Chapter 17 Chapter 16 I'm a barbarian, who am I afraid of?

Although the three big countries of Qi, Jin, and Qin have always relied on annexing small countries to strengthen themselves, compared to the number of annexed small countries, Chu is the well-deserved boss. Therefore, we compare Chu State to the big southern crocodile, which is still very vivid.A crocodile has a big mouth, and it can't get enough to eat as much as it swallows; the state of Chu has a big mouth, and it can't swallow as much as a small country. The national surname of Chu State is "Mi", which is probably not used anymore. Some people say it’s wrong. I know that the surnames of the kings of the Chu state are all Xiong. Xiong Tong and Xiong Yun are both the surnames of the Chu state. Why do you say that the surname is Mi?This word is still so difficult to recognize.

A very interesting cultural phenomenon is involved here, which is the division of surnames in ancient China.Aren't surnames and surnames the same thing?The author can tell everyone responsibly that in very ancient times, there was indeed a difference between the surname and the family name.What's the difference? The ancient "surname" is the title of a clan and tribe, not a simple family title.In the development process of a certain clan and tribe, various branches will be continuously produced, and these branches are distinguished by "clan".For example, in the state of Chu we are going to talk about in this section, their monarchs are named Mi and Xiong.There are also several younger brothers of King Wu of Zhou, who were all named princes. Among them, those who were sealed in Guan State were called Guan Shuxian, and those who were sealed in Cai State were called Cai Shudu. In fact, they were all surnamed Ji, but they were also called Guan Shi, Cai Shi.

This cultural habit was still preserved in the Spring and Autumn Period, but after entering the Warring States Period, the distinction between surnames and surnames gradually disappeared.Now we all have surnames.Our surnames today, in fact, only rarely survived from ancient surnames, and most of them evolved from ancient surnames. Knowing the difference between surnames, we turned our heads and continued to talk about the state of Chu.The distant ancestor of the Chu State was the legendary fire god Zhu Rong, and he became a prince of a country after the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty.During the period of King Wen of Zhou, the ancestor of Chu State, Fung Xiong, once served as a minister of King Wen and was also a meritorious member of the Zhou royal family.At the time of King Cheng of Zhou, Xiong Yi, the great-grandson of Xiong Xiong, was canonized as a prince in Chu, with a relatively low title of viscount (bozinan, the viscount is the fourth-class title).

The land of Chu mainly refers to the vicinity of the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Han River, probably in today's Hubei Province. "chu" Also known as "Jing", and sometimes "Jing Chu".This name is an ancient name for this place, originally referring to a kind of local shrub, which was later known as the name of a mountain.The name "Chu" already existed before the Zhou Dynasty officially conferred the title of Chu State. At that time, the Jianghan River Basin was still an undeveloped wild land, full of dense forests and beasts, and a large number of barbarian tribes. Being a prince in this kind of place is not much different from being exiled.Xiong Yi set the ruling center in Danyang (due to the change of place name, this Danyang is not today's Danyang City, Jiangsu Province, but Zhijiang City, Hubei Province), and began to develop this area.

When the descendants of the Chu State recall bitterness and sweetness, they often mention that "my ancestor, Xiong Yi, opened the mountains and forests with blue threads on the road", which shows the hardships of the ancestors of the Chu State who went to the mountains and countryside to open up mountains and forests.According to historical records, Emperor Zhou also seemed to dislike Chu, always making trouble for Chu.The most famous of these is the death of King Zhou Zhao Nanzheng Jingchu. The whole story of this incident is as follows: when the fourth emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, King Zhou Zhao, was in power, it was the time when the Great Zhou Dynasty was at its strongest.King Zhou Zhao was also a very ambitious monarch who wanted to do a big business, so he led soldiers to fight everywhere.

