Fan Ju

Biography

Variant Forms of His Name and Appellations This entry uses “Fan Ju,” corresponding to the page title “Fan Ju” on , as the standardized name. Both sources record his courtesy name as Shu and his assumed name as Zhang Lu, and note the variant forms “Fan Ju” and “Fan Ju” in ancient texts. The biography in Records of the Grand Historian writes his name as “Fan Ju,” while Han Feizi: Outer Congeries of Sayings, Upper Left and related annotated materials use “Fan Ju.” The textual discussion cited by another account also includes Qian Daxin's remarks on the use of the graphs “Ju” and “Ju.” The graph forms, pronunciations, and relationships among transmitted versions remain matters of textual study and do not justify creating separate person entities from the variants. This article therefore consistently uses the standardized name Fan Ju, while preserving the original graph form when ancient-text quotations require it.

The name of Fan Ju has variant forms in the old texts. The Records of the Historian carries his biography in chapter seventy-nine under Fan Ju and Cai Ze together; the Han Feizi, however, writes the name as Fan Ju with a different graph. That work has a passage on how Yu Qing ruined a craftsman's work and Fan Ju exhausted the carpenter's skill so that the bow broke, and quotes him as saying that a bow breaks at the end of the work and not at the beginning, since the craftsman bends it to the frame for thirty days before stringing it and brings the trigger to bear in a single day, whereas the other way of doing it with one day at the frame and thirty at the trigger makes the bow break; and it concludes that the arguments of Fan Ju and Yu Qing were eloquent in words but contrary to the facts of the matter. Another chapter of the same work has the phrase that Fan Ju's ribs were broken in Wei, which corroborates that the two forms of the name denote one man.

Philologically, the two graphs were interchangeable in ancient texts, and the graph used in the Han Feizi carries the same pronunciation as the other when it appears in names. The Wei man Tang Ju is likewise written with the other graph: the Intrigues of the Warring States record that Tang Ju carried musicians and singers and fifty jin of gold and lodged at Wu'an, and the Records of the Historian in its chapter on Wei says that Tang Ju of Wei was more than ninety years old; both show that in personal and place names the graph was read the same way. There is a further piece of evidence: a relief from the Wu Liang shrine sets Fan Ju and Xu Jia of Wei side by side, matching what the Records of the Historian tells of the two men. In the Warring States, Qin and Han many men bore the graph in their names, such as Sima Rangju and Yu Ju. The difference between the two spellings is therefore only a matter of how one man's name was written. Such textual detail is not something a reader of the Records of the Historian and the Han Feizi can pass over, since one man appears under two graphs in two books and, undetected, may be taken for two.

The accounts of Fan Ju's life come chiefly from chapter seventy-nine of the Records of the Historian, the joint biography of Fan Ju and Cai Ze, with a further several sections in the Intrigues of the Warring States, in the chapters on Qin, recording his advice to King Zhao of Qin and Cai Ze's remonstrance with the Marquis of Ying. The two works are fuller and thinner in different places: the first is the most complete account of his humiliation, flight, entry into Qin, chancellorship and revenge, while the second preserves more of his actual speech. Scattered notices elsewhere, such as the phrase in the Han Feizi about his ribs being broken in Wei, corroborate the record of the two books.

Family Background and Early Years Fan Ju belonged to a collateral branch of the Wei ruling house, of the Ji surname and Fan lineage, and had the courtesy name Shu. Although poor, he was ambitious, resourceful, and eloquent. He traveled among the states hoping that a ruler would adopt his proposals and give him an opportunity to act, but without success. He then returned to Wei intending to serve the Prince of Wei. Because his family was poor and he lacked the funds needed to pursue an official career, he first became a retainer under Xu Jia, a Central Grandee of Wei.

Fan Ju was a man of Wei whose courtesy name was Shu. Poor in his early years and unable to support himself, he first became a retainer of the Wei grandee Xu Jia. When Xu Jia went on a mission to Qi for King Zhao of Wei, Fan Ju accompanied him, and they stayed several months in Qi without obtaining an answer. King Xiang of Qi, hearing that Fan Ju had a ready tongue, sent him ten jin of gold with beef and wine, which Fan Ju declined to accept; when Xu Jia learned of it he was furious, convinced that Fan Ju had disclosed Wei's secrets to Qi and so earned the gift, and he made Fan Ju take the beef and wine but return the gold. Back in Wei, Xu Jia kept his anger and reported the matter to the Wei chancellor. The chancellor was one of the princes of Wei named Wei Qi. In a rage Wei Qi had his retainers beat Fan Ju with staves and rods until his body was a mass of wounds, his ribs broken and his teeth knocked out, leaving him nearly dead.

Fearing for his life, Fan Ju held his breath and lay rigid, stretched out in the blood as though dead; the retainers, believing him gone, reported it to Wei Qi, who was drinking. Wei Qi had the "corpse" rolled in a mat and thrown into the privy, and then let the drinking guests urinate on it in turn, deliberately humiliating him to warn others against loose talk. Toward evening Fan Ju peeped from the mat, saw only a single guard, and said quietly that he was so badly hurt that even if he woke he could not live, but that if the man would let him die at home for proper burial he would richly repay him; the guard, pitying him and greedy for the reward, falsely told Wei Qi that Fan Ju was long dead and the body in the mat might as well be thrown away, and Wei Qi, deep in drink, agreed, so that the "corpse" was dumped in the fields and Fan Ju escaped. When Wei Qi later regretted it and sent men to look for him, the man of Wei named Zheng Anping carried Fan Ju off into hiding and he changed his name to Zhang Lu. That episode gave him a personal enemy in Wei Qi, and the reprisals he took once he held power in Qin all grew out of this humiliation.

Mission to Qi, False Accusation, and Ordeal In 283 BC (32nd year of King Nan of Zhou), the Yan general Yue Yi led the forces of Yan, Chu, Wei, Zhao, and Han in breaking the Qi capital Linzi, leaving only Jimo and Ju unconquered. King Min of Qi fled and was killed, and King Xiang of Qi hurriedly took the throne at Ju. The Qi general Tian Dan later reversed the situation, famously using the fire-ox formation to defeat the allied forces and recover more than seventy cities, allowing Qi to revive. The rising strength of Qi made the King of Wei, whose state had joined Yan in attacking Qi, deeply uneasy that King Xiang might seek revenge. He therefore sent the Central Grandee Xu Jia on a mission to Qi to negotiate peace and restore friendly relations, and Fan Ju accompanied him as a retainer. After they arrived in Qi, King Xiang treated Xu Jia with little courtesy. He accused Wei of being fickle and said that Wei bore responsibility for the death of his predecessor. Xu Jia was unable to answer. Fan Ju then stepped forward and argued forcefully: “King Min of Qi was arrogant, violent, and insatiable; the five states shared a common grievance—how could Wei alone be blamed? Your Majesty's martial glory now covers the age, and you should think of reviving the legacy of Duke Huan of Qi and King Wei of Qi. If you dwell only on the grudges of King Min's time, blaming others without reflecting on yourself, I fear you will repeat King Min's mistake.” King Xiang privately admired his courage and eloquence. After court, the king sent someone to persuade Fan Ju to remain in Qi and offered to receive him as a Guest Minister. Fan Ju refused, saying: “I left together with the envoy. If I do not return with him, I would be untrustworthy and unrighteous; how then could I conduct myself as a man?” King Xiang respected him greatly and bestowed on him ten jin of gold as well as cattle, wine, and other goods. Fan Ju reported this truthfully to Xu Jia, who ordered him to return the gold while keeping the cattle and wine. After returning to Wei, Xu Jia became angry and jealous. He reported to the Wei chancellor Wei Qi that Fan Ju had received generous gifts from the Prince of Qi and falsely accused him of privately accepting bribes, selling information, and colluding with Qi. Wei Qi became enraged and ordered men to beat Fan Ju with boards and thorn rods. The torture broke his ribs and knocked out his teeth, nearly killing him. Fearing for his life, Fan Ju held his breath, lay rigid, and pretended to be dead. The attendants believed that he had died and reported this to Wei Qi, who was drinking at the time. Wei Qi ordered servants to wrap the supposed corpse in a reed mat and throw it into a latrine, while banquet guests took turns urinating on him as a deliberate humiliation and warning to others. Fan Ju endured it. After dark, he spoke from inside the reed mat to the guard: “I am so badly injured that even though I have briefly revived, I cannot live. If you can let me die at home so that I may be buried properly, I will reward you generously at a later time.” Tempted by profit, the guard falsely reported that Fan Ju was already dead. In his drunkenness, Wei Qi ordered the corpse thrown into the wilderness. Fan Ju thereby escaped. Wei Qi later regretted the decision and sent men to search for him. Zheng Anping of Wei heard what had happened, fled with Fan Ju, and helped hide him. Fan Ju then changed his name to Zhang Lu.

