round the same time, Zhong Shanfu, a key senior advisor to Xuan Wang, successfully conquers and pacifies several neighboring tribes and is granted the area of Fàn south west of Jiyuan in Henan Province. His descendants also adopt the place name as their surname. Xuan Wang's success is notable given that the period was one in which the authority of the Zhou kings had begun to decline.
Fàn Hui's son takes the name of Fàn Quan (or Fàn Ziwen) and greatly expands the power of the Fàn family as a powerful aristocratic force within the ancient state of Jin during the beginning of the Spring and Autumn period (771 to 476 BCE).
. Fàn Quan institutes the civil system for Jin, making it the earliest kingdom during Chun Qiu to do so.
For some time, the Fàn family is the most powerful aristocratic family within the state of Jin, and along with the Zhao, Han, Wei, Zhonghang and Zhi families comprised the six dominating clans of the state. Nevertheless, the Fàn family remained vassals to the Dukes of Jin until the later split of the Jin State. See Fàn Zhongyan