At that time, the residents of Chu didn't have much respect for the Zhou government, so King Zhao of Zhou led his army to march south to Jingchu.Judging from the cultural relics, the war seems to have achieved great results, but King Zhao himself was unlucky. When he returned from the Southern Expedition, he fell into the Han River for some reason.It is said that the people of Chu made a plank boat with glue instead of nails. King Zhou Zhao sat on it. After the boat was launched, the glue was dissolved by water and the boat disintegrated.Zhou Tianzi, who grew up in the north, probably neglected swimming training and was purely a landlubber, so he drowned. It is estimated that he was still lamenting that fakes and shoddy things killed people before his death, and the great cause of the Southern Expedition fell through.Therefore, historical materials record: "King Zhao went south to Jingchu and never returned."

Later generations often interpret Jingchu here as the state of Chu, and there are many doubts.For example, even if the state of Chu is far away from the Central Plains, and its centrifugal tendency is very obvious, there are only two generations from the establishment of the state of Chu when King Cheng of Zhou to the time of King Zhao of Zhou. Enough to threaten the central government?No matter how I think about it, I feel that the development speed of Chu State is too fast. And from the perspective of Chu State, it is too stupid to dare to challenge the royal family after only two or three generations of Jianguo without any foundation.Moreover, after the death of King Zhao, the state of Chu still showed enough respect for the Zhou royal family, and it didn't look like they had formed a bloody feud at all.For example, when Zhou Mu was king, Chu State and Zhou Tianzi attacked disobedient countries together, which shows that the relationship between Zhou and Chu was not so tense.

The author agrees with the view that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, "Chu State" and "Chu Land" were not the same concept.The target of King Zhou Zhao's Southern Expedition was not Chu, but some barbarian tribes in Chu, which were called "Chu Man" at that time.The land of Jingchu has existed since ancient times, and what we call Chu State is just a vassal state on the land of Jingchu. Although it has the name of Chu State, it cannot completely occupy the land of Jingchu.When crocodiles have not grown up, they don't have such a big mouth to swallow things. At that time, Chu State did not have enough strength to cause a large-scale crusade by the Zhou royal family.It is even possible that the state of Chu was the outpost supply base for King Zhou Zhao's Southern Expedition, cooperating with King Zhou Zhao's military operations.But later, the strength of the Chu State increased and it completely occupied the land of Chu, so people blamed the accidental death of King Zhou Zhao on the Chu State.

Of course, this is just a speculation. Interested readers can verify whether it is correct or not. The development of the state of Chu is indeed very rapid, and with the growth of its strength, it is becoming less and less serious about the emperor of Zhou.In the era of King Zhou Yi, Chuzi Xiongqu conquered many small countries in the Han River Basin, and the territory expanded greatly.So Xiong Qu announced to the outside world: "I am a barbarian, not the same as your Central Plains country. I don't need you to honor the emperor of Zhou." So he became king himself, and also made kings for his three sons.

This is a very big deal.At that time, the title of king was not like that in the Warring States period, and anyone dared to use it.At this time, only the Son of Heaven can be called king, and no matter how powerful the other princes are, they can only be called dukes.But this country of Chu is just a viscount, so he dared to become king, and he divided up three kings at once. Do you think the title of king is Chinese cabbage, and you can buy as much as you want?However, the Zhou royal family was too busy to take care of themselves at that time, and it seemed that they did not make any fuss about this matter.