Entry into Qin and Appointment as Chancellor In 271 BC, King Zhaoxiang of Qin sent the envoy Wang Ji to Wei. Zheng Anping pretended to serve Wang Ji as a menial attendant and recommended Zhang Lu to him. After a nighttime conversation with Fan Ju, Wang Ji recognized his ability and arranged for him to wait south of Santing Ridge before taking him across the Qin border. On the way they encountered Wei Ran, Marquis of Rang, traveling east to inspect the counties. Fan Ju knew that the marquis monopolized power and disliked persuaders, so he hid inside the carriage. Wei Ran indeed suspected that someone was concealed there, but failed to search it. Fan Ju predicted that he would regret this and therefore got out and ran away. As expected, Wei Ran sent cavalry back to search the carriage, but they found no one. After Wang Ji reported on his mission, he took the opportunity to recommend Fan Ju to the Prince of Qin. The king did not trust the recommendation and merely lodged Fan Ju in a guest residence with poor food. Fan Ju waited for more than a year to be received. At the time, King Zhaoxiang of Qin was in the thirty-sixth year of his reign. Qin had taken Yan and Ying from Chu in the south, defeated Qi in the east, and repeatedly attacked Han, Zhao, and Wei. As a result, he disliked persuaders and would not listen to them. At that time, Wei Ran, Marquis of Rang, and the Lord of Huayang were brothers of Empress Dowager Xuan, while the Lords of Jingyang and Gaoling were full brothers of King Zhaoxiang. Wei Ran served as Chancellor of State, while the others repeatedly held military commands and possessed fiefs. Protected by Empress Dowager Xuan, their private wealth even exceeded that of the state. Wei Ran also intended to attack Gangshou in Qi by crossing Han and Wei in order to enlarge his fief at Tao. Fan Ju seized the opportunity to submit a memorial to the king. He opened with the argument, “When an enlightened ruler establishes government, those with merit must be rewarded and those with ability must be appointed,” criticized Wei Ran's plan to cross Han and Wei to attack Qi as “taking from the state to enrich a private house,” and urged the king to “act when there is benefit and abandon the course when there is harm.” King Zhaoxiang was delighted and sent a special carriage to bring Fan Ju to court. Fan Ju went to a detached palace to meet King Zhaoxiang and deliberately pretended not to know the route into the inner palace. When the king emerged, eunuchs drove Fan Ju back, and he intentionally shouted, “Where is there a king in Qin? Qin has only the empress dowager and the Marquis of Rang!” in order to provoke the king. King Zhaoxiang heard him arguing with the eunuchs, came forward to receive him, apologized, and treated him respectfully. Fan Ju was thus granted an audience, where he presented the strategy of "befriend distant states and attack nearby ones" and urged an end to affinal domination. King Zhaoxiang approved. In 266 BC, he reclaimed the empress dowager's authority, expelled the Four Nobles beyond Hangu Pass, appointed Fan Ju Chancellor of State, and enfeoffed him at Ying (in present-day eastern Lushan, Henan), giving him the title Marquis of Ying.

The opening of Fan Ju's audience with King Zhao of Qin was dramatic. The king dismissed those about him until the palace was empty, then knelt upright and asked what the master would deign to teach him. Fan Ju answered only with a murmur of assent; after a while the king knelt and asked again, and Fan Ju again only murmured, and so it went three times. At last the king, on his knees, asked whether the master would truly not instruct him. Fan Ju then said he would not dare, and told the story of Lü Shang meeting King Wen of Zhou: Lü Shang was a fisherman angling on the bank of the Wei, a stranger to King Wen, yet after a single conversation he was made grand tutor and carried home in the same carriage, because his words went deep, and so King Wen through him achieved the kingship of the empire. Had King Wen kept Lü Shang at a distance and not spoken with him deeply, Zhou would have had no virtue to rule and Wen and Wu no one to help them complete their work. He said that he was a sojourning subject, a stranger to the king, and that what he wished to set out were matters of setting the ruler and state right, touching the flesh and blood of the royal house; he wished to offer sincere loyalty but did not know the king's mind, which was why he had not dared answer three questions.

He went on to say that he did not keep silent from fear: he knew that to speak today might mean execution tomorrow, and still would not shrink from it. If the king truly acted on his words, then death would not trouble him, exile would not grieve him, and to lacquer his body into a leper's or let his hair hang loose in feigned madness would bring him no shame. He listed the sages of the five emperors, the benevolence of the three kings, the worth of the five lords, the strength of Wu Huo and Ren Bi, the courage of Cheng Jing, Meng Ben, Wang Qingji and Xia Yu, all of whom died; death, he said, is what no man can escape, and in that inescapable situation to be of some small help to Qin was his greatest wish, so what had he to fear. He cited Wu Zixu, who was carried out through the Zhao pass in a sack, traveled by night and hid by day, and reaching the Ling river had nothing to fill his mouth, crept on his knees, bowed with bared shoulders, drummed on his belly and played the flute, begging for food in the market of Wu, and at last raised Wu and made Helü a lord — if he could exhaust his counsel as Wu Zixu did, though imprisonment were added and he never saw the king again, so long as his advice was carried out he would have no regret. By contrast Jizi and Jieyu lacquered their bodies and feigned madness to no profit for their rulers; if he could follow Jizi's course and yet benefit a ruler he deemed worthy, that would be his greatest honor and no disgrace at all.

One thing alone he feared: that after his death the world would see a loyal man put to death for his loyalty, and so shut their mouths and stop their feet, and none would be willing to come west to Qin. He told the king plainly that he now feared above him the sternness of the empress dowager, below him was deluded by the posturing of treacherous ministers, and dwelt deep in the palace never out of the hands of attendants, befuddled to the end with no one to expose the wicked; that continuing thus, in the large view the ancestral temples would be overthrown and in the small view his own person would be isolated and in peril — this and nothing else was what he feared. Poverty, humiliation, death and exile he did not fear at all; if he died and Qin were well governed, then his death would be worth more than his life. The king, also on his knees, replied that Qin was remote and he himself foolish and unworthy, that the master had condescended to come, and that heaven was troubling the master with him in order to preserve the ancestral temples of the former kings; nothing, great or small, from the empress dowager above to the ministers below, should be withheld from his instruction, and he should not distrust the king. Then Fan Ju bowed and the king bowed too. Afterwards, noticing how many were listening in, Fan Ju grew uneasy and dared not begin with the affairs of the palace and the empress dowager's monopoly of power; he therefore spoke first of Ranghou's diplomacy toward the states, to feel out the king's attitude.

