Page "Chinese nobility" Paragraph 10

As a title of nobility, Ba Wang, hegemon, recognized overlordship of several subordinate kings while refraining from claiming the title of emperor within the imperium of the Chinese subcontinent, such as its borders were considered from era to era.

Sovereigns holding the title of king of an individual state within and without the shifting borders of the Chinese imperium might be fully independent heads of foreign nations, such as the King of Korea who might, in some cases, be subordinate to foreign emperors just as territorial or tribal sovereign Mongol khans might be subject to one of several Khagans or Great khans.

Confusingly, some Chinese emperors styled many or all close male relatives of certain kinds such as brothers, uncles, or nephews as wang, a term for king, using it as a courtesy title.

However, Chinese histories since ancient works such as Shiji were also fairly liberal in terming local tribal chiefs as " king " of a particular territory ranging from vast to tiny, using convenient terms of the form "( locality )" + "( king )" such as Changshawang, " King of Changsha " which was briefly recognized as a kingdom but was usually a smaller part of Chu state or just a county of the Sui Dynasty state, or phrases such as Yiwang, " Yi ( Eastern ) Foreign (' barbarian ') king ( s )," while in other cases or by other authors other terms such as, " native chief " might be used for the same office.

The downward extensibility of terms for " king " in more casual usage also influences other allusive uses of these terms.

In modern colloquial Chinese the term " king " is sometimes also used, roughly as loosely as in English, for such non-literal terms as mien da wang, " great king of noodles " for a pasta-lover, where an English-speaker might use such terms as of the Road.