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 |  The rulers of Wei are said to be descendants of Ji Gao, Duke of Bi 畢公(姬)高, a relative and minister of the Western Zhou (Xizhou 西周) kings. In 661 they were enfeoffed as viscounts (zi 子) by the state of Jin 晉 and called themselves marquis (hou 侯) after the three viscounts of Wei, Han 韓, and Zhao 趙 had destroyed the old Jin in 453. Under the advisorship of the legist Li Kui 李悝 and the military strategist Wu Qi 吳起 Wei underwent administrative and military reforms. Wei united with Zhao and Han to withstand the pressure of the powerful state of Qin 秦, and constructed a wall to prevent Qin intruding Wei territory. Under King Huiwang 梁惠王 who renamed Wei in Liang 梁, Wei suffered a bad defeat at the battle of Maling 馬陵 in 341 BC against Qi 齊 and its advisor Sun Bin 孫臏. then on, Qi dominated eastern China, and Wei had lost its predominant military position. Although chancellor Gongsun Yan 公孫衍 tried to united several states against Qin, they suffered a setback, and Qin year by year advanced into Wei territory. In 273 Qin defeated Wei and Zhao in the massacre of Huayang 華陽, and the coalition of Lord Xinling 信陵君 with Lord Chunshen 春申君 of Chu 楚 could not save Wei whose territory was finally conquered by Qin in 225. The name of Wei that had dominated the south of modern Shanxi province was later not only used for imperial princedoms but for several mighty empires that dominated north China, like the Cao-Wei Dynasty 曹魏 of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo) 三國 and the Northern Wei (Beiwei) 北魏 empire of the Tuoba 拓跋. 
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