i was supposed to talk about this in my wangxian meta post here, but i um. completely forgot. oops. although i suppose it worked out for the best considering it contains mild spoilers for the first chapter or so of this volume.

anyway, 魏无羡 wei wuxian is a very blatant reference to 信陵君 lord xinling, aka 魏无忌 wei wuji, who was a prominent statesman and general of the warring states period:

魏无羡 wei wuxian; 羡 / envy 魏无忌 wei wuji; 忌 / also envy (among other meanings)

yeah mxtx was not subtle about this lol

this is sima qian's description of wei wuji in his records of the grand historian: 公子為人仁而下士，士無賢不肖皆謙而禮交之，不敢以其富貴驕士。 [...] 當是時，諸侯以公子賢，多客，不敢加兵謀魏十餘年。 / The prince was benevolent in his conduct and willing to humble himself by associating with his lessers; he was modest and courteous even to those who were not wise or worthy, and dared not show arrogance on account of his wealth and nobility. [...] At this time, because the prince was sagacious and had many retainers, the other princes did not dare to bear arms or plot against Wei for more than ten years.

sounding familiar yet? it gets better, bc wei wuji is perhaps best known for breaking the siege of handan directly against the orders of his king:

In the twentieth year of the reign of King Anxi of Wei, King Zhao of Qin, having already defeated the armies of Zhao in Changping, sent his troops once more to besiege Handan. The prince’s sister was the wife of Lord Pingyuan, the younger brother of King Huiwen of Zhao, and she wrote multiple letters to the king and prince of Wei, seeking rescue from Wei. The king of Wei told his general Jinbi to lead an army of a hundred thousand men to save Zhao.

The king of Qin sent envoys to tell the king of Wei, “When I attack Zhao, it will fall within days; once Zhao has been captured, I shall move my armies to attack first any feudal ruler who dares to rescue them.”

The king of Wei was afraid and sent someone to stop Jinbi, who encamped the army at Ye; in name, they were there to rescue Zhao, but in reality, they were keeping both options open while observing the situation.

Official envoys from Lord Pingyuan came in an unceasing stream to Wei, and asked the prince of Wei, “My prince, the reason I attached myself in marriage is because, due to your high sense of duty, I believed you would be able to offer aid to others during their time of difficulty. Now, Handan will surrender to Qin any day, yet Wei does not come to the rescue. Where is your ability to offer aid to others during their time of difficulty? Even if you look down on me, and leave me to surrender to Qin, do you not have compassion for your sister?”

The prince was troubled by this, and repeatedly asked the king of Wei [to send aid], and sent the best orators among his guests and retainers to persuade the king in ten thousand ways. The king of Wei feared Qin, and ultimately did not listen to the prince.

The prince surmised he would ultimately not be able to get it from the king, and calculated that he could not survive alone and allow Zhao to perish; he invited his guests and retainers, and arranged for around a hundred chariots and horses, seeking to take his retainers to charge the armies of Qin, and die alongside Zhao.

wei wuji succeeds in doing this with two other men:

• 朱亥 zhu hai, who uses his extraordinary strength and a hammer to assassinate general jinbi
• 侯嬴 hou ying, who advises wei wuji to steal jinbi's army tally
  • oh btw, the 阴虎符 / yin tiger tally or however it's translated is based on ancient chinese army tallies. you see where this is going

anyway, wei wuji was successful in breaking the siege, but his king (and half-brother) was so furious with him for defying his orders that wei wuji didn't dare to return home. instead, he stayed in zhao for many years, and he's renowned today for his heroism and initiative in going against orders to save innocent lives

(all translations my own again)

(p.s. i also remembered smth about lan xichen's name so i'll update that too)

edited to include links to my other name meta posts:

• vol 1: wangxian, jiang family
• vol 2: nie brothers, lan xichen + jin guangyao
• vol 5: lan sizhui