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Su Qin (?–284 BCE) was a Chinese political consultant and philosopher who was an influential political strategist during the Warring States period. He was born in Chengxuan Village, Luoyang, in present-day Henan Province. According to legend Su Qin was a disciple of Guiguzi, one of the major adherents of the School of Diplomacy. He was the chief advocate of the "" (, which sought to create an alliance of the other states against the state of Qin. At his most brilliant, Su Qin persuaded the leaders of the six kingdoms of Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao and Wei to unite against the Qin state through the use of his splendid rhetoric and thereafter wore robes decorated with the insignia of the six states.
The opposing theory, "" () promoted by Zhang Yi, supported bilateral alliances with Qin. The allies of the Vertical Alliance advanced on the State of Qin but were easily defeated due to internal discord between the former enemies. One theory suggests that Su Qin and Zhang Yi mutually reinforced each other's viewpoints in order to achieve their personal goals.
At the end of this period of canvassing, Su Qin became chief administrator of the Vertical Alliance and wore the insignia of the six member nations. After he became famous, he returned to his hometown in a blaze of glory. His parents welcomed him thirty li from home, his sister-in-law crawled like a snake whilst the surprise showed on his wife but she dared not look at him, her former stubbornness having become respect. Once more Su Qin lamented "the parents are poor but not the son". Although already an official of the six nation alliance, Marquis Su of Zhao appointed Su Qin ruler of Wu'an in modern-day Henan Province. According to the records of the Vertical Alliance, the Qin State went into decline and would not dare cross the strategic Hangu Pass for a further fifteen years.
The Qi State took advantage of the Yan State and installed a new monarch, King Yi, as well occupying ten cities which the King of Wei asked Su Qin to get back. Su Qin petitioned the King of Qi thus: "The King of Yan is a kinsman of the Qi State and you have snatched his territory. This is bound to draw the elite troops of the Qin State so you must return these cities!"
After the Marquis Wen of Yan died, King Yi ascended the throne. Su Qin had an affair with the late Marquis’ widow and when King Yi learned about the affair, Su Qin, fearing that he might be punished, subsequently left the Yan State and went to Qi where he obtained an important position from King Xuan. When Xuan died, King Min ascended the throne and Su Qin vied with the ministers of state for the monarch's favor. The ministers tried to assassinate Su Qin and he was seriously injured; the Qi king tried to arrest the culprits but failed to do so. On his deathbed Su Qin gave the King a plan to arrest the assassins: after his death, Su Qin was posthumously accused of treason and his body was torn limb from limb in the town square. This prompted Su Qin's would-be assassins to reveal themselves, and they were subsequently executed. Afterwards, Su Qin's spies leaked information to the Qi State provoking the further hatred and anger of the Yan State.
According to this written evidence, Su Qin's era followed that of Zhang Yi, during the reign of King Zhao of Yan. In conjunction with Gongsun Yan, Su Qin continued Zhang Yi's mutual confrontation with the Horizontal Alliance of Xi Shou. Su Qin had four older brothers: Su Dai, Su Li, Su Bi and Su Hu. Under his teacher Yu Qi, Su Qin studied all aspects of the operations of the Vertical Alliance and the Horizontal Alliance. He also pored over the books in Yu Qi's collection and found one titled "Minister Yin Fu’s Plan", which Su Qin studied hard for many years, and accepted that its methods would be enough to gain the support of the reigning monarch.
After King Zhao of Yan (312–279 BC) ascended to the throne, the state suffered upheaval and bloodshed so the king, planning to strengthen his state and avenge former humiliation, summoned his sages. Su Qin immediately left Zhou and travelled to the Yan. For King Zhao of Yan, Su Qin carried out his first meritorious service by petitioning King Xuan of Qi to return the ten cities he had previously snatched. The Yan sent a prince as hostage to the Qi with Su Qin acting as envoy. This was in the seventh year of the reign of King Min of Qi, 294 BCE when the government of the Qi was presided over by Lord Mengchang. Su Qin was treated well in Qi and was on friendly terms with Lord Mengchang before his return to Yan.
In 292 BCE, the tripartite forces of Qi, Zhao and Qin were using all their efforts to fight over territory belonging to the State of Song. Su Qin suggested a plan to King Zhao of Yan whilst guaranteeing that he could be "trusted as much as Wei Sheng"According to Chinese folklore, Wei Sheng was a young man who agreed to meet his sweetheart under a bridge one day. He waited and waited for her to no avail. Eventually, the tide came in and drowned Wei Sheng. His name is thus used as a metaphor for someone who will keep their word no matter what happens. and that details of his secret meetings would go with him to the grave.
Thereafter, Su Qin managed to drive a wedge between Qi and Zhao. Qi wiped out Song, which severely weakened Qi such that the Vertical Alliance of the other five states attacked. When Yue Yi defeated Qi, King Min of Qi adjudged Su Qin guilty of dissention and had him torn limb from limb in public. Afterwards Zou Yang said "Su Qin trusted nothing under heaven but he kept his promises to the State of Yan. Sima Qian also commented, "Su Qin undertook a strategy of sowing dissention which led to his execution and all under heaven now mock him".
In 1972, circumstantial evidence unearthed from the number one grave at Yinque Mountain, Linyi Prefecture, Shandong Province provided Han Dynasty bamboo slips inscribed with The Art of War by Sun Tzu. The historian Li Ling mentions this in his simplified version Sun Tzu in the "Espionage" chapter, viz. "When the Zhou dynasty flourished, Lu Ya was in Yin" followed by the sentence, "When Yan flourished, Su Qin was in Qi". Li Ling believes that this Sun Tzu is not the same as the one handed down to later generations and is clearly the history of the late Warring States period.李零：《吴孙子发微》，中华书局1997年6月第1版，第43页的注释24，第167页。又见李零：《孙子古本研究》，北京大学出版社1995年，第239页至第253页。Li Ling "Sun Tzu – Decline of the Southern States", Zhonghua Publishing, 1 June 1997, p43 marginal note 24 – p167. Also see Li Ling "Sun Tzu – Ancient Books Research" Beijing University Press, 1995 pp 239–253.
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