Qifu Gangui

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Qifu Gangui" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Qifu Gangui or Qifu Qiangui^[1] (Chinese: 乞伏乾歸; died 412), also known by his posthumous name as the Prince Wuyuan of Western Qin (西秦武元王), was a prince of the Xianbei-led Chinese Western Qin dynasty. He was a brother of the founding prince, Qifu Guoren (Prince Xuanlie), who became prince after Qifu Guoren's death in 388 because Qifu Guoren's son Qifu Gongfu (乞伏公府) was considered too young for leadership. He subsequently expanded the state's power and influence, but only to an extent, and in 400 after military losses to the Later Qin dynasty, his state was annexed by the Later Qin and he himself became a Later Qin general. However, after the Later Qin was weakened by defeats at the hands of its rebel general Helian Bobo's Hu Xia dynasty, Qifu Gangui redeclared independence in 409, but ruled only three more years before he was killed by Qifu Gongfu in a coup. His son Qifu Chipan (Prince Wenzhao) defeated Qifu Gongfu and succeeded him as the ruling prince.

Qifu Gangui was known for using military strategies designed to expose weaknesses and to mislead enemies into acting in an overly dangerous manner, and then strike when the enemy became overconfident.