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entity Updated 2026-08-21 Topics: History

信陵君 / Lord Xinling

信陵君 / Lord Xinling appears in 《资治通鉴·周纪》63丨 德高望重孟尝君是伪君子？ as one of the 战国四公子. The episode does not yet give him an independent story; it names him to place 孟尝君 / 田文 inside the broader Warring States pattern of aristocrats known for养士.

《资治通鉴·周纪》82丨大秦的核武器：白起来了！ supplies his accession-point context. After 魏昭王 dies and 魏安釐王 succeeds, the new Wei king enfeoffs his younger brother Wei Wuji as Xinling Jun. The episode still does not develop his later rescue-of-Zhao story, but it now fixes his entry to a moment when 魏国 is under heavy 秦国 pressure from 白起 and 魏冉.

《资治通鉴·周纪》95丨长平之战后秦国为什么没有灭了赵国（3） gives Xinlingjun his first developed action in the wiki. 虞卿 and 魏齐 come to Wei after Zhao begins hunting Wei Qi, and Xinlingjun hesitates because receiving them risks 秦国’s anger. He asks 侯嬴, whose answer reframes the issue as a test of whether Xinlingjun recognizes Yu Qing’s character and sacrifice.

Xinlingjun then goes out to receive Yu Qing and Wei Qi, but the hesitation has already become fatal in Wei Qi’s honor world. Wei Qi hears that Xinlingjun initially wavered and kills himself, so the episode makes Xinlingjun’s reputation depend not only on generosity but also on the timing and publicity of recognition.

《资治通鉴·周纪》95丨长平之战后秦国为什么没有灭了赵国（4） adds the interpretive point that Xinlingjun’s behavior should not be read as fixed anti-Qin ideology. Like 平原君, he is caught in a reputation order where receiving a desperate guest can be required even when it is strategically dangerous.

The episode therefore makes Xinlingjun part of the same debate as 虞卿: later admiration can see a noble commitment to being worthy of trust, while 荀悦 can read such commitment as 死党之义与守职奉上 that competes with office and state responsibility.

《资治通鉴·周纪》96丨毛遂自荐（5） makes Xinlingjun the center of the next Handan-rescue setup. With 魏安釐王 afraid of Qin, the episode turns to Xinlingjun as the Wei figure whose personal reputation and retainer network may matter. It emphasizes his kin position as Wei Anxi Wang’s younger brother and 平原君’s brother-in-law, then contrasts 司马迁’s praise of Xinlingjun with his sharper judgments of the other 战国四公子.

The same source backfills why Xinlingjun’s relationship with 侯嬴 matters. Xinlingjun repeatedly invites Hou Ying with gifts, then finally drives in person, leaves the honored left carriage seat empty, waits without irritation while Hou Ying visits 朱亥, and introduces the elderly gatekeeper to the gathered guests. The episode turns this into 公开受辱式礼贤测试: Xinlingjun’s reputation for 礼贤下士式人才吸附 becomes credible because it survives public inconvenience and low-status association.

《资治通鉴·周纪》96丨毛遂自荐（6） completes the payoff of that relationship. When 魏安釐王 will not truly send 晋鄙 forward to rescue 邯郸, Xinlingjun first tries to gather his retainers and die at the front. Hou Ying redirects him from reputation-driven self-sacrifice to 窃符救赵: ask 如姬 to steal the king’s half of the tiger tally, use it to take Jin Bi’s army, and bring 朱亥 because Jin Bi may still refuse.

The rescue makes Xinlingjun the central Wei actor in breaking Qin’s pressure on Zhao. After Zhu Hai kills Jin Bi, Xinlingjun takes the army, releases soldiers with direct family obligations, coordinates with Chu, defeats Qin with the allied forces, and becomes famous enough that 赵丹 / 赵孝成王 and 平原君 greet him at the border. The same episode also marks his ethical problem: saving Zhao is not morally clean because Jin Bi is killed while doing what a field commander could reasonably see as his duty.

《资治通鉴·周纪》97-1丨白起之死 adds the immediate retrospective weight of Xinlingjun’s success. 侯嬴 completes his own promise by killing himself when Xinlingjun reaches the army, while the episode evaluates the rescue as preserving 赵国 as the key barrier against Qin. The host’s larger claim is that Xinlingjun’s successful relief of Handan delayed Qin’s swallowing of the six states by roughly forty years; this page preserves that as the episode’s strategic reading, adjacent to the already recorded moral cost of Jin Bi’s death.

