The real-life Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng - A tale of two brothers
I’ve been asked this before when talking about topics such as Qiongqi beast and its symbolism in Wei Wuxian’s death, the various hints that Wei Wuxian might be long lost royal, the historical background behind the Yin tiger tally, and why the tiger symbol seemingly being bad juju for Wuxian.
It’s all connected, of course, through a historical basis. I have some free time today, so let’s get!
Meet Wei Wuji, also known as Lord Xinling, the second Prince of Wei Kingdom (circa 2nd century BCE), the first person in recorded history to handle a Tiger Tally, and very very likely to be the real-life basis for Wei Wuxian.
How very likely? Well, there’s no word of god, of course. But I’ll just let the facts speak for themselves, and you be the judge.
1. Let’s start with names:
Wei 魏 = Wei 魏. An exact match. As a matter of fact, Wei Wuji’s Wei kingdom is the first kingdom to bear this Wei name in recorded history.
Wu 無 is the traditional form of Wu 无. In the Japanese, Taiwanese, and traditional Mandarin versions, Wei Wuxian is also written with this Wu 無.
The original meaning of Ji is ‘envy, hatred’ in ancient times (as per the Kangxi dictionary and the original text of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms). In modern times, the meaning of Ji has morphed to represent ‘fear, avoid’ more than ‘envy’ and ‘hatred.
The meaning of Xian is envy in both ancient and modern times.
So Wei Wuxian is effectively an alternate way to write Wei Wuji.
2. The life and death of Wei Wuji and the first Tiger Tally recorded in history:
a. Genius second son, a friend of many, the brightest 4th Young Master:
Wei Wuji was born the second son of King Wei Zhao and the second prince of the Wei Kingdom. He had an elder half-brother: Wei Anli, crown prince and, afterward, King of the Wei Kingdom.
Despite being the younger brother and not the heir to the throne, Wei Wuji eclipsed his elder brother in talent, courage, military and political acumen, and sheer popularity.
Wei Wuji was also unique among his period peers for being very open-minded when it came to castes. He lived during the warring state period, during which there existed an extremely strict caste system where the lower and slave castes didn’t even count as humans and could be executed for silly things like being in the presence of their higher caste masters and ‘tainting the air’ they breathed. Not only did Wei Wuji give no thought to this caste system, he would often go out of his way to listen to the lower castes and treat them with respect as if they were of the same caste.
In one legend (Sima Qian Historical Records, circa 135 BCE), Wei Wuji walked away from a banquet raised in his name to go sit and talk to an old, wise prison guard (Hou Ying). He would then invite this prison guard to his banquet with the highest of honor, even giving the guard his seat (noble seat) and driving the chariot in his place. When other noble banquet guests protested this lowly guard’s presence by vilifying the old prison guard for not knowing his place, Wei Wuji stood up for him and gave him the highest of toasts, thus silencing the guests.
In another legend, Wei Wuji hosted over 3000 guests in his princely fiefdom. He famously declared that so long as a person had ambitions and a will to do good in his heart, then Wei Wuji would receive him in his hall as a guest and friend regardless of what caste he was or from where he came.
For this, Wei Wuji was known as Lord Xinling and held the loyalty of many in his own brother’s kingdom.
He was one of the Four Gongzi of the Warring State Period (lit. Four Young Masters, Four Noblemen, Four Princes. During this period, Gong was a distinct noble class comparable to Duke. So this can also be understood as the Four Dukes). He was seen as the brightest among the Four.
b. The tale of the first Tiger Tally in recorded history:
Sima Qian Historical Records told the tale of the first Tiger Tally as such. It was a time of chaos where the strong trampled the weak, and big countries gobbled up small ones. Wei Kingdom was one of the seven strongest of the time. This meant that their position was precarious.
Around this time, Wei Wuji’s elder brother, Wei Anli, had ascended the throne and adopted a policy of avoidance. Despite the ferocious fighting, the political struggles, and the easily foreseeable threats, Wei Anli was of the thought that if he did nothing and just closed his door, then trouble wouldn’t come knocking at his door.
But this was not so. In 260 BC, the state of Qin (of Qin Shi Huang, yes) besieged the state of Zhao and captured the King of Zhao (who was related to the Wei through marriage). Zhao sent for Wei’s help. But King Wei Anli didn’t want to be Qin’s next target, and so refused to send aid.
