Lord Changping

Lord Changping (昌平君; died 223 BC) was a general and lord of Qin, but later seceded from Qin and died as the last king of Chu (224–223 BC) in the last days of the Warring States period of ancient China.^[1]

Accounts in the Records of the Grand Historian[]

The deeds of Lord Changping was mainly recorded in Vol. 6: Annals of Qin Shi Huang of the Records of the Grand Historian.

In 238 BC, in the State of Qin, a pseudo-eunuch Lao Ai became intimate with Queen Dowager Zhao and plotted against King Zheng of Qin (who would later ascend to Shi Huang, the First Emperor):

The king found out this fact and ordered the chancellor (Lü Buwei) to let Lord Changping and  [zh] lead soldiers and attack Lao Ai. They battled at Xianyang (the capital of Qin) and killed hundreds [of the rebels]. [For this deed,] they all received the peerage. Also, all eunuchs who battled [against Lao Ai] received one higher peerage than before.^[2]

Although Lao Ai fled from this battle, he was ultimately captured and executed.

In 226 BC,

Lord Changping moved to Ying (the capital of Chu).^[3]

In 224 BC, King Zheng of Qin appointed General Li Xin and his vice-commander General Meng Tian in charge of a 200,000 strong army with the intention of the conquest of the Chu state, after some initial success, the invasion was successfully stop by both Lord Changping and General , when they managed to almost wipe out the entire Qin army, killing thousands and some of their top commanders.

After the disgraceful defeat, the Qin King approached the notorious General Wang Jian and decided to put him in charge of a 600,000 Qin army in order to finally achieve the conquest of Chu, and he went on to captured its king (Fuchu) and capital. The remnants, however, continued to resist by adopting Lord Changping as their new king:

 [zh], general of Jing (another name of Chu), adopted Lord Changping as the king of Jing and resisted against Qin at Huainan. In the 24th year (223 BC), commander in chief General Wang Jian and his vice-commander General Meng Wu assaulted Chu and after some major battles they defeated the Chu army led by Lord Changping and General Xiang Yan. Lord Changping was killed by Meng Wu and Xiang Yan finally put an end to himself. ^[4]

To the contrary, Vol. 40: House of Chu records Fuchu as the last king of Chu and does not mention Lord Changping. Furthermore, the order of events is utterly reversed compared to the accounts in Vol. 6; the army of Qin killed General Xiang Yan in 224 BC and then captured Fuchu in 223 BC.^[5]

Other references[]

His name was not recorded but some archaeologists associate him with a prime minister Shao (召) of Qin.^[6]

According to the modern historian Li Kaiyuan (李開元), his given name was Qi (启), his ancestral name Mi (芈) and his lineage name Xiong (熊) were those of the kings of Chu. He was the son of King Kaolie of Chu. Lord Changping's three predecessors were all his brothers: King You, King Ai, and Fuchu.^[7] He died from an arrow wound.^{[citation needed]}

In popular culture[]

In the manga series Kingdom, he is one of the finest strategists in China and a mighty warrior as well, known as "Shou Hei Kun", he holds the position of 'Chief of Military Affairs' acting as the 'Supreme Commander' of the entire Qin military, he's also the 'Headmaster of the Strategist Academy' (where he has taught Mou Ten, Mou Ki and Karyo Ten), initially he was one of the "Four Pillars of Ryo", and in the court he later became the "Chancellor of the Right", then joining with the King's faction, which resulted in the Lu Buwei's disgrace, consequently causing the King to gain the complete dominance over the state of Qin, he's one of the key members providing assistance to king Yíng Zhèng (Ei Sei) towards the unification of China.

When he was young he was a brilliant student under "Ko Shou", the only pure natural strategist of the former "Qin Six Great Generals".

In Yasuhisa Hara's one shot manga written before Kingdom was serialized, he was referred as a former Qin official and prime minister, until he snapped and defected to Chu when his former homeland was going to be invaded and he cannot pass any tactics to Ying Zheng. He was killed when his former friend, a Qin general Meng Wu fought him.

References[]