After several years as guest minister, increasingly close to the king, Fan Ju memorialized in 266 BC for the removal of the four great houses that monopolized power. The background was this: Ranghou and the lord of Huayang were brothers of King Zhao's mother, the empress dowager Xuan, and the lords of Jingyang and Gaoling were the king's own younger brothers by the same mother; Ranghou was chancellor, the three others took turns in command, each had a fief, and because of the dowager their private wealth exceeded that of the royal house. Ranghou, moreover, as a Qin general wished to cross Han and Wei to attack the Gang and Shou districts of Qi in order to enlarge his fief of Tao, and it was on this occasion that Fan Ju spoke. He said that in the east he had heard of Tian Wen in Qi but never of a king of Qi, and in Qin of the empress dowager, Ranghou, the lords of Huayang, Gaoling and Jingyang, but never of a king of Qin. To hold the power of the state is to be king, to be able to bestow benefit and harm is to be king, to control the awe of life and death is to be king; yet the dowager acted at will without regard, Ranghou went on missions abroad without report, Huayang and Jingyang punished and decided without scruple, Gaoling appointed and dismissed without asking, and that all four should stand complete and the state not be in danger had never happened. Those below these four, he said, are what is called having no king; how then should power not tilt away and orders issue from the king?

He went on that one who governs well secures his authority within and concentrates his power without: Ranghou's envoys wielded the king's weight, gave orders to the states and swore covenants throughout the empire, and none dared disobey; when they won and took cities the profit went to Tao, and when the state was in straits they took office among the states, while a defeat bred resentment against the ruler among the people and brought disaster on the altars of the state. He quoted the saying that a tree too heavy with fruit breaks its branches, and a broken branch wounds the heart of the tree, that an over-large capital endangers the state and an over-honored minister debases his ruler. He cited Cui Zhu and Nao Chi, who held Qi and shot the king in the thigh and pulled out his sinews and hung him from a temple beam to die in a night, and Li Dui, who held Zhao and imprisoned the lord father at Shaqiu to starve for a hundred days, and said that with the dowager and Ranghou in power and Gaoling, Huayang and Jingyang supporting them, Qin too would end with no king, and these were men of the same kind. He then argued that the three dynasties fell because their rulers handed over all government to favorites and gave themselves to wine, hunting and sport, while those they trusted were jealous of the worthy, deceived their superiors and served their own ends and the rulers never woke, and so lost their states. Finally he said that in Qin from the lowest ranked officials to the great ministers and the king's own attendants there was no one who was not the chancellor's man; seeing the king standing alone in his court, he feared for him in secret, and after his death the state of Qin would not belong to his descendants.

King Zhao of Qin was greatly alarmed, said it was well, abolished the empress dowager and drove Ranghou, the lord of Gaoling, the lord of Huayang and the lord of Jingyang beyond the passes, and made Fan Ju chancellor. He took back Ranghou's seal and sent him to Tao, the government supplying carts and oxen for the move, more than a thousand vehicles; reaching the pass, the guards inspected his treasures and found the precious and strange things outnumbering those of the royal house. Qin gave Fan Ju the fief of Ying and the title Marquis of Ying, and it was then the forty-first year of King Zhao of Qin. Fan Ju had thus passed from a fugitive criminal of Wei under an assumed name to the chancellorship of Qin, and in dismantling the power of the consort kin he became the man who turned Qin from joint rule by the dowager and the four lords to the sole authority of its king.

Tenure as Chancellor and Later Years After becoming chancellor, Fan Ju took steps both to reward those who had helped him and to seek redress against former adversaries. He deliberately humiliated Xu Jia when the latter came to Qin as an envoy, appearing before him in poor clothing. To settle the old grievance against Wei Qi, he supported the demand for Wei Qi’s head from Zhao; Wei Qi fled and eventually killed himself there. At the same time, he promoted his benefactors Zheng Anping to a Qin military command and Wang Ji to govern Hedong Commandery. In 262 BC, the Qin general Bai Qi captured Yewang from Han, cutting Shangdang Commandery off from the rest of Han. Feng Ting, the governor of Shangdang, refused to surrender to Qin and instead transferred the entire commandery to Zhao, triggering war between Qin and Zhao. After the two armies faced each other at Changping for nearly three years, Fan Ju used a counterintelligence scheme in 260 BC, spreading rumors that induced King Xiaocheng of Zhao to replace the veteran general Lian Po with the inexperienced Zhao Kuo. Bai Qi then crushed the Zhao army at the Battle of Changping and buried alive more than 400,000 Zhao soldiers. After Changping, Bai Qi wanted to exploit the victory by besieging Handan and destroying Zhao, but Zhao sent Su Dai with large sums of money to lobby Fan Ju. A later account says that Su Dai lobbied Fan Ju with money and that Fan Ju cited the Qin army’s exhaustion when advising the king to accept territorial concessions and a truce. Bai Qi believed Qin had missed its chance to destroy Zhao, and the two men came into conflict. Later narratives also attribute Fan Ju’s actions to jealousy of Bai Qi, but that motive cannot be established with certainty. The following year, when the Qin king again wished to attack Zhao, Bai Qi argued that the opportunity had been lost and refused command on grounds of illness. After the Qin siege of Handan stalled, the king again ordered Bai Qi to campaign, but Bai Qi refused. Fan Ju then warned the king that Bai Qi was resentful and might serve another state; King Zhaoxiang sent an envoy ordering Bai Qi to commit suicide. After Bai Qi's death, the Qin army failed to take Handan. In 257 BC it was defeated by a coalition army led by Lord Xinling of Wei, and the Qin general Zheng Anping surrendered to Zhao after defeat. Under Qin law, when a recommended man betrayed the state, the sponsor should share his punishment, but King Zhaoxiang did not punish Fan Ju in view of his earlier service. In 255 BC (52nd year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin), however, another of Fan Ju's recommended beneficiaries, Wang Ji, was executed for colluding with the enemy. These repeated failures of recommendation left Fan Ju uneasy and feeling out of favor. He eventually followed the advice of the Yan strategist Cai Ze, who invoked the principle that “when the sun reaches the zenith it begins to move, and when the moon is full it begins to wane,” and voluntarily retired from office. He returned to his fief and died not long afterward.

Once Fan Ju was chancellor of Qin, men in Qin knew only of Zhang Lu; Wei did not know the truth and thought Fan Ju long dead. When Wei learned that Qin was about to attack Han and Wei in the east, it sent Xu Jia on a mission to Qin. Hearing of it, Fan Ju put on old clothes and walked by back ways to the lodging where Xu Jia was staying. Xu Jia was astonished at the sight and said, so Fan Shu has come to no harm after all; Fan Ju said yes. Xu Jia asked with a laugh whether Fan Shu had come to Qin to persuade anyone, and Fan Ju said no — he had once offended the chancellor of Wei and fled here, so how should he dare to persuade anyone. Asked what he did now, Fan Ju said he hired himself out as a laborer. Xu Jia pitied him, kept him to sit and eat with him, said that Fan Shu had come down to such poverty, and gave him a silk robe; then he asked whether Fan Shu knew the Qin chancellor Zhang Lu, who he heard was favored by the king and on whom all the affairs of the empire depended, and on whom the success of his own mission depended too, and whether this young man had any friend familiar with the chancellor. Fan Ju said his master knew him well and that he himself could obtain an audience, and offered to present Xu Jia to him. Xu Jia thought little of it, saying his horse was sick and his axle broken and he would not go out except in a four-horse carriage, and Fan Ju offered to borrow one from his master.

