豫让 / Yu Rang
豫让 / Yu Rang appears in 《资治通鉴·周纪》04｜豫让 为智瑶复仇 as 智瑶’s retainer after the fall of the Zhi family. With no realistic political recovery available, he turns revenge against 赵无恤 / 赵襄子 into a public performance of loyal service.
The episode gives two assassination attempts. First, Yu Rang disguises himself as a punished man and enters Zhao Wuxu’s palace with a dagger while cleaning the toilet; Zhao Wuxu releases him because revenge for a destroyed lord can still look like loyal conduct. Second, after ruining his skin and voice to evade recognition, Yu Rang waits near a bridge and is captured again, then killed.
Yu Rang’s answer in the 《史记》 frame anchors patron-recognition reciprocity: Fan and Zhonghang treated him as an ordinary person, so he repaid them ordinarily, while Zhi Yao treated him as a “国士,” so he repaid Zhi Yao as one. The 《战国策》 version supplies the associated “士为知己者死” formula.
《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） reuses Yu Rang as an analogy for 虞卿 and 魏齐. The point is not that Wei Qi equals Zhi Yao morally; it is that the act of being trusted or treated as a person of worth can create a repayment obligation strong enough to override ordinary calculation.
Connections
- 智瑶 - former lord.
- 赵无恤 / 赵襄子 - assassination target.
- Retainer Reciprocity Ethic / 士为知己者死 - main concept derived from his explanation.
- Aristocratic Honor Over Life / 贵族名誉高于生命 and Political Assassination Ethics / 政治刺杀伦理 - adjacent honor and assassination frames.
- 《史记》 and 《战国策》 - source-variant frames.
- 虞卿, 魏齐, and 死党之义与守职奉上 - Zhouji 95 part 4 analogy and later state-order critique of recognition repayment.