Feizi (; died 858 BC), also known by the title Qin Ying, was the founder of the ancient Chinese state of

Qin Qin may refer to: Dynasties and states * Qin (state) (秦), a major state during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China * Qin dynasty (秦), founded by the Qin state in 221 BC and ended in 206 BC * Daqin (大秦), ancient Chinese name for the Roman Emp ...

, predecessor of the

Qin Dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin (state), ...

that would conquer all other Chinese states and unite China in 221 BC.

Mythical origin of Qin

According to the

founding myth An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have sto ...

s of Qin recorded in the ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...

'' by

Han Dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

historian

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...

, Feizi descended from the mythical

Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Soverei ...

and his grandson and successor

Zhuanxu Zhuanxu (Chinese: trad. , simp. , pinyin ''Zhuānxū''), also known as Gaoyang ( t , s , p ''Gāoyáng''), was a mythological emperor of ancient China. In the traditional account recorded by Sima Qian, Zhu ...

. Zhuanxu's granddaughter Nüxiu (女脩) gave birth to

Daye Daye () is a county-level city in eastern Hubei province, China. It is under the administration of the Huangshi prefecture-level city. As it is usually the case with county-level cities, Daye includes both an urban core and a fair amount of rural ...

(大業) after swallowing an egg of a swallow. Daye's son Boyi (伯益) was awarded the

ancestral name In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name, ...

Ying ( 嬴) by the mythical Chinese ruler

Shun Shun may refer to one of the following: *To shun, which means avoiding association with an individual or group * Shun (given name), a masculine Japanese given name *Seasonality in Japanese cuisine (''shun'', 旬) Emperor Shun * Emperor Shun (� ...

Ancestry

During the

Shang Dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

, Boyi's descendant

Zhongjue Zhongjue -- (), formerly romanized as Chung Chüeh -- was a figure in the legendary prehistory of China. In the ''Records of the Grand Historian'', Sima Qian's account of the origins of the House of Ying made Zhongjue the great-great-grandson of ...

was in charge of Xichui (西垂, also called Quanqiu, in present-day

Li County, Gansu Li County or Lixian is an administrative division of the prefecture-level city of Longnan in southeastern Gansu, a northwestern province of China. The 2010 Chinese census found a population of 458,237, a decline of around 25,000 from the year 2 ...

) in the midst of the Rong tribes. Zhongjue's son Feilian (蜚廉) and grandson

Elai Elai ({{zh, t=惡來, p=Èlái) was a bodyguard for King Zhou of the Chinese Shang dynasty. He was an ancestor of Feizi, the founder of the state of Qin. His brother Jisheng ( 季勝) was an ancestor of Zaofu, the founder of the state of Zhao. Acc ...

served

King Zhou of Shang King Zhou (; ) was the pejorative posthumous name given to Di Xin of Shang () or King Shou of Shang (), the last king of the Shang dynasty of ancient China. He is also called Zhou Xin (). In Chinese, his name Zhòu (wikt:紂, 紂) also refers to a ...

, and Elai was killed when

King Wu of Zhou King Wu of Zhou () was the first king of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. The chronology of his reign is disputed but is generally thought to have begun around 1046 BC and ended three years later in 1043 BC. King Wu's ancestral name was ...

overthrew Shang and founded the

Zhou Dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...

. Feizi's father Daluo (大骆) was the great-great-grandson of Elai. However, Daluo's legal heir was not Feizi, but his other son , because Cheng was born to Daluo's main wife, daughter of the

Marquess A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

of the state of Shen.

Founding of Qin

Feizi lived in Xichui and was a skilled horse breeder.