Fan Ju brought a four-horse carriage and drove it himself, straight into the Qin chancery. Those in the office, seeing Fan Ju drive up, recognized him and slipped away, and Xu Jia found it strange. At the gate of the chancellor's rooms Fan Ju told him to wait while he went in to announce him. Xu Jia waited at the gate holding the reins a long while and no one came; he asked the gatekeeper why Fan Shu had gone in so long and not come out, and the gatekeeper said there was no Fan Shu there. Xu Jia said it was the man who had just ridden in with him, and the gatekeeper said that was our chancellor, the lord Zhang. Xu Jia was greatly shaken and knew he had been made a fool of; he bared his shoulders and crawled in on his knees, apologizing through the gatekeeper. Fan Ju then had a great tent set up and many attendants summoned before letting Xu Jia come up into the hall. Xu Jia bowed his head to the ground and called himself worthy of death, saying he had never expected Fan Ju to raise himself to such heights by his own powers, that he would no longer dare read the books of the empire or take part in its affairs, and that having committed a crime deserving to be boiled alive he asked to be banished to the lands of the northern tribes, to live or die at Fan Ju's pleasure. Asked how many crimes he had, Xu Jia answered that if he pulled out his hair to count them it would not suffice. Fan Ju said there were three: when Shen Baoxu drove the Wu army from Chu in the time of King Zhao of Chu, the king offered him five thousand households in Jing and he refused because his ancestral graves were in Chu, and Fan Ju's own ancestors' graves were in Wei, yet Xu Jia had thought him disloyal to Wei and secretly in league with Qi and had spoken against him to Wei Qi — that was the first. When Wei Qi had him insulted in the privy, Xu Jia did not stop it — the second. And worse, being drunk, he had urinated on him, which was beyond bearing — the third. But he would not be put to death because the gift of a silk robe that day showed an old friend's lingering feeling, and so he would be spared. He then dismissed Xu Jia and ended the audience.

Afterwards Fan Ju set out a great feast, invited all the envoys of the states and seated them in the hall with abundant food and drink, while Xu Jia was seated below the hall with chopped fodder and beans set before him and two branded convicts holding him on either side to feed him like a horse, and he was told: tell the king of Wei for me to bring me Wei Qi's head at once, or else I will raze Daliang to the ground. Xu Jia on his return told Wei Qi, who took fright and fled to Zhao, hiding with the lord of Pingyuan. When King Zhao of Qin heard that Wei Qi was with the lord of Pingyuan, he determined to avenge Fan Ju and wrote him a friendly letter in pretense, saying he had heard of his high principles and wished to be his friend as one commoner to another, and asking him to visit so that they might drink together for ten days. The lord of Pingyuan feared Qin and believed it, and came to Qin to see the king. After drinking with him some days the king told him that as King Wen of Zhou took Lü Shang for his grand tutor and Duke Huan of Qi took Guan Yiwu for his second father, so Lord Fan was now his own uncle, that Lord Fan's enemy was in his house, and that he should send home for the man's head or the king would not let him out of the pass. The lord of Pingyuan answered that friendship with the noble is for the sake of the lowly and friendship with the rich for the sake of the poor, that Wei Qi was his friend and while he was with him he would certainly not give him up, and that he was not in fact in his house now. The king then wrote to the king of Zhao that his brother was in Qin and that Lord Fan's enemy Wei Qi was in the lord of Pingyuan's house, and that he should send the man's head at once or Qin would raise troops against Zhao and would not release his brother from the pass. King Xiaocheng of Zhao then sent troops to surround the lord of Pingyuan's house, and in the emergency Wei Qi fled by night to the Zhao chancellor Yu Qing. Judging that the king of Zhao could not in the end be persuaded, Yu Qing took off his own seal of office and fled with Wei Qi by back roads; finding no prince among the states willing to take in a man in extremity, they went back to Daliang hoping through the lord of Xinling to reach Chu. Hearing of it, the lord of Xinling, afraid of Qin, hesitated to receive them and asked those about him what sort of man Yu Qing was. Hou Ying, who was present, answered that men are hard to know and knowing others is not easy either: Yu Qing, in straw sandals and with a rain hat on his shoulder, traveled far to Zhao, and at his first audience the king gave him a pair of white jades and a hundred yi of gold, at his second made him a high minister, and at his third he at last received the seal of chancellor and the fief of a marquis of ten thousand households, when all the empire vied to know him; and when Wei Qi in extremity came to him he did not weigh the honor of high office, but took off his seal and gave up his marquisate to go with him. To take another's trouble for one's own and come to the prince, and for the prince to ask what sort of man he is — men are indeed hard to know and knowing others truly not easy. The lord of Xinling was deeply ashamed and drove out to the countryside to meet them. But Wei Qi heard that he had at first been unwilling to see him, and in anger cut his own throat; and when the king of Zhao heard of it he at last took the head and gave it to Qin, whereupon King Zhao of Qin let the lord of Pingyuan return to Zhao.

After Changping the Qin army advanced to besiege Handan, and in the first month of 259 BC, the fifty-sixth year of King Zhao of Qin, orders were given to withdraw; about this time the two men Fan Ju had recommended failed in succession and his chancellorship was badly shaken. He had recommended Zheng Anping, whom the king made a general and sent to attack Zhao, but Zheng Anping was surrounded by the Zhao army, and in his extremity surrendered to Zhao with twenty thousand men. The Marquis of Ying, knowing he could not escape responsibility, knelt on a straw mat and asked to be punished. By the law of Qin, when a man recommends an official and the official proves unfit, the recommender is punished with the same crime; the Marquis of Ying was therefore liable to the punishment of having his parents, wife and children seized. King Zhao of Qin, unwilling to wound his feelings, ordered throughout the state that anyone who dared discuss the Zheng Anping affair should suffer the same penalty, and gave the chancellor ever richer gifts of food to set his mind at ease. Two years later Wang Ji, governor of Hedong, was executed for communicating with the states, and Fan Ju grew daily more dispirited.

When the king sighed in full court, the Marquis of Ying came forward and said that he had heard that when the ruler grieves his minister is disgraced and when the ruler is disgraced his minister dies, and that since the king was grieving in his court he begged to be told his offense. The king answered that he had heard that the iron swords of Chu were sharp and its entertainers poor; sharp swords meant brave soldiers and poor entertainers meant far-reaching thought, and with far-reaching thought commanding brave men he feared Chu was plotting against Qin. Things not prepared beforehand, he said, cannot meet a sudden emergency; now that the lord of Wu'an was dead and men like Zheng Anping had turned traitor, there was no good general within and many enemy states without, and that was his grief. The words were meant to stir the Marquis of Ying, who was frightened and did not know what to do; and Cai Ze of Yan, hearing of it, set out for Qin. This late passage of Fan Ju's chancellorship stands in sharp contrast with his early flight from slander in Wei and with the success of his intrigues after entering Qin: of the men he promoted one surrendered to the enemy and one dealt with foreign states, and the severity of Qin's law against those who recommend the unfit forced the man who had won the king's ear by praising a system in which the enlightened ruler rewards the deserving and punishes the guilty to face that same law from the other side. His position at court turned passive from then on.

