新垣衍 / Xinyuan Yan
新垣衍 / Xinyuan Yan enters the wiki through 《资治通鉴·周纪》96丨毛遂自荐（2） as the 魏国 envoy or commander sent secretly into 邯郸 while 晋鄙’s rescue army is stalled at 邺城. The episode treats him as 魏安釐王’s representative rather than as a detached private adviser.
His proposal is to persuade 赵丹 / 赵孝成王 through 平原君 that Wei and Zhao should honor 秦昭襄王 as western emperor. The source reads this not as an empty honorific but as a surrender-like settlement route: by acknowledging Qin’s superior imperial status, Zhao might induce Qin to withdraw from Handan.
The episode emphasizes that Xin Yuan Yan’s plan becomes plausible because outside rescue is failing. 楚国 has agreed to help through 毛遂’s negotiation, but it cannot easily reach Zhao without Wei transit; Wei’s own main army has stopped. Xin Yuan Yan therefore marks the moment when stalled coalition rescue converts into a proposed status concession to Qin.
《资治通鉴·周纪》96丨毛遂自荐（3） makes Xin Yuan Yan the target of 鲁仲连’s counter-persuasion. Lu Zhonglian argues that honoring Qin as emperor would not merely buy time; it would give Qin a superior status from which it could replace ministers, insert favored people, and make Wei’s ruler and Xin Yuan Yan himself dependent on Qin’s will.
Xin Yuan Yan’s retreat from the proposal shows the personal-risk side of the debate. The source presents him as persuaded not only by Lu Zhonglian’s moral rejection of Qin, but by the claim that a status-submission settlement would endanger the very Wei court position he is trying to preserve.
Connections
- 魏安釐王, 魏国, 晋鄙, and 邺城 - sending ruler, state, stalled army, and route context.
- 平原君, 赵丹 / 赵孝成王, 赵国, and 邯郸 - target court and besieged capital.
- 秦昭襄王 and 秦国 - ruler and state whose title elevation is proposed.
- 尊号式投降方案 - concept grounded in his western-emperor proposal.
- 联盟救援借道依赖 and 合纵 - stalled rescue background that gives his proposal urgency.
- 鲁仲连, 文明-野蛮框架, 历史先例武器化, and 利益重构式说服 - Zhouji 96 part 3 rebuttal that makes the proposal personally dangerous.