Four Lords of the Warring States
| Four Lords of the Warring States | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 戰國四公子 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 战国四公子 | ||||||
|
|||||||
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Zhànguó sì gōngzǐ |
The Four Lords of the Warring States were four powerful aristocrats of the late Warring States period of Chinese history who exerted a strong influence on the politics of their respective states in the third century BCE.
During this time, the Zhou king was a mere figurehead, and seven states led by aristocratic families competed for real power. Although they were not themselves monarchs, four aristocrats stood out because of their tremendous military power and wealth: Lord Mengchang (d. 279 BCE) of Qi, Lord Xinling (d. 242 BCE) of Wei, Lord Pingyuan (d. 251 BCE) of Zhao and Lord Chunshen (d. 237 BCE) of Chu.
All four were renowned for their activity in the politics of their era as well as being the persona of their state respectively at the time; they also wielded influence via the cultivation and housing of many talented house-guests, who often included learned men and tacticians. As such, they came to be the most prominent patrons of the shi (士) or scholar-knights, stimulating the intellectual life of the time. Their prestige became the inspiration for Lü Buwei when he created his academic analogue in Qin.
These four lords are paralleled in some books of the Records of the Grand Historian, the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of China.
...
Wikipedia