《资治通鉴·周纪》97-2丨揭秘信陵君凭什么是四公子之首 turns from the rescue result to Xinlingjun’s post-victory position. In Wei he remains the man who stole command authority; in Zhao he is the benefactor who saved the state. The episode names this as the 负臣 problem: an extraordinary subject can correct a ruler’s mistake and save the polity, but that same success makes stable coexistence with the overridden ruler difficult.

The same source gives Xinlingjun’s answer through ritual and continued patronage. When 赵丹 / 赵孝成王 wants to reward him with five cities and treat him as an honored guest, Xinlingjun refuses the status elevation, uses the east-stair action to avoid parity with the ruler, and lets the reward shrink toward a 汤沐邑. He then keeps practicing 礼贤下士 by seeking 毛公 among gamblers and 薛公 among wine sellers, which extends his reputation but may put him into delicate comparison with 平原君 inside Handan.

《资治通鉴·周纪》97-3丨吕不韦：历史上风投第一人 completes that previewed tension. Pingyuanjun privately mocks Xinlingjun for associating with low-status people, but Xinlingjun answers that he sought Mao Gong and Xue Gong because he had heard of their worth before arriving in Zhao. The episode treats this as a durable redefinition of “士”: if moral worth, not inherited status or visible occupation, is decisive, then Xinlingjun’s friendships are proof of judgment rather than a stain on rank.

《资治通鉴·秦纪》101-2｜如何看待性本善与性本恶？ mentions Xinlingjun as the strategic resource 魏安釐王 fails to use consistently. The episode does not add a new action by Xinlingjun; it sharpens the ruler-brother contrast already built in the Handan rescue arc, where Wei’s survival options depend on the very man the king fears and mistrusts.

《资治通鉴·秦纪》103-1｜司马迁看中的信陵君算是小人吗？ shows the emergency repair of that relationship. After 蒙敖 attacks 魏国 and threatens the capital field around 大梁, 毛公 and 薛公 persuade Xinlingjun that his reputation among the lords depends on Wei’s survival. He returns, becomes supreme commander, calls in a five-state coalition, and defeats Meng Ao south of the Yellow River.

The same source complicates the new victory through 管城. Xinlingjun’s attempt to take the Qin-held city creates a collision with 苏高 and 安陵君, and Su Gao’s suicide leads Xinlingjun to call himself a “小人.” The wiki keeps this as a further development of Xinlingjun’s moral difficulty: his command can save states and organize resistance, but the same effective urgency can coerce duty-bound people into death.

《资治通鉴·秦纪》103-2｜司马迁的“idol” 为何死于酒色 completes the late-life arc. After Qin cannot easily defeat him militarily, it uses money, spies, 晋鄙’s former retainers, and congratulatory messages to make Xinlingjun look like a man about to become Wei king. 魏安釐王 accepts the suspicion, replaces him, and removes his command.

The episode reads Xinlingjun’s final “death by wine and women” as a surface description of political ruin. He recognizes that slander has made him unusable again, claims illness, withdraws from government, and spends four years in frustrated self-consumption. The source contrasts this with 鲁仲连’s cleaner refusal-and-withdrawal model: Xinlingjun can save states and attract people, but he cannot turn defeat into a dignified exit.

The same source expands Xinlingjun’s afterlife through 刘邦. Liu Bang is presented as a young admirer who went to Daliang to join Xinlingjun’s retainer world, arrived after the Wei prince’s death, and then turned to 张耳, a former Xinlingjun retainer. This makes Xinlingjun’s reputation not only remembered worship, but a style of generosity and recruitment that the episode sees flowing into Liu Bang’s later political behavior.

《资治通鉴·秦纪》104｜阴谋失算让秦国版图又又又膨胀了 uses Xinlingjun mostly as an absence. When 秦国 attacks 魏国 near 大梁 in 245 BCE, Xinlingjun is already in his second withdrawal, and 魏安釐王 would rather endure Qin pressure than restore the commander whose prestige he fears. The source therefore extends Xinlingjun’s late-life theme from personal tragedy into Wei’s strategic self-weakening.

《资治通鉴·秦纪》106｜惊人发现信陵君的非正常死亡 reopens his death as a source-scoped political mystery. The episode keeps the Qinji 103-2 account of slander, withdrawal, wine, and women, but stresses that 《史记》 places Xinlingjun’s death before 魏安釐王’s in the same year. From that order, the host infers that Wei Anxi Wang may have removed him before dying to make 魏景湣王 / 魏增’s succession safer, creating 信陵君非正常死亡疑云.

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