Royals › Monarch / Emperor
King Wuling of Zhao
King of Zhao who made his army adopt nomad dress and mounted archery, handed the throne to his son in 299 BCE, and starved to death besieged in the Shaqiu palace
In a side chamber of a palace, a yellow ceremonial robe embroidered with a dragon hangs on a wooden stand, its hem worked with waves and rocks, before a carved folding screen, while a black lacquer chest sits on a low table by a lattice window and no person is in view.
Also known as Zhao Yong · Zhu Fu
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
King Wuling of Zhao, personal name Yong, succeeded his father, Marquis Su, in 325 BCE. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) relates that in 307 he overrode his uncle Prince Cheng and ordered his troops into the trousered dress of the steppe peoples to train as mounted archers against the Linhu, the Loufan and Zhongshan. He went on to defeat the Linhu and Loufan, built a long wall and set up the commanderies of Yunzhong, Yanmen and Dai. In 299 he gave the throne to his younger son He, King Huiwen, and as 'Father of the Ruler' devoted himself to war, once entering Qin disguised as an envoy. Zhao finished off Zhongshan in 296. In 295 his elder son Zhang rebelled at Shaqiu and fled into his father's palace; Prince Cheng and Li Dui killed Zhang and, afraid to lift the siege, kept the old king shut in until he starved. The Zhanguo ce records his debates over the new dress.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–295 BCE