Yan

Yan was the northernmost of the great vassal states, guarding the passes to the steppe from its capital region near modern Beijing for eight centuries. Founded around 1044 BC for the Duke of Shao, brother of the Zhou conqueror, it spent its early history as a remote Ji-surnamed outpost, its early capital preserved today at the Liulihe site. Distance made Yan backward and distance made it safe: while the central states exhausted each other, Yan endured. Its great moment came under King Zhao, who filled his court with talents, allied Qin, Han, Zhao and Wei, and in 284 BC sent Yue Yi at the head of a five-state coalition to sack the Qi capital Linzi, the most complete revenge in the age. After Zhao's death Yan slid back into the second rank, squeezed between the rising Zhao and the far Qi. In its final years Yan is remembered for desperation: Crown Prince Dan sent the assassin Jing Ke with a map and a dagger to kill the king of Qin, and the failure sealed the state's fate. Qin armies took the capital Ji in 226 BC, hunted the court to Liaodong, and extinguished Yan in 222 BC, the second-to-last of the seven to fall.