Battle of An

The Battle of An (Chinese: 鞍之战; pinyin: Ān zhī Zhàn) was fought during the Spring and Autumn period in 589 BCE at Hua Hill in the area of the present-day city of Jinan, Shandong between the states of Qi and Jin. It ended in a victory for the state of Jin and eventually resulted in an alliance between the two states.

Battle of An
Location of the battle at Hua Hill, Jinan.
Date 589 BCE Location Hua Hill, Jinan 36°43′42.96″N 117°3′49.86″E Result victory of the State of Jin, alliance between Jin and Qi
Belligerents
State of Qi	State of Jin
Commanders and leaders
Duke Qing of Qi	Xi Ke

Two of the three surviving commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Zuo Zhuan and the Guliang Zhuan describe the event that led to the battle as an insult that an emissary of Jin suffered at the court of Qi,[1] but the two accounts differ on the nature of the insult. According to the Zuo Zhuan, the duke of Qi allowed women to watch the emissary's visit from behind a screen, women who then insulted the emissary with their laughter.[1][2] The Guliang Zhuan claims that the duke of Qi insulted the emissaries of four visiting states by assigning each of them a server who shared their respective physical defects.[1]

References

1. Jiang Yike, The Battle of An, Between Jin and Qi, For Hegemony Archived 2012-05-01 at the Wayback Machine
2. Burton Watson: The Tso chuan: selections from China's oldest narrative history, Columbia University Press, 1992