This was where the Wei brother’s opinions diverged. Wei Wuji saw that Qin was growing unchecked in power, and if not stopped, then Wei would be next on the chopping block anyway. So not only was Wei politically and morally responsible, but from a long-term strategic standpoint, Wei must respond if they didn’t want Qin to grow too strong and eventually be invaded and absorbed into Qin itself.
The only problem: Wei Wuji had no right to make this decision. And regardless of his insistence and explanation to his elder brother, Wei Anli would not be moved. Meanwhile, the state of Zhao sent ever more desperate pleas for help (from the Wei’s sister who was Zhao Queen at the time no less).
Pressured from all sides and with no alternative, Wei Wuji made a decision that would go down as a first in history. He would steal the Tiger Tally from his King’s hand, commandeer the army, and ride to answer Zhao’s pleas for help himself.
This would eventually become the historical example of military brilliance that required the usurpation of the immediate superior. Wei Wuji’s own name would go down in history as brilliance that eclipsed his station.
I’ve written on the tiger tally before. So I won’t write more about this now.
To summarize things, Wei Wuji’s plan worked. Zhao was saved. But at the cost of a rift between brothers. After lifting the siege, Wei Wuji stayed in Zhao for ten years.
He would only go back to Wei Kingdom when Wei was besieged by Qin in purported retaliation, bringing with him the 3000 guests that stayed loyal to him and went to Zhao for help. Wei Wuji successfully lifted the siege of Wei and the two brothers reunited after a decade of not seeing each other. They cried and embraced one another. Wei Anli made Wei Wuji the Grand General of Wei, and he then took over the safeguarding of Wei against the onslaught of Qin.
c. The tale of two brothers. Or, as the Chinese say, the King has no brothers. The King has no equal. Fool is he who dares think himself the King’s brother and equal.
Despite the fact that the brothers reunited, this tale does not end well.
Wei Wuji was a brilliant general and a ferocious warrior. But more than that, his reputation far eclipsed his elder brother the King. Ever since they were young, Wei Anli had had to suffer being under the shadow of his little brother, despite his being the heir and then King.
Wei Wuji not only successfully repelled Qin, but he also started making a plan to counterattack and nyx Qin Empire before it could take shape. Because his reputation was such that countless warriors and scholars answered his call to arms. Five other kingdoms also answered his request for an alliance.
The King of Qin was deathly afraid of Wei Wuji. Violence did not work, so the Qin King attempted the other way: through schemes and manipulation. The Qin King sent enormous fortunes and gifts to Wei Anli under the guise of normalizing relations between the two kingdoms and potential peace. Along with his gifts, he would send people, spies of all ranks and castes, to infiltrate Wei Anli’s court and territory. These spies would continuously do things to increase the friction and gap between the two brothers.
Some of them would falsely congratulate Wei Wuji for having ascended to the throne.
Some more would treat Wei Wuji with more deference than Wei Anli.
Some would then whisper into Wei Anli’s ears: “Prince Wei was away from his own Kingdom for 10 years. And yet when he calls, thousands in Wei Kingdom answer him. Why is it him and not you, the King? Do your people only know Wei Wuji and not Wei Anli. Are you sure it’s still you who is the King? He should know his place!”
Wei Anli… fell for their tactics. So he demoted Wei Wuji and effectively isolated him from the court. He would then give this position to someone else. So, of course, the plan to counterattack Qin with the 5 ally kingdoms fell apart miserably.
Wei Wuji was heartbroken by his own brother’s action. He descended into alcoholism and purportedly died from depression and failing health. In other words, he died from the betrayal of someone who saw as a brother but that same brother saw him not as a brother but as a rival and a carrier of problems.
Wei Anli died in the same year as Wei Wuji, purportedly from illness.
18 years later, just as Wei Wuji predicted, Wei Kingdom was conquered and subsumed by Qin. Qin would then go on to become the first true Empire in Chinese History.
Wei Anli was not technically the last monarch of Wei. But it’s historically agreed that he’s the one who laid the foundation for the fall of Wei due to his suspicion of his own brother and removing the one person capable of turning the tide of Qin.
So, I will leave this here for you to come to your own conclusion and come back another day for analysis on the parallels between history and story and a few other somewhat ironic anecdotes that I didn’t include here (Like the fact that between the 2 Wei brothers, it’s the real-life Jiang Cheng, Wei Anli, that was the gay one. How gay are we talking about? So gay he’s the origin of Chinese gay porn)
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