kingdom · China, Tibet and Mongolia

Yiqu

800 BCE – 272 BCE (approx.) · capital Yiqu

A powerful Rong kingdom of the Loess Plateau that fought Qin for centuries, until a Qin queen dowager lured its king to his death in 272 BCE.

Origins

The Yiqu were a Rong people of eastern Gansu and north-western Shaanxi, around modern Qingyang. By the 5th century BCE they had built walled towns and formed a kingdom strong enough to defeat the State of Qin in battle.

Rule and society

The Yiqu combined farming with herding and controlled the uplands north of the Wei valley. Little is known of their institutions beyond Chinese accounts of wars and treaties with Qin. Excavated tombs of the region show a mixture of steppe-style ornaments and Chinese bronzes.

Decline and legacy

According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Queen Dowager Xuan of Qin had a liaison with the king of Yiqu and bore him two sons, then had him killed at the Ganquan palace in 272 BCE. Qin annexed his lands, created the Longxi, Beidi and Shang commanderies and built a long wall to protect them.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (1)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Yiqu. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/yiqu
MLA
“Yiqu.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/yiqu. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Yiqu.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/yiqu.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Yiqu’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/yiqu (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