Regardless of the State of Lu, or Yu or Zheng, their dukes are all surnamed Ji. From this, we can also see the important role played by the princes of the same surname. The situation is similar to that of the Yan Kingdom. Just as the birth of the State of Lu was closely related to the famous "Duke of Zhou", the State of Yan also had a relationship with the "Summoning Gong".
The duke's surname is Ji Mingyi. There is a theory that he was the younger son or son of King Wen of Zhou. However, some people believe that he is only a branch of the Western Zhou royal family. In any case, Zhao Gong was always a prominent figure at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. In the Shang Shu Junyi, it is said, "Summoning the Duke is bao, the Duke of Zhou is the teacher, and the King of Xiangcheng is the left and right." This shows that at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, there were two important ministers, the Duke of Zhou as "Taishi" and the Duke of Zhao as "Taibao", who assisted King Wu's young son (King Cheng of Zhou). The national first-class cultural relics "Tai Bao Ding" in the Tianjin Museum now have the words "Great (Tai) Bao Zhu" in the abdomen, which should be cast by the Zhao Gong. Among the celebrities at the beginning of the week, the life span of the summoner is particularly long. Until the death of King Cheng of Zhou, he also presided over the enthronement ceremony of Ji Zhao (King Kang of Zhou). In front of the ancestral tablets of the Taimiao Temple, Zhao Gong told the new Tianzi How King Wen worked hard, how king Wu fought for the world, and repeatedly warned that "it is not easy for the king to do business, but to be frugal", and the first precept of being a son of heaven is "do not want much". This statement by Zhao Gong was later recorded in the annals of history under the name of Shangshu Gu Ming.
According to the historical records represented by the "Records of History", after the founding of the Zhou Dynasty, as one of the main figures with the same surname, Zhao Gong was sent to the northern edge of today's North China to establish a new stronghold (that is, the State of Yan). This place is located on the passage between the Huaxia ethnic group in the Central Plains and the various ethnic groups in the northeast, and it is also an area that the Shang Dynasty forces have long reached. Zhou Fu would summon the Duke to Yandi (northern Hebei), apparently intending to use his prestige to build a powerful political and military bridgehead for the Zhou people in the north, both to control the remnants of the Shang Dynasty and to further open up to the north—in this regard, the excavation of Bronze artifacts from the Shang, Zhou, and early Western Zhou dynasties along the Daling River in Liaoning is an example.
/ (left) Yanhou Lu ;(right) inscription "匽侯作 indignant cup".
Curiously, although the strategic position of the State of Yan was so important, in the "History of the Duke of Yan Zhao's Family", it was only used "Since the Duke of Yan has been the ninth to huihou." When Marquis Huihou of Yan was the king of Zhou Li and the Republic, "these few words explained the history of the Yan state that spanned most of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Equally bad, after Hou Hui, although the two Yan princes of The Marquis of Qi and the Marquis of Qi were listed, they had no deeds to speak of, and they did not even know their names. It can be said that the old historical records about the history of the Yan kingdom in the Western Zhou Dynasty are basically blank. Sima Zhen of the Tang Dynasty explained in the "History of Suoyin" that this was because "the history of the country was lost first". As for whether the loss of the "national history" is related to the "burning of books" by the First Emperor, this can only be seen by the benevolent and the wise.
What is even more confusing is that since the "Records of History", everyone knows that there was a Yan state in northern China before the Qin. However, for a long time, people have not seen the early Bronze Ware of the Western Zhou Dynasty with the inscription "Yan". This inevitably makes people wonder, is it a mistake contained in the "Records of History", and there was no Yan state in the Western Zhou? Fortunately, in 1955, a batch of bronze artifacts was found in Machanggou, Liaoning. Of particular importance is a piece of "Marquis Lu of Yan", whose era is roughly equivalent to that of King Kang of Zhou, with the inscription "匽 (燕) Hou Zuo". What is even more gratifying is that since 1973, a site of the early Zhou Dynasty has been discovered in Liulihe, Fangshan County (now Fangshan District) in Beijing, with a total area of 5.25 square kilometers. It is a large site that includes city sites, noble tombs, and other remains. During excavations, bronzes with the inscription "匽侯" were also unearthed. For example, the inscription on the inner wall of the "Bo Zhi Mane" says that one day, the "Hou Hou" gave the Moment some shells, and in order to commemorate this glory, he made this ceremonial vessel for his late father. This proves that the "Yan Kingdom" described by Sima Qian is real, but it is written in the bronze vessels that have been handed down to the world.
The next question is, since the road between The Capital Andyo and the You and Yan regions is far away, and it is necessary to cross the Yellow River, the transportation is extremely inconvenient, did Zhao Gong really go to the Yan Kingdom to become the monarch himself? Or did he take the title of son like the Zhou Gongpai Boyao who was also assisting the government in the capital? The answer is also buried deep in the ruins of the Western Zhou Yan Kingdom in the Liulihe River. Archaeologists have found "Vioding" here. Its inner wall is cast with an inscription, which basically means that the Marquis of Yan (Yan) ordered a minister named 堇 to go to Zong Zhou (镐京) to bring food to the "Taibao", who was the father of the first Marquis of Taibao, because it was not easy to travel thousands of miles, and the Taibao rewarded Him with some money, and in order to commemorate this, he cast this Ding. "Taibao" was both the Duke of Zhao and the father of the first Marquis of Zhao, and the founding monarch of the State of Yan was undoubtedly the son of Zhao Gong. It can be said that this discovery clarifies the mystery of the documentary historical record of the founding of the Western Zhou Yan state. In addition, there are three different theories in the ancient books about the location of the capital of the Yan Kingdom: one is believed to be in the area of present-day Beijing, one is believed to be in today's Jixian County, Hebei, and the other is believed to be in the territory of laishui in present-day Hebei. But the excavation of the ruins of the Liulihe Yan Kingdom has resolved this problem, which has been debated for many years: the possibility that the capital of the Yan Kingdom in the early Zhou Dynasty was near present-day Beijing is much more reliable than two other accounts. All in all, with the help of recent archaeological excavations, although the situation of the Yan kingdom in the Western Zhou Dynasty is still not systematic and comprehensive, it has been much deeper than the previous understanding.