Fan Ju became chancellor in 266 BC, the forty-first year of King Zhao of Qin, and was enfeoffed at Ying, in what is now southwestern Baofeng in Henan, with the title Marquis of Ying. He held the chancellorship for nearly ten years in all, dying in 255 BC. Later writers listing what he accomplished in that office said of him that as chancellor of Qin he laid his plans without leaving his mat and formed his schemes without leaving the court, controlling the states from his seat, extending Qin's advantage into the three rivers and filling Yiyang, opening the defiles of Yangchang and blocking the Taihang road, cutting the routes that joined the three parts of Qin's rivals and making a joint alliance of the six states impossible, and pushing a thousand li of plank road through to Shu and Han so that all the world feared Qin — Qin's desires were attained and his merit had reached its height. The passage sums up his work in three spheres: strategy, diplomacy and communications. To plan without leaving the mat and scheme without leaving the court means that he substituted planning for personal command, settling policy in the hall and so controlling the states; to open the Yangchang defile and block the Taihang road means controlling the passes that joined north and south, so that the six states could not link up and no alliance could take shape; and the thousand li of plank road to Shu and Han was Qin's work in the southwest.

The plank road deserves separate mention. The Records of the Historian note in its chapter on trade that the thousand li of plank road ran everywhere and that the Bao-Xie road held the hub of it — that is, no part of the route was impassable and the Bao-Xie section was the throat of the whole. Along the line, as the text describes it, merchants' carts followed one another in a long file, caps and girdles crossed and interwove, and shafts and axles met end to end; the rich resources of Shu and Han flowed steadily to the passes, and the developed culture of the metropolitan region around Chang'an spread into Shu and Han, so that trade and cultural exchange between north and south grew. The opening of the plank road eased travel between Qin and Shu and gave Qin's armies greater flexibility, enabling them to strike at the eastern states from Shu; the Bao-Xie road was early in construction, large in scale and long in use, a work of infrastructure coinciding with Fan Ju's years in office. He died some eleven years after being made chancellor and about forty after his flight into Qin; from his entry, his service as guest minister, his chancellorship, his retirement and his death on his fief, Qin completed its passage from joint rule by the empress dowager and the four lords and ceaseless alliances among the states to the sole authority of its king and an end to the possibility of alliance against it.

Fan Ju's rise to the chancellorship of Qin belongs to the long tradition of Qin's employment of eastern scholars. From Duke Xiao of Qin's use of Shang Yang of Wei to reform the state, and King Hui's use of Zhang Yi of Wei to practice horizontal alliances, down to King Zhao's use of Fan Ju of Wei to fix the policy of befriending the distant and attacking the near, the chief advisers Qin employed came almost entirely from the other states; after Fan Ju came Cai Ze of Yan in his place, and later Li Si of Chu in the service of King Zheng. What these men had in common was a clearer grasp of the interests at play among the six states than of their own native land, so that their plans generally struck at the weak points of the eastern states. Fan Ju, who fled to Qin from Wei, is the most typical instance of that tradition: slandered and beaten nearly to death in his own country, he found credit in Qin, and from his knowledge of the situations of Han, Wei, Qi and Zhao he set for Qin a sequence that took the near before the far.

After his death Qin moved broadly along the lines he had laid down. Cai Ze held the chancellorship only a few months before being disliked and retiring on grounds of illness, and in the later years of King Zhao the state continued to take the policy of befriending the distant and attacking the near as its framework. Under King Zheng, Qin destroyed Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi in turn, completing the unification in 221 BC. Later writers on how Qin annexed the empire generally hold that the strategic basis was laid by Fan Ju's policy: befriending distant Qi and Chu to cut off the help that a joint alliance would bring, and then devouring the neighboring Han, Wei and Zhao one after another from near to far. That order corresponds broadly with the sequence in which King Zheng destroyed the states, and Fan Ju's words in the forty-first year of King Zhao — that in the east he had heard of Tian Wen in Qi but never of a king of Qi — have accordingly been taken as marking Qin's turn from government shared with the consort kin to the sole authority of its king, and from there to expansion eastward.

Major Activities

Political Contributions After entering Qin, Fan Ju proposed the strategy of "befriend distant states and attack nearby ones." He criticized Wei Ran, Marquis of Rang, for attempting to cross Han and Wei in order to attack Qi, arguing that this would only waste Qin's strength. He advocated treating neighboring Han and Wei as the primary targets for annexation while maintaining friendly relations with the more distant Qi and Chu. The strategy became a long-term policy of Qin and laid a strategic foundation for Qin's gradual encroachment on the territories of the six eastern states and eventual unification of the realm. He also assisted King Zhaoxiang in reclaiming royal authority, ending Empress Dowager Xuan's dominance, and expelling the Marquis of Rang, Lord of Huayang, Lord of Jingyang, and Lord of Gaoling, collectively called the Four Nobles, thereby concentrating royal power.

Fan Ju's first policy for King Zhao of Qin was the strategy that became the settled course of Qin for generations: befriend the distant and attack the near. He said it was no good plan for Ranghou to cross Han and Wei to attack the Gang and Shou districts of Qi, since a small force would not hurt Qi and a large one would harm Qin; he guessed that the king meant to send few troops of his own and let Han and Wei supply the whole of theirs, which was unreasonable. He pointed out that the supposed allies were plainly not close to Qin, and that to cross their territory to attack Qi was a careless plan. He took the case of King Min of Qi as a warning: when Qi attacked Chu in the south it broke armies and killed generals and opened a thousand li of land, yet Qi itself gained not a foot or an inch, not for want of wanting land but because circumstances made it impossible to hold; when the other states saw Qi worn out and its ruler and ministers at odds they raised troops and crushed it, and its officers disgraced and its soldiers exhausted, all blamed the king, who said the plan had been Tian Wen's, whereupon the ministers rose in revolt and Tian Wen fled. Qi was destroyed because it spent its strength against distant Chu and fattened Han and Wei instead, which is what is meant by lending weapons to a bandit and supplying grain to a thief.

Hence his proposal: better to befriend the distant and attack the near, so that each inch taken is the king's inch and each foot the king's foot, whereas to set this aside and attack far away was absurd. He cited the case of Zhongshan, five hundred li square, swallowed by Zhao alone, whose ruler won fame and position with profit following, and whom no one in the empire could harm. Han and Wei, he said, lie in the middle of the central plains and are the pivot of the empire; if the king would be hegemon he must first draw close to the central states and make of them the pivot, overawing Chu and Zhao — if Chu is strong, attach Zhao, if Zhao is strong, attach Chu; when both are attached Qi will surely be frightened and will humble its language and bring rich gifts to serve Qin, and once Qi is attached Han and Wei can be taken. King Zhao said he had long wished to draw close to Wei, but Wei was a changeable state he could not get near, and asked what to do. Fan Ju answered: serve it first with humble words and rich gifts; if that fails, cede land to bribe it; if that too fails, raise troops and attack it. The king approved, made Fan Ju a guest minister and consulted him on military affairs. Qin followed his plan, sending the fifth-rank grandee Wan against Wei and taking Huai, and two years later taking Xingqiu.

After this Fan Ju urged the king to draw Han in first. He said the terrain of Qin and Han interlocked like embroidery, that Qin territory thrusting into Han was like a worm in the trunk of a tree or a disease in a man's vitals, and that if the situation of the empire ever changed no state could do Qin greater harm than Han, so Han should be brought to heel. King Zhao said he had wanted to do so but Han would not comply, and Fan Ju replied that it could hardly refuse: let the king move on Yingyang and the road from Gong to Chenggao would be blocked, and cutting the Taihang route in the north would keep the army of Shangdang from coming down; once the king moved on Yingyang, Han would be cut into three isolated parts, and seeing itself about to perish it could not but submit, after which the hegemony could be considered. The king approved and prepared to send envoys to Han. This order of near before far and weak before strong was the other face of the same strategy: by befriending the distant to cut off help and drawing in the near to break their position, and then devouring them in turn, Qin's eastward advance acquired a fixed sequence.