King Xiao of Zhou King Xiao of Zhou (), personal name Ji Bifang, was the eighth king of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty. Estimated dates of his reign are 891–886 BC or 872–866 BC. He was a son of King Mu and brother of King Gong. His reign is poorly documented. ...

learned of his reputation and put him in charge of breeding and training horses for the Zhou army. To reward his contributions, King Xiao wanted to make Feizi his father's legal heir instead of his half-brother Cheng. However,

Marquess of Shen The Marquess of Shen (Chinese: , p ''Shēnhóu''; d. 771 BCE) was a Qiang ruler of Shen during China’s Zhou dynasty. A vassal state of the Zhou, Shen state covered the area of modern-day Nanyang in Henan. One of the Marqu ...

, Cheng's grandfather, objected and said that the

Rong people Xirong () or Rong were various people who lived primarily in and around the western extremities of ancient China (in modern Gansu and Qinghai). They were known as early as the Shang dynasty (1765–1122 BCE), as one of the Four Barbarians that fr ...

would revolt if the king deposed Cheng. The king changed his mind and awarded Feizi the small

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...

of Qin instead (in present-day

Zhangjiachuan County The Zhangjiachuan Hui Autonomous County (, Xiao'erjing: ) is a county in the east of Gansu Province of the People's Republic of China, bordering Shaanxi Province to the east. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Tianshui ...

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

), separate from his father's fief of Xichui, and gave Feizi the title Qin Ying, a combination of his fief and ancestral name. This was the beginning of the

State of Qin Qin () was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. Traditionally dated to 897 BC, it took its origin in a reconquest of western lands previously lost to the Rong; its position at the western edge of Chinese civilization permitted ex ...

that would over six centuries later conquer all other states and unify China under the rule of

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor ( ...

, the First Emperor of the

. At this time Qin was only a minor state classified as an "attached state" (附庸, ''fuyong''), and Feizi did not receive any nobility rank. Qin would not become a major

vassal state A vassal state is any state that has a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire, in a status similar to that of a vassal in the feudal system in medieval Europe. Vassal states were common among the empires of the Near East, dating back to ...

until five generations later, when

King Ping of Zhou King Ping of Zhou (; died 720 BC), personal name Ji Yijiu, was the thirteenth king of the Zhou dynasty and the first of the Eastern Zhou dynasty.Sima Qian. ''Records of the Grand Historian'', "Zhou Dynasty Annals". History He was the son of Kin ...

granted

Duke Xiang of Qin Duke Xiang of Qin (, died 766 BC) was from 777 to 766 BC the sixth ruler of the Zhou Dynasty vassal state of Qin, which eventually unified China to become the Qin Dynasty. His ancestral name was Ying () and Duke Xiang was his posthumous title. ...

a formal nobility rank and recognition as a feudal lord for protecting the king during the invasion of the

Quanrong The Quanrong () or Dog Rong were an ethnic group, classified by the ancient Chinese as " Qiang", active in the northwestern part of China during and after the Zhou dynasty (1046–221 BCE). Their language or languages are considered to have been mem ...

nomads.

After death

Feizi died in 858 BC and was succeeded by his son, known as the

Marquis of Qin The Marquis of Qin (, died 848 BC) was the second ruler of the ancient Chinese state of Qin, founded when his father Feizi was granted a small fief at Qin by King Xiao of Zhou. The Marquis of Qin succeeded his father, who died in 858 BC, and rul ...

. In 842 BC the

rebelled, destroying the clan of Feizi's half-brother at Xichui. Twenty years later, Feizi's great-grandson Qin Zhong was also killed by the Rong in 822 BC. However, Qin Zhong's son and successor

Duke Zhuang of Qin Duke Zhuang of Qin (, died 778 BC) was from 821 to 778 BC the fifth ruler of the Zhou Dynasty state of Qin that eventually united China to become the Qin Dynasty. His ancestral name was Ying (). Reign Duke Zhuang became the Qin ruler after his fa ...

defeated the Rong and annexed Xichui, thus reuniting the territories of the two branches of the House of Ying.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feizi Year of birth unknown Rulers of Qin 9th-century BC Chinese monarchs 858 BC deaths Founding monarchs