Ministers › Diplomat / Envoy
Lu Zhonglian
Qi wanderer of the late Warring States who talked the Wei envoy out of proclaiming Qin's king emperor during the siege of Handan, broke the siege of Liaocheng with a letter, and refused every reward
On a road beside a desert gateway, a camel train carries a lidded chest and rolled bundles while travellers walk along the path; a large sailing ship lies in the harbour at the right, a stone waymark stands by the road, and dunes and mountains fill the distance.
Also known as Lu Lian
- Roles
- Diplomat / Envoy
Lu Zhonglian was a man of Qi late in the Warring States period whom the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) describes as fond of bold schemes yet unwilling to hold office. When Qin besieged the Zhao capital Handan after the battle of Changping, the king of Wei sent his general Xinyuan Yan into the city to urge Zhao to recognise the Qin king as emperor in return for peace. Lu Zhonglian sought him out, declaring that he would rather walk into the Eastern Sea and drown than live as Qin's subject; Xinyuan Yan dropped the proposal. He laughed off Lord Pingyuan's offers of a fief and of gold. Later, when a Yan general held the Qi city of Liaocheng, he shot a letter into the city; the general read it and killed himself, and the city fell. Offered a rank by the king of Qi, he fled to live by the sea. Li Bai wrote of him as the most admirable of Qi's free spirits.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; man of Qi in the late Warring States