As his position weakened, another episode further reduced the weight of Fan Ju's counsel. The Marquis of Ying lost the fief of Runan that Han had given him, and King Zhao of Qin asked whether he grieved at the loss of his fief. He said he did not, and when asked why he told the story of Dongmen Wu of Liang, whose son died without his grieving, and who, when his household steward asked how a man whose love for his son was unmatched in the world could fail to grieve, answered that he had once had no son and had not grieved then, and that now his son was dead it was the same as having no son, so why should he grieve. Fan Ju said that he too had once been a man without a fief and had not grieved, and that losing Runan was like being a commoner in Liang again. The king thought this unreasonable and told Meng Ao, saying that when a single city of his own was besieged he could not eat with relish or sleep at ease, and that it could hardly be the true feeling of the Marquis of Ying to lose land and say he did not grieve. Meng Ao asked leave to discover the truth. He went to see the Marquis of Ying and said he wished to die; asked what he meant, he answered that the king took Fan Ju as his teacher as all the world knew, and that now that he himself had the fortune to be the king's general commanding troops, a small state like Han had openly defied them and taken the Marquis's land, so that he had no business to live and would rather die. The Marquis of Ying bowed to him and asked him to take charge of the matter, and Meng Ao reported it to the king. From then on, whenever the Marquis of Ying spoke of Han, the king would not listen, suspecting that he spoke for the sake of Runan.

Later historical judgment fastened on Fan Ju's strengthening of the ruler's house at the expense of private power. Xunzi, discussing the government of Qin, said that its geographical position was excellent, with the steepness of its passes and the richness of its forests, hills and valleys; that its people were simple and unostentatious, stood in awe of the officials, obeyed them and kept the laws; that the officials in their offices were public-spirited and law-abiding, attended seriously to the state's business, neither idle nor corrupt; that the gentry likewise kept the law and the public interest, going out from their gates to the office and from the office home, forming no factions, seeing the large matter and the whole situation; and that in the court, business was handled briskly and simply, without wrangling over petty detail, so that it looked like the effortless government of antiquity. Xunzi concluded that it was no accident that Qin had won victory after victory from Duke Xiao through Kings Huiwen and Wu down to King Zhao, but the necessary result — words that amount to an endorsement of Fan Ju's conduct of government. The orderly picture he draws, of gentry passing from their gates to the public office and back with no private entanglements, accords precisely with Fan Ju's principle of securing authority within and concentrating power without.

Han writers on Qin's rise and fall also treated Fan Ju's counsel as decisive. Liu Xiang, in a sealed memorial of extreme remonstrance, said that no ruler wishes to be insecure yet is constantly in danger, and none wishes to survive yet constantly perishes, for want of the art of controlling ministers; that when great ministers hold the handle of power and conduct the government of the state, harm invariably follows. He recounted how Jin had its six ministers, Qi its Tian and Cui families, Wei its Sun Linfu and Ning Zhi, Lu its Ji and Meng, all long holding state business and the court's authority, until the Tian took Qi, the six ministers divided Jin and Cui Zhu murdered his ruler; and he then said that King Zhao of Qin's uncles, Ranghou with the lords of Jingyang and Yeyang, monopolized the state and abused its power, borrowing the empress dowager's authority, so that the weight of those three exceeded the king's and their wealth that of Qin, and the state stood in great peril, and only because King Zhao awoke to Fan Ju's words did Qin survive. For Liu Xiang, Fan Ju's dismantling of the consort kin's power was not a court intrigue but a crucial step that saved Qin from overthrow. Liu Ji of the Ming, in his collection of parables, made him an example of one who rises after adversity: he lists Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin, who lost their states and became the two lords, King Goujian of Yue, humiliated at Kuaiji and afterward destroying Fuchai, Zhi Wuzi, imprisoned in Chu and afterward chancellor of Jin, Sun Bin, whose feet were cut off and who became the great strategist of a great state, and Wu Zixu, who fled his home and afterward entered Ying and avenged his father and brother — and lastly Fan Ju, whose ribs were broken and teeth pulled out in the mat and who afterward became chancellor of Qin and took Wei Qi's head. Of such men, in the days of their flight and distress, who would not have said they must rot in the soil with the dead grass and fallen leaves; yet once their splendor blazed out, men looked up to them as to the sun and stars above. Had they resigned themselves to ruin and despaired, their story would have ended there. In the drought of the seventh month, when the grain will not sprout, there is still time to cut the weeds and hope for a second crop; but to think it too late and give up leaves the field waste in the end.

Fan Ju's career left behind a set of fixed allusions. His phrase about befriending the distant and attacking the near hardened from a single piece of advice into a strategic formula meaning that one first makes friends of distant states to cut off help and then concentrates on swallowing the neighboring states one by one from near to far; later writers on how Qin could annex the six states trace that strategy back to him, and discussions of the sequence of diplomacy and war habitually cite the four words. The pair of sayings that a meal's kindness must be repaid and a look's grudge must be avenged became proverbial descriptions of a man who repays both kindness and injury to the last fraction, and Fan Ju himself is accordingly named alongside the notion of avenging the smallest slight in later historical comment. His refusal to put Xu Jia to death after receiving the gift of a silk robe gave the world the allusions of the gift of the silk robe and of lingering feeling for an old friend, while the scene at the chancery gate, where Xu Jia waited and was told there was no Fan Shu, became a stock example of how cold the world can turn. As for his audience with King Zhao of Qin, the Records of the Historian says only that the king knelt upright to ask and that Fan Ju three times did not dare answer, where later tellings expand it into five kneelings, each more reverent, before he consented to speak, the point being the caution proper to a commoner before a ruler.

The saying that the sun moves on at the meridian and the moon wanes when full, though it comes from Cai Ze's persuasion, is also regularly joined in later use to Fan Ju's retirement, to illustrate the wisdom of withdrawing when the work is done. The title Marquis of Ying, taken from his fief, and the phrase from the chapter on trade about the Bao-Xie road holding the hub of the thousand li of plank road tie his name to Qin's expansion to the southwest. His biography in the Records of the Historian runs its episodes in clear order — humiliation, flight, written appeal, audience, chancellorship, revenge, failure of his recommendations, retirement at good advice — and is almost a complete narrative in itself, so that from the Han onward it has often been excerpted as an example of how a man of poverty and low station may rise to eminence and how strategy may master states. It shows both his endurance of shame and his vindictiveness, and later opinion of him has accordingly long carried praise and censure together.

The phrases Fan Ju left behind circulated more widely than his deeds. When he argued against Ranghou's crossing of Han and Wei to attack Qi, he said that Qi had been destroyed because it spent its strength against distant Chu and so enriched Han and Wei, and called this lending weapons to a bandit and supplying grain to a thief; the phrase became proverbial for aiding an enemy to one's own hurt. The verse he quoted when urging the king to remove the four lords — that a tree too heavy with fruit breaks its branches and a broken branch wounds the heart of the tree, that an over-large capital endangers the state and an over-honored minister debases his ruler — became a standing source for arguments on strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches and on curbing ministerial power, while his formula of securing authority within and concentrating power without came to be summarized as a principle for the relation between the ruler's and the ministers' power. As for the image of a single bone thrown among dogs to scatter the makers of an alliance, by reducing human conduct to a contest of interest it has often been used to show how easily coalitions come apart.

