Xi of Yan
Chinese king of Yan state from 255 to 222 BC
Xi, King of Yan (Chinese: 燕王喜; pinyin: Yān Wáng Xǐ; fl. 255–222 BC; r. 255–222 BC) was the last monarch of the Yan state. He was the son of King Xiao whom he succeeded.
In the 28th year of his reign (227 BC), the Qin state began its conquest of Yan, and its army approached Yishui (易水; modern-day Yi County, Hebei). Seeing the threatening situation in which Yan was in, Crown Prince Dan, King Xi's son, sent assassins Jing Ke, Qin Wuyang and others to kill Zheng, King of Qin, under the guise of presenting him with a map of Dukang (督亢) and the severed head of the Qin general Huan Yi. As Jing Ke unrolled the map in front of King Zheng, the dagger was revealed, and the assassination failed. This failure only helped to fuel the rage and determination of the King of Qin, who increased the number of troops sent to conquer Yan and ordered Wang Jian to destroy Yan. The bulk of the Yan army was at the frozen Yishui River. The Yan army was defeated in 226 BC and Xi fled to the Liaodong Commandery.
The public source identifies “Xi of Yan” as chinese king of Yan state from 255 to 222 BC. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Chinese, king and state.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3813172. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Xi of Yan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.