Echoes of History Biography: Bai Qi 白起

Bai Qi 白起 

(Pre-Qin, Warring States period, 332 BC - 257 BC)

He was nicknamed “the human butcher” back then, and dubbed the “nuke of the Warring States period” today, believed to be directly responsible for an estimated one million deaths. 

Bai Qi in the TV series “The Qin Empire”, played by actor Xing Jiadong. 

Source: https://pix2.tvzhe.com/thumb/character/170/740/405x540.jpg

Being one of the four most famous military generals, he was a scarily effective commander who won many impossible battles, never suffering a single defeat. Most notably, he often massacred entire enemy troops, decimating the core military strengths of enemy states. He was so feared that no one would fight against him if they knew he was the commander on the other side. 

The battle of Changping was one of the most defining events of his life. The Kingdom of Qin, who Bai Qi served, was at war with the Kingdom of Zhao. He first tricked the Zhao ruler into distrusting his top commander, whose abilities was Bai Qi’s match, the legendary General Lian Po, and replaced him with an inexperienced youth, Zhao Kuo, better suited at theorising than actual combat. In the meantime he himself secretly took over command at the frontlines. With that, Bai Qi successfully goaded the Zhao army into open battle, where he dealt them a devastating blow and had the young general killed in battle. 

The Zhao army conceded defeat on the promise that they would be spared. However, likely out of concerns about controlling the huge number of prisoners, Bai Qi alas had all four hundred thousand of the surrendered Zhao soldiers buried alive. It is said that for many years one hardly saw men over the age of fifteen in the Kingdom of Zhao. 

He had wanted to follow it up and completely destroy the Kingdom of Zhao then, but his own superior, King Zhaoxiang of Qin (秦昭王/秦昭襄王), feared that Bai Qi’s success would threaten his position, and ordered his retreat. 

Years later, King Zhaoxiang of Qin wanted to invade the kingdom of Zhao once more, but Bai Qi objected vehemently, citing that the kingdom of Zhao would have recovered with a deep vengeance, and the Qin army could not win. After a few failed expeditions, King Zhaoxiang forced Bai Qi to take up command on the threat of death. 

However, not long upon Bai Qi’s leave from the capital, King Zhaoxiang of Qin heeded the words of Bai Qi’s rival, who said that Bai Qi deliberately delayed his travel out of dissatisfaction. The king thus ordered his death. 

The irony for this God of Murder and War (as people used to worship him) is that he died for refusing to go to war. 

From the “Records of the Grand Historian”: 

“On the eleventh month of the fiftieth year under the reign of King Zhao of Qin, his Highness sent an emissary with a sword to Bai Qi, the Lord Wu’an, and ordered his death. Lord Wu’an placed the sword to his neck, and said, ‘What wrong have I done unto the heavens to deserve this fate?’ After a long while, he said, ‘I deserve to die. The Battle of Changping, some hundred thousands of Zhao soldiers surrendered, I deceived them and buried them all, it is deserving enough for me to die.’ He then killed himself.”

Trivia:

Bai Qi was so hated that to this day, a tofu dish around the ancient Changping region (now Gaoping) is still called “Bai Qi meat”. 

On the other hand, after his death, people from the kingdom of Qin mourned him and worshiped him as their guardian deity.

Bai Qi's character song by Wang Chuan Feng Hua Lu, 《起战令》, can be translated as "Order to War", which is also a wordplay on his name. 

Original video link: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1fg4y1c7pD 

I'm personally quite a fan of Xing Jiadong as Bai Qi, so here's a bonus video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1uf4y1B7Wf