Soon, King Li of Zhou came to the throne.As mentioned earlier, King Zhou Li was a tyrant, and tyrants generally have one characteristic, that is, they are not afraid of heaven and earth.Xiong Qu thought for a moment, such a stunned young man who is moody, it would be no fun if he came to beat me.So he removed his title of king and still called him Chuzi.It can be seen that Chu State was still very afraid of Emperor Zhou at that time, and did not dare to do whatever it wanted before the Zhou royal family moved eastward. In 770 BC, after King Ping of Zhou moved to the east, the state of Chu trembled again when it saw the weakening of the Zhou royal family.The Chu kings of all dynasties seem to have a complex of chasing fame. For example, hundreds of years later, in the era of King Ling of Chu, they were still arguing because the titles given to them by Zhou Tianzi were too low and the rewards were not enough.In Chu State at this time, Xiong Tong, the sixth grandson of Xiong Qu, reigned.Xiong Tong didn't think about anything else, he just hoped to restore the kingship of Chu.Didn't you Emperor Zhou make us viscounts?I don't care too much. If you want to be a king, we will be kings just like you. So Xiong Tong decided to clean up a few small countries in the Han River Basin first, to play with power and prestige, and to test the attitude of the Zhou royal family by the way.In 706 BC, Chu State sent troops to attack Sui.Sui is a relatively large country in the Han River Basin, if Sui country can be made to submit, then the small country of the Jianghan generation will naturally be no problem. The course of the Chu State's attack on Sui is recorded in detail in "Zuo Zhuan".Chu State first placed the army in the territory of Sui State, and then sent people to ask the king of Sui State for peace talks.Suiguo sent a small division (official name) to the camp of the Chu army to hold negotiations. Dou Bobi, Ling Yin of the Chu State (a unique official name in the Chu State, equivalent to the Shangqing of other countries and the prime minister of later generations) suggested to the Chu Lord Xiong Tong: "The reason why it is difficult for us to expand the territory east of the Han River is because those Small countries are afraid of us and are very united with each other. Suiguo is the largest of them. If we deliberately show weakness, Suiguo will become proud and stop uniting with other small countries. In this way, our pace of expansion will be greatly accelerated.” Xiong Tong He deliberately showed some old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers to confuse Suiguo. Sui Guo Shaoshi negotiated with Chu State, but Chu State pretended to make peace.After the talk, the Chu army pretended to withdraw. The young master suggested to Suijun: "Chu's army is not in good shape, we can take advantage of the opportunity to attack them." Suihou planned to send troops to attack Chu.At this time, there was a virtuous minister of Sui State named Ji Liang. He advised Sui Hou and said: "As usual, a country will definitely show its best troops to others, but the young master can only see the old and weak of Chu State." Sick and disabled, this is obviously a conspiracy. What's more, Chu is so powerful now, how can its army be vulnerable? We are a small country, so we should live our lives in a down-to-earth manner, cultivate politics at home, and make allies abroad. Only in this way can we resist a big country like Chu." Sui Hou was not convinced, and said: "Every time I give sacrifices to the gods, they are of good quality and plentiful. The gods will definitely bless me." Ji Liang said: "The people are the masters of the gods." It means that the common people are the masters of the gods. Therefore, as a monarch, one must first unite the people and manage the country in an orderly manner, so that they are worthy of those good sacrifices.But the current situation in Suiguo is that the common people have different ideas, and even the gods don't know what to do.Do you still expect to get the blessing of the gods with rich sacrifices?Or do your own thing well first. What Ji Liang said can be said to be a manifestation of the people-oriented thought in early China.We know that the ancients were superstitious and often turned to the gods for help in case of trouble.But Ji Liang clearly pointed out that the people are the masters of the will of the gods, which can be said to be a great progress. Ji Liang's words made Sui Hou dare not shout and kill anymore, and he obediently watched the Chu army withdraw from his border.Then focus on domestic construction and build good relations with the small countries in the Han River Basin.Seeing that Suiguo had no chance to take advantage of it, the state of Chu stopped attacking. Two years later, in 704 BC, the state of Chu couldn't sit still.This time, Dou Bobi came up with