Case of Wang Sunjia Executing Zhuo Chi

In 284 BC, the State of Yan and its allies invaded Qi. King Min of Qi fled to the city of Ju, where the Chu general Zhuo Chi had been sent ostensibly to aid Qi. Zhuo Chi instead conspired with Yan, murdered King Min, and seized control of Ju. Upon learning of his king's death, the young retainer Wang Sunjia rallied the citizens by exposing his right arm and calling for vengeance. He led a mob into Zhuo Chi's residence and killed him. The slaying was a direct, extrajudicial act of retribution, not a formal trial. Wang Sunjia subsequently located King Min's son, Prince Fazhang, and proclaimed him King Xiang of Qi, contributing to the state's restoration.

No formal legal punishment was imposed on Wang Sunjia. Instead, his action was retrospectively validated. He was celebrated as a paragon of loyalty for avenging the slain king and was instrumental in enthroning the new ruler, King Xiang of Qi, thereby receiving honor and official recognition rather than prosecution.

The central dispute revolves around whether Wang Sunjia's act constituted legitimate loyalist revenge and righteous regicide retaliation, or an unlawful private execution. It pits the Confucian ideal of a retainer avenging his lord against the absence of legal process, raising questions about the boundaries of vigilante justice in a collapsing state.

The killing galvanized Qi's resistance against the Yan occupation, boosting morale among the citizenry and remnants of the Qi army. It set a powerful moral example of a subject's absolute duty to avenge his sovereign, a story later immortalized in Chinese historiography as a model of righteousness. The case also fueled enduring philosophical debates about justified extrajudicial killing in times of political upheaval.