Opinion of the man himself has long carried two sides. On one, he rose from an insult in a privy, feigning death and changing his name, to become chancellor, and is cited by later ages as the type of one who endures shame and rises after adversity; Liu Ji in his parables names him with Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, King Goujian of Yue and Wu Zixu among those who were first in straits and afterward exalted. On the other, his rule of repaying a meal's kindness and avenging a look's grudge, and the chain of consequences by which he forced Wei Qi to his death, brought the lord of Pingyuan under siege and drove Yu Qing to give up his seal and flee, have kept him in later writing under the name of one who took vengeance too far; and that he quarreled with Bai Qi, lord of Wu'an, and spoke so that he was killed is counted a misfortune in which Qin cut down its own great general. As for the hundreds of thousands buried alive at Changping, direct responsibility lay with the commander in the field, but since the intrigue that brought Zhao Kuo to replace Lian Po was his, later writers weigh his merits and faults together. Endurance and vindictiveness, service to the state and private spite, run intertwined through his career, and that is why judgment of Fan Ju has never settled into a single verdict.

Fan Ju's words were repeatedly excerpted in later encyclopaedias, memorials and historical essays. Discussions of the sequence of military action abroad habitually cite his doctrine of befriending the distant and attacking the near; discussions of aiding an enemy to one's own hurt cite his image of lending weapons to a bandit and supplying grain to a thief; and discussions of curbing ministerial power and securing the ruler's cite the verse about the over-laden tree and his formula of securing authority within while concentrating power without. In the tradition of historical writing from the Han onward he is commonly named alongside Shang Yang and Zhang Yi as one of the men through whom Qin took the empire by strategy.

Military Strategy The Records of the Grand Historian connects Fan Ju with the counterintelligence narrative that preceded Zhao Kuo’s replacement of Lian Po in 260 BC. The account is presented as a source-attributed strategic episode; it does not make Fan Ju solely responsible for Qin’s victory at Changping. After Changping, he cited the Qin army’s exhaustion in advising the king to accept a truce. Later he warned that Bai Qi was resentful and might serve another state. Whether jealousy motivated Fan Ju is a later interpretation, not an established fact.

The campaign in whose planning Fan Ju had the deepest influence was Changping. Around 263 BC Qin attacked and took the Fenxing district of Han and built the walled town of Guangwu on the river; five years later King Zhao adopted the Marquis of Ying's plan and used counter-espionage against Zhao, so that the king of Zhao was taken in and replaced Lian Po in command with Zhao Kuo, son of the lord of Mafu. Fan Ju kept the design secret in order to make the enemy commander relax his vigilance and so win by surprise. In the fighting Bai Qi feigned defeat, Zhao Kuo exulted and pursued at full stretch, and the Qin forces closed in from both sides, cut his grain and surrounded him at Changping. When the news reached him King Zhao of Qin came in person to the neighborhood of Changping, mustered every able-bodied peasant to seize the Zhao grain by detachments, and blocked Zhao's relief columns; the Zhao army lay besieged for forty-six days, its food gone and help cut off, its soldiers killing one another for food. Zhao Kuo in desperation divided his army into four and tried to break out in turn, each attempt beaten back by massed arrows, and he himself was killed by an arrow. The battle was an unprecedented victory for Qin: more than four hundred thousand Zhao soldiers were taken, of whom all but two hundred and forty of the old and young were buried alive, and in the first month of 259 BC Qin ordered the troops withdrawn. The Qin army went on to besiege Handan and Zhao was gravely weakened.

Alongside the triumph at Changping came the death of Bai Qi. After the campaign the Marquis of Ying fell out with Bai Qi, lord of Wu'an, spoke against him to the king, and Bai Qi was put to death. The histories give this in a single phrase — that having a grudge against the lord of Wu'an he spoke and had him killed — yet it is closely tied to Fan Ju's position late in his chancellorship: having won a great victory through intrigue, he removed a famous general through personal animosity, and afterwards the men he had recommended failed one after another and his own position tottered. His use of intrigue against a rival state mirrors what he had suffered in Wei, where Xu Jia's suspicion that he had betrayed Wei's secrets to Qi nearly cost him his life; that he later dealt with Zhao in the same manner leads later writers to weigh his statecraft and his private grudges together.

Relations with Contemporaries Fan Ju had an old grievance against Xu Jia. After becoming chancellor, he deliberately humiliated Xu Jia when the latter came to Qin as an envoy and sought revenge on Wei Qi. He owed favors to Zheng Anping and Wang Ji and promoted them after becoming chancellor, one to military command and the other to a governorship. He came into conflict with Bai Qi over whether Qin should continue its attack on Zhao after Changping and ultimately advised that Bai Qi be ordered to die. In his later years he followed Cai Ze's advice and resigned.

Fan Ju reached Qin by a carefully managed escape. At that time King Zhao of Qin sent his herald Wang Ji on a mission to Wei, and Zheng Anping passed himself off as a guard in Wang Ji's service. Wang Ji asked whether Wei had any worthy man who would travel west with him, and Zheng Anping answered that a certain Mr. Zhang Lu in his village wished to see him and speak of the affairs of the empire, but that the man had enemies and dared not appear by day. Wang Ji arranged to meet him that night. That night Zheng Anping brought Fan Ju to Wang Ji, and before the conversation was finished Wang Ji knew his quality; he agreed to wait for him south of the pavilion of Santing, and having made the private arrangement he left. When Wang Ji took his leave of Wei he carried Fan Ju in his carriage into Qin.

Reaching the place called Hu, they saw chariots and riders coming from the west, and Fan Ju asked who they were; Wang Ji said it was the Qin chancellor Ranghou traveling through the counties. Fan Ju said he had heard that Ranghou monopolized the power of Qin and hated to receive the wandering persuaders of the states, and that meeting him would only bring humiliation, so he would rather hide in the carriage. Presently Ranghou arrived, greeted Wang Ji, stopped his carriage and asked whether anything had changed east of the passes; Wang Ji said no. Ranghou then asked whether the envoy had perhaps brought those persuaders of the various states along, men of no use who did nothing but disorder other men's countries, and Wang Ji quickly said he had not dared. After they parted, Fan Ju observed that Ranghou was a man of intelligence but slow to see things, and that he had suspected someone in the carriage yet forgotten to search it, and he got down and walked, saying that Ranghou would certainly regret it. After more than ten li Ranghou did send riders back to search the carriage, and finding no passenger they gave up, so that Wang Ji and Fan Ju entered Xianyang.

Once in Qin, Fan Ju first submitted a written memorial recommending himself. He wrote that he had heard that when a enlightened ruler conducts government, the deserving cannot go unrewarded nor the capable unappointed, that the heavily laboring receive ample stipend, the greatly meritorious high rank and those able to manage many affairs great office, so that the incapable dare not take office nor are the capable hidden; and that if the king thought his words usable he hoped they would be put into practice and their principle carried further, while if not, there was no point in keeping him long. He added that a mediocre ruler rewards those he loves and punishes those he hates, whereas an enlightened ruler rewards the deserving and punishes the guilty. He said his chest was not fit to bear the block nor his waist the axe, so how should he dare test the king with doubtful proposals; and he took the four treasures of Zhou, Song, Liang and Chu, stones of the earth that the skilled craftsmen took for common rock yet which became famous vessels of the world, to argue that men an enlightened king discards may likewise enrich the state. He observed that those who enrich their houses take from the state and those who enrich the state take from the other states, that a good physician knows whether a patient will live or die and a sage ruler sees whether an undertaking will succeed, doing what is profitable, discarding what is harmful, and testing what is doubtful, a policy even Shun and Yu returned to life could not alter. Words of the deepest kind he dared not put in writing, and shallow words were not worth hearing, so he asked only for a little leisure to be granted an audience; if a single conversation proved useless he asked to be executed. King Zhao of Qin was delighted, thanked Wang Ji, and sent a post carriage to summon Fan Ju.