a better idea. The state of Chu would organize a meeting with the small countries of the Jianghan generation. We would sit down and chat to deepen understanding, enhance trust, and pass on friendship. The essence is to let these small countries Acknowledge Chu's status as the leader. Therefore, the small countries in the Jianghan River Basin, such as Ba, Yong, Jiang, Shen, Luo, Deng, etc., all came to participate in the alliance, only Huang Guo and Sui Guo did not come.Suihou may have made some achievements in domestic governance in the past few years, and his self-confidence has inflated. He thinks that Chu State is an onion, so why should I listen to you.Coupled with the agitation by the young master, Sui Guo was determined to fight Chu Guo. Xiong Tong was worried that he had no chance, and seeing that Sui Guo would not come, well, he had an excuse.So he personally led the army to attack Suiguo.As for Huang Guo, another disobedient small country, just send someone to condemn it casually. The army of Chu State is pressing down on the border, Ji Liang advocates peace, and if Chu State continues to attack, it will lose its moral advantage, and it will be easy for its own side to win.But the young master felt that it was necessary to fight the Chu State, and it was not enough to be subdued.Sui Hou listened to the young master's words, and prepared the army to fight Chu. As we said earlier, those who advocate compromise are not necessarily traitors, and those who advocate toughness are not necessarily heroes.Hitting a stone with an egg with the army, the effect will not be good.Before the battle, Ji Liang also suggested to Marquis Sui that we avoid the relatively strong left army of the Chu army and attack their right army first.After defeating their right army, the main force of the Chu army will also be demoralized.But the young master put forward his wise opinion: "If we don't fight the Chu army head-on, doesn't that mean we are inferior to them?" So the Suiguo army foolishly confronted the Chu army head-on, and the result is predictable. The Sui army was defeated, Suihou fled in a hurry, and the young division was captured by the Chu army.Suihou was forced to make peace with Chu.After this battle, all the small countries in the Jianghan area became Chu's sphere of influence.So Xiong Tong called himself the king of Chu, which was the historical King Wu of Chu. According to the records of "Historical Records", when Chu State first started to conquer Sui State, the king of Sui State sent someone to complain to Xiong Tong: "We didn't recruit you or provoke you. Why did you beat us?" The royal family has an opinion, and I want you to send a message: Back then, our ancestor, Fung Xiong, served you two generations of emperors, King Wen and King Wu, and worked hard. But what about you? Only then did you give us a viscount, and he was also sealed in Jingchu, the Niaobula What the hell, I don’t accept it! Now that our state of Chu has become stronger, I hope you, the emperor, will be more sensible and give me the title of king.” Sui Guo was afraid, so he conveyed Chu’s request to the royal family of Zhou.Of course King Huan of Zhou, who was extremely self-respecting, couldn't agree. He thought that this Xiong Tong had taken the wrong medicine. You are a barbarian from the state of Chu, and you still want to be king?The head is squeezed by the door. Xiong Tong saw that the Zhou royal family refused to give him the title of king, so he simply claimed the title of king himself.Don't you say I'm a barbarian?I'm still a barbarian.The barbarians are aliens of your son of heaven, so you don't need to obey your unfortunate Zhou rituals. Even if I become king, you can't control me. King Huan of Zhou was so angry that his hands and feet were cold and his beard trembled.But a few years ago, they were humiliated by the state of Zheng in Ge. Such a royal family really did not have the strength to deal with the far away state of Chu.What's more, as long as the emperor's personal conquest is mentioned, the arrow wound on King Zhou Huan's shoulder will ache.Alas, this man is going to be unlucky, his teeth will be stuffed after drinking cold water.Why did the princes who made troubles rush to one place, isn't this adding insult to injury?Come on, I'll just pretend I didn't see it, and adopt an ostrich policy. I'll ignore you, it's okay. By 690 BC, it seemed that the Zhou royal family had come to their senses again and felt that this matter still needed to be taken care of.The state of Chu is not easy to mess with, and Suiguo, who spread the message, can still be pinched, so the emperor recruited Marquis Sui, and scolded him: "How can you make the son of Chu king, ah? Do you still have me in your eyes?" This is the Son of Heaven!" Wait, it seems that Chu's becoming king was all planned by Suihou.I guess at this time, Sui