Prince of Yan

Prince or King of Yan (both 燕王, Yànwáng, in Chinese) was a Chinese feudal title referring to the ancient Chinese State of Yan and to fiefs including its former capital of Yanjing (located within modern Beijing).

Typically, the title is translated as "King of Yan" for rulers prior to the establishment of the Chinese empire by Shi Huangdi and "Prince of Yan" for rulers after the restoration of feudal titles by the Han dynasty. It was generally held by powerful members of the imperial family and – owing to its important position protecting central China from Mongolian and Manchurian invaders – typically included powerful and well-fortified military forces.

More specifically, "Yanwang" in Chinese and "Prince of Yan" in English typically refers to Zhu Di, who held that rank before launching the Jingnan Campaign which established him as the Ming dynasty's Yongle Emperor in the 15th century.

Zhou dynasty

Qin dynasty

Han dynasty

Three Kingdoms

Jin and Sixteen Kingdoms

Sui and Tang dynasties

Song dynasty

Yuan dynasty

Ming dynasty

Qing dynasty

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, September 27, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.