Once chancellor, Fan Ju repaid his old benefactors one by one. Wang Ji had said to him that there were three things a man cannot know and three he cannot help: that the king might die on some day was the first, that Fan Ju himself might die suddenly the second, and that he himself might die suddenly the third; and that if the king died Fan Ju might regret not having obtained his advancement but could do nothing, that if Fan Ju died suddenly he might regret not having repaid him but could do nothing, and that if he himself died suddenly Fan Ju might regret not having recommended him in time and could do nothing either. Fan Ju was displeased at this and went in to the king, saying that but for Wang Ji's loyalty to Qin he could not have been brought through the pass, and that but for the king's worth and wisdom he could not have become so honored; now that he had risen to chancellor and been enfeoffed as a marquis while Wang Ji remained a mere herald, this could hardly have been the intention of the man who brought him in. King Zhao of Qin then summoned Wang Ji and made him governor of Hedong, and for three years Wang Ji sent no accounts to the court. Fan Ju also recommended Zheng Anping, whom the king made a general. At the same time he distributed his family wealth to repay all those who had once brought him to want: a meal's kindness must be repaid, and a look's grudge must be avenged. Those two phrases became the most quoted description of the man.

Abroad, Fan Ju once broke up a vertical alliance against Qin with gold and silk. At that time the persuaders of the empire gathered in Zhao to discuss a joint alliance, meaning to unite the six states against a strong Qin. Fan Ju told King Zhao of Qin that he need not worry, for he could bring their compact down in ruins: Qin bore the persuaders of the empire no grudge, and they gathered to plot against Qin only because they wanted office and wealth for themselves. He asked the king to look at his own dogs, which lay down and stood up and walked and stopped in perfect peace with no fighting among them, but let a single bone be thrown among them and every one of them would rush forward with bared teeth and snarling, fighting and tearing at one another. Why? Because the thought of contention had arisen in them all. Fan Ju then sent the Qin official Tang Ju with musicians and singers in carriages and five thousand in gold to hold a great feast at Wu'an in Zhao, proclaiming that whoever in Handan wished might come and take the gold. The ringleaders of the attack on Qin got none of it, but those who did receive gold became as close to Qin as brothers. As the Intrigues of the Warring States records it, Tang Ju was told before leaving that in reckoning merit for Qin no question would be asked of where the gold went, and that he who spent it all would have the greatest merit, and fifty more jin were loaded to go with him; traveling to Wu'an and spending less than three thousand, he had the persuaders of the empire fighting among themselves. The image of a single bone setting the feeders biting one another was Fan Ju's plainest statement of human nature and interest, and with it he dissolved an alliance already taking shape while barely moving a soldier.

What actually removed Fan Ju was the persuasion of Cai Ze. Cai Ze held up to him the unhappy ends of Shang Yang in Qin, Wu Qi in Chu and the grandee Wen Zhong in Yue, first granting fully that Fan Ju had used his abilities to steady a ruler in peril, reform government, put down disorder, avert disaster, extend territory, develop agriculture, fill the treasury, enrich the people, exalt the ruler and overawe the empire, and then warning him by the principle that the sun moves on when it reaches the meridian and the moon wanes when it is full: that things decline once they reach their height, and that to follow the changes of nature and circumstance and withdraw while the current is with one is the way of the sage. He went on to argue from Fan Ju's own case — his grudges settled, his kindnesses repaid, his rank high, his wealth and honor complete, his wishes all fulfilled — that to refuse to retire would be to repeat the fate of Shang Yang, Wu Qi and Wen Zhong, whose tragedy lay precisely in not knowing how to withdraw once their work was done and their fame established. Fan Ju accepted the advice, recommended Cai Ze to take his place, and not long afterward gave up the chancellorship and retired to his fief, dying in 255 BC. By leaving office through the man he himself recommended he came to a far gentler end in Qin politics than the three he had been warned by.

Personal Relations

• Wang Ji: a Qin envoy who brought Fan Ju into Qin; he was later recommended by Fan Ju as governor of Hedong Commandery.
• Cai Ze: a strategist from Yan who persuaded Fan Ju to resign by invoking the principle that “when the sun reaches the zenith it begins to move, and when the moon is full it begins to wane.” ### Ruler and Minister - King Zhaoxiang of Qin: Fan Ju's ruler, who trusted and employed him, appointed him chancellor, and enfeoffed him as Marquis of Ying. ### Conflicts - Xu Jia: Central Grandee of Wei and Fan Ju's former master, who falsely accused him of colluding with Qi and betraying Wei; he was later humiliated by Fan Ju.
• Wei Qi: Chancellor of State of Wei, who had Fan Ju severely tortured; after Qin demanded his head from Zhao, Wei Qi fled and later killed himself.
• Bai Qi: a celebrated Qin general who became hostile to Fan Ju over whether to continue the attack on Zhao after Changping; Fan Ju later advised the king to order his death.
• Wei Ran: Marquis of Rang of Qin, who monopolized power when Fan Ju entered Qin and was later expelled with Fan Ju's assistance to King Zhaoxiang.

Anecdotes

In the Records of the Grand Historian, Fan Ju, by then chancellor, disguised himself and visited Xu Jia when the latter came to Qin as an envoy. Seeing Fan Ju in worn clothing, Xu Jia gave him a silk robe. When he learned that “Zhang Lu” was Fan Ju, Xu Jia became frightened and apologized. Fan Ju listed Xu Jia’s past offenses but spared him in recognition of the robe. Sima Qian summarizes the episode with the saying that Fan Ju “repaid the favor of a single meal and avenged even a glaring slight.” This is presented as an episode recorded in the historical narrative, not as independently verified detail.

Historical Assessment

Warring States Period / Contemporaries - King Zhaoxiang of Qin: regarded Fan Ju as a man who “placed his isolated and endangered person amid universal suspicion,” followed his advice closely, and entrusted him with the office of Chancellor of State.

• Cai Ze: used the saying “when the sun reaches the zenith it begins to move, and when the moon is full it begins to wane” to argue that Fan Ju's power and achievement had reached a dangerous height and to urge him to retire at the proper moment.
• Bai Qi: after military disagreements with Fan Ju, believed that Fan Ju, “as a minister, should not speak of attacks,” yet interfered in military affairs, which contributed to Bai Qi's resentment.

Qin and Han Periods - Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian, juan 79, “Biography of Fan Sui and Cai Ze,” https://ctext.org/shiji/fan-sui-cai-ze-lie-zhuan: described Fan Ju as one who “repaid the favor of a single meal and avenged even a glaring slight.” At the end of the chapter, Sima Qian revisits their changing fortunes and closes with the episode of Fan Ju repaying kindness and avenging a grievance.

• Han Feizi: Outer Congeries of Sayings: records an episode associated with Fan Ju under the written form “Fan Ju,” which is relevant to the discussion of variant forms; the passage does not make an explicit overall assessment of him.

Tang and Song Periods - Sima Guang, Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance: records Fan Ju’s activities and Qin’s policies; it is used here as a later narrative source, not as an explicit overall assessment by Sima Guang.

• Hu Sanxing's commentary on Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance: discusses the pronunciation and written form of Fan Ju’s name; it is not treated here as an assessment of his political ability.

Modern Period - Later assessments: Fan Ju’s diplomatic and military strategy and his role in helping the king reclaim authority are often treated as significant in Qin’s expansion. His personal motives should be distinguished from the broader effects attributed to his policies.