Hou had the thought of setting the Emperor Zhou's palace on fire.Can I stop Chu from becoming king?As the boss of the princes, you don't say anything, why do you scold us for being a small country?If you have the ability, go and make trouble with the state of Chu, don't pick the soft persimmons! Zhou Tianzi had had enough, so he sent Suihou back.But Chu State quit again.King Wu of Chu thought that Suiguo had betrayed him and offered his loyalty to the Zhou royal family, so he led an army to attack Suiguo.How else can it be said that the life of a small country caught in the middle of a big country is the most difficult, and both sides are not happy. Fortunately, King Wu of Chu died on the march, so this war will be over.King Wen of Chu succeeded to the throne and continued to conquer east and west.Not only the small countries in the Jianghan River Basin all obeyed the Chu State, but even the Shen, Deng, Cai and other countries in the Central Plains were repeatedly harassed by the Chu State.The northward movement of the power of Chu made the countries in the Central Plains clearly feel the great oppression from the south. After the death of King Wen of Chu, there was a small-scale civil strife in Chu State.First, the eldest son of King Wen succeeded to the throne, and within a few years, the second son Xiong Yun killed his elder brother to seize the throne, and became King Chu Cheng. When Chu became king, Chu's territory expanded to the territory of Henan, and he was already the barbarian prince who threatened the Central Plains the most.In order to improve relations with the countries of the Central Plains, King Cheng of Chu refrained from the pace of annexation a little, and sent someone to say hello to Emperor Zhou.Zhou Tianzi said: "You should guard the south well, if you have nothing to do, go to the Central Plains to join in the fun, and don't let those barbarians invade the Central Plains." On the surface, the state of Chu still respected the orthodox status of the emperor of Zhou, but the royal family of Zhou was also very afraid of the state of Chu.This also represented that the royal family of Zhou recognized the leadership of Chu State in the south, which facilitated the annexation activities of Chu State in the south. The situation of Chu State and Qin State is similar. They are both in the land of barbarians and Rongdi, and they are canonized by the Son of Heaven.In fact, the relationship between Chu State and the Central Plains is closer than that of Qin State.However, in the process of dealing with countries in the Central Plains, the styles of the two countries are quite different. The State of Qin was very active in getting closer to the Central Plains, and showed enough enthusiasm for the Zhou royal family, always afraid that he would be rejected by other princes.However, the behavior of Chu State is completely opposite. It always deliberately emphasizes that it is different from other countries in the Central Plains, for fear that others will not know that it is a barbarian.What is the reason? In fact, Chu State emphasized its status as a barbarian, and its intention was to get rid of the shackles of the Zhou ritual tradition and annex small countries without any scruples.In the history of the Spring and Autumn Period, we can see that once someone condemned the Chu State with its name and righteousness, the Chu State would stalk its neck and say: "I am a barbarian, can you control me?" I'm a barbarian and I'm afraid of whom." The attitude of "not stingy" often makes those old gentlemen who are full of etiquette and morality vomit blood with anger. Chu State's attitude of playing a rogue is actually a strategy.When the state of Chu really needs to unite the princes of the Central Plains, they will also move out Zhou Li and Zhou Tianzi to fill their appearance.Isn't it just a matter of face?What's the big deal! The process of the rise of the four great powers in the Spring and Autumn Period illustrates a rule: countries that are less influenced by old traditions develop faster.Those countries that gathered in the central area of ​​the Central Plains and remained conservative gradually became the ingredients for the great powers to strive for hegemony. Chu, the big southern crocodile, has extended its greedy mouth to the Central Plains.The joining of the Chu State will definitely have an important impact on the situation in the Central Plains.The crocodiles of the Chu State gradually gnawed away at the north, and the Emperor Zhou was completely weak. The countries in the Central Plains felt more and more that they needed a powerful prince to take charge of the situation and lead everyone to resist the invasion of the barbarians.An era calling for the overlord has finally arrived. Who is the first overlord in Spring and Autumn?Let us turn our attention to Qi State in the east.