陶 / 定陶 / Dingtao
陶 / 定陶 / Dingtao enters the wiki through 《资治通鉴·周纪》67丨战国“灭霸”白起的军事才能究竟如何 as the place behind a correction to 《资治通鉴》’s Wei Ran enfeoffment notice. The episode says the chronicle’s statement that 魏冉 was enfeoffed at both Rang and Tao cannot belong to the current year, because Tao was not yet held by 秦国.
The source identifies Tao with present-day Dingtao in Shandong and describes it as one of the prosperous central-plains cities of the time. It says Tao originally belonged to 宋国, passed to 齐国 after 齐湣王 destroyed Song in 286 BCE, and only became available to Qin after the 284 BCE anti-Qi campaign led by 乐毅, when Qin and Wei forces took Dingtao.
The page is mainly a source-critical marker. It shows why a place-name notice should be checked against ownership chronology before being attached to an official’s fief history.
《资治通鉴·周纪》88丨你怎么看待凤凰男（1） turns Tao/Dingtao from a chronology correction into an active power-base problem. The episode says 魏冉 recommends 客卿灶 / 客卿造 to attack 齐国 for Gang and Shou because those gains expand the territory around his Tao fief, making the campaign a case of 以国战扩私邑.