and desperate resistance against Qin’s expansion encapsulates several key themes of the Warring States period:

1. The futility of short-term military gambles against long-term strategic decline
2. The complex interplay between personal ambition and state survival
3. The emergence of assassination as political tool in an era of existential threats

The Jing Ke assassination attempt in particular became legendary, immortalized in Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian and later cultural works. It represents both the bravery of individual resistance and the inevitability of Qin’s unification.

Modern historians view Yan’s trajectory as emblematic of smaller states’ dilemmas when facing hegemonic powers – whether to resist at all costs, accommodate the rising power, or seek desperate measures like assassination. The psychological toll on King Xi, who oscillated between grandiose ambition and paralyzed inaction, offers a case study in leadership under existential threat.

Ultimately, Yan’s story reminds us that the path from regional power to historical footnote can be alarmingly swift when strategic misjudgments compound over generations. The kingdom’s final, futile resistance against Qin’s tide of unification became both its epitaph and its most enduring legacy.