The Case of Fan Xuanzi Expelling Luan Ying and Executing the Ten Families Including Ji Yi

In 552 BC, within the Jin state, a fierce power struggle erupted between the ruling minister Fan Xuanzi (Shi Gai) and Luan Ying, the heir of the prominent Luan clan. Luan Ying's mother, Luan Qi, engaged in an illicit affair and, fearing her son's displeasure, falsely accused him of plotting rebellion before Fan Xuanzi. Already envious of Luan Ying's popularity among nobles and the people, Fan Xuanzi seized this pretext to crush his rival. He forcibly exiled Luan Ying from Jin and launched a brutal purge. Ten officials—Ji Yi, Huang Yuan, Jia Fu, Sikong Jing, Bing Yu, Dong Shu, Bing Shi, Shen Shu, Yangshe Hu, and Shu Ba—were arrested and summarily executed. Associates like Yangshe Chi and Yangshe Xi were imprisoned. This event decimated the Luan faction and consolidated Fan Xuanzi's dominance. Luan Ying later fled to Chu and then Qi, eventually dying in a failed counterattack in 550 BC.

Luan Ying was convicted of treason in absentia and forced into exile. Ji Yi, Huang Yuan, Jia Fu, and seven other officials were condemned to death and immediately executed. Several of Luan Ying's remaining supporters were imprisoned, and the Luan clan's political influence was annihilated.

Whether Luan Ying genuinely conspired to commit treason or was the victim of a politically motivated fabrication by Fan Xuanzi, exacerbated by the personal malice of his own mother. The summary execution of ten officials without due process also raised questions of justice.

The purge drastically accelerated the concentration of power among the ministerial clans in Jin, weakening the ducal house. It established a violent precedent for resolving intra-aristocratic rivalries, precipitating the eventual domination by the Six Ministers and the partition of the Jin state.