The Case of Lord Xinling's Forged Execution of Jin Bi

In 257 BC, Qin besieged Handan, Zhao's capital. King Anxi of Wei dispatched General Jin Bi with troops to aid Zhao but ordered him to halt at Ye, fearing Qin retaliation. Lord Xinling, pressured by Zhao pleas and his sister's plight (married to Zhao's prince), adopted Hou Ying's stratagem. Ru Ji, the king's concubine, stole the tiger tally from the king's chamber. Lord Xinling, accompanied by butcher Zhu Hai, presented the tally at Jin Bi's camp and forged a royal order to assume command. Jin Bi hesitated, sensing deception, whereupon Zhu Hai killed him with a concealed iron hammer. Lord Xinling then led 80,000 elite Wei soldiers to lift the Qin siege, saving Zhao. After the incident, he remained in exile in Zhao, not daring to return to Wei.

King Anxi of Wei was furious over the usurpation and killing, but given Lord Xinling's prestige and the successful rescue of Zhao, he refrained from formal punishment. The king allowed Lord Xinling to remain in voluntary exile in Zhao. Years later, when Qin attacked Wei, Lord Xinling was recalled, pardoned, and restored to his position as supreme military commander to defend the state.

Whether Lord Xinling's forgery of a royal command and assassination of a legitimate general to rescue a neighboring state were justified. The core conflict lies between personal loyalty (to Zhao and his sister) and state sovereignty, between procedural justice and consequentialist ethics—did the end of saving Zhao justify the means of treason and murder?

This case became one of the most ethically debated episodes in Chinese history. It temporarily checked Qin's eastward expansion, saving both Zhao and Wei. The story epitomizes the Warring States culture of knight-errantry and patronage, celebrated in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian as an act of heroic loyalty, yet criticized by later Confucian historians like Ban Gu for undermining royal authority and military discipline. The phrase "stealing the tally to save Zhao" entered the lexicon as a symbol of righteous transgression.