King Zhaoxiang of Qin

Also known as Ying Ji · Zhao Wang

King Zhaoxiang of Qin, named Ze or Ji, was a son of King Huiwen and a half-brother of King Wu; his mother was the Queen Dowager Xuan. When King Wu died of injuries from lifting a bronze cauldron, Zhaoxiang was brought back from Yan, where he was a hostage, to take the throne, and in his early years his mother and her brother Wei Ran held power. With Bai Qi as his general he routed Han and Wei at Yique in 293 BC and took the Chu capital Ying in 278 BC, and in 288 BC he briefly took the title Emperor of the West. In 266 BC he made Fan Ju chancellor and removed Wei Ran. His army crushed Zhao at Changping in 260 BC, attacked the Western Zhou principality in 256 BC and carried off the Nine Cauldrons of Zhou the next year. He died in 251 BC. The Qin bamboo slips found at Shuihudi include a chronicle that begins with his first year.