Ancient China · Aristocrat and Diplomat

Yanling 延陵

Attested BC 560 - BC 500

Passages: 3
Chapters: 3
Histories: 3

Overview

Yanling was an aristocrat and Diplomat.

Life and dates

Attested activity

BC 544 延陵所云
Directly stated · Book of Liang 52, passage 70
BC 560 to BC 500 春秋之世
Dated from the passage context · Book of Later Han 31, passage 170

Key source chapters

Book of Later Han, Chapter 31 Volume 28a: Biographies of Huan Tan; Feng Yan 1 passage
Book of Liang, Chapter 52 Volume 52: The Self-Sufficient 1 passage
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 124 Biographies of Knight-errants 1 passage

Career and standing

relied on kinship with royalty 因王者親屬
Royal kin
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 124, passage 22

Assessments and attributes

Assessment worthy; attracted worthies and won renown · Mode historian-judgment Speaker Sima Qian (司馬遷)
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 124, passage 22

References in the histories

Book of Later Han, Chapter 31Volume 28a: Biographies of Huan Tan; Feng Yan · 1 passage

昔晏平仲納延陵之誨，終免欒高之難； Yan Ying heeded Yanling's warning and escaped the Luan-Gao purge;

Book of Liang, Chapter 52Volume 52: The Self-Sufficient · 1 passage

延陵所云「精氣上歸于天，骨肉下歸於地，魂氣則無所不之」，良有以也。 What Yanling said—"The refined breath returns to Heaven, flesh and bone to earth, and the soul's breath goes everywhere"—has good grounds.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 124Biographies of Knight-errants · 1 passage

近世延陵、孟嘗、春申、平原、信陵之徒，皆因王者親屬，藉於有土卿相之富厚，招天下賢者，顯名諸侯，不可謂不賢者矣。 In more recent times, the Lord of Yanling, Lord Mengchang, Lord Chunshen, Lord Pingyuan, and Lord Xinling all drew on royal kinship and the vast wealth of their fiefs to attract the worthiest men under heaven and win renown among the feudal lords — they were, by any measure, men of worth.