Chapter 11 Chapter VIII The Sixth Century BC

This century entered the late Spring and Autumn Period, and the feudal states were continuously annexed, and the monarchs were continuously killed and expelled.The Kingdom of Chu in the south and the Kingdom of Jin in the north, the two long-term hegemonies, also continued to confront each other. The focus was on competing for Zheng and Song in the Central Plains, and the war continued. Too many wars have led to two major events, one is the peace movement, and the other is that in order to attack the Chu Kingdom, the Jin State quietly inserted a sharp knife on the back of the Chu Kingdom-supporting the rise of the Wu Kingdom.The call for peace reflects the trend of people's hearts, and the rise of the Wu Kingdom led to the end of the Chu Kingdom's hegemony.

The Annexation of a Kingdom and the Chasing and Killing of the King (Part 2) In this century (the first six) small countries annexed by big countries, there are records of the following 20 countries, including Xu Guo, one of the twelve important feudal countries.The countries that perished could leave their names when they were about to collapse, which shows that they had already reached a considerable scale at that time. 1. The Kingdom of Chu annexed Xiao State (Xiao County, Anhui), Shuyong State (southwest of Shucheng, Anhui), Shujiu State (Shujiu City, Shucheng, Anhui), Lai State (northeast of Suizhou, Hubei), Chen State (Huaiyang, Henan, Soon Fuguo), Cai Guo (Shangcai, Henan, soon Xincai Fuguo, Henan), Tang Guo (northwest of Suizhou, Hubei).

2. Jin State annexed Lushi State (Lucheng, Shanxi), Chanyang State (southwest of Zaozhuang, Shandong), Gu State (Jinzhou, Hebei), and Fei State (Gaocheng, Hebei). 3. Ju State annexed Zeng Yan State (Cangshan, Shandong). Fourth, Qi State annexed Lai State (Shandong Pingdu). 5. The State of Lu annexed the State of Siyin (southeast of Jining City, Shandong) and the State of Zhuanyi (Tancheng, Shandong). Sixth, Cai Guo annexed Shen Guo (Linquan, Anhui). 7. The Kingdom of Wu annexed Xu State (Sihong, Jiangsu), Chao State (Chaohu, Anhui), and Zhongwu State (Xinyi, Jiangsu). 8. Zheng Guo annexed Xu Guo (Lushan, Henan).

Events of chasing emperors and killing emperors emerged endlessly as in the last century (the first seven): Among the waves of monarchs being expelled and killed, the most interesting one is the king of the Zhou Kingdom, a small country that has been reduced to a small country. It can't even solve its own problems and relies entirely on the face of the overlord.The era of Jiang Xiaobai's "respecting the king and fighting the barbarians" in the last century (the first seven) has passed. Now, no one thinks about respecting the king, and the "king" respects the overlord in turn.The overlord has also lost its power to deter international aggression and coups within the feudal country. In fact, the overlord himself is still causing trouble there.Hegemony is only a tool for superpowers to protect their own interests, and it no longer has the meaning of a knight who pretended to protect the weak at the beginning.

The Hidden Worry of the Hegemony of the Erchu Kingdom The Kingdom of Chu knew that in order to restore the hegemony lost in the "Battle of Chengzi" in the 1960s (before 1970s), it had to go through another war. In this century (the first eighth) in 597 BC, King Chu of Chu attacked Zheng State, the tail state of Jin State.After the encirclement, they stormed for seventeen days and nights.Zheng Guozheng relied on the support of Jin State and refused to surrender.One of the corners of the city was breached, and when the couple was about to order to climb, they heard the loud cries in the city, and suddenly couldn't bear it, and ordered to retreat instead.However, Zheng Guo mistakenly thought that the reinforcements from Jin State had arrived, so he immediately blocked the gap, and men and women flocked to the city to continue fighting.Seeing that a peaceful solution could not be resolved, the Chu Corps attacked again, and Zheng State finally fell.

The couple did not annex Zheng Guo, because after the annexation, it will directly border Jin Guo, so it is better to leave a small country as a buffer.After he won the alliance under Zheng Guocheng, he withdrew immediately.At this time, the Jin army arrived slowly, and the Chu army returned to fight.The two countries fought a decisive battle in Biqian City (north of Xingyang, Henan Province), and the Jin army was defeated like a landslide.The soldiers ran in panic, jumped into the Yellow River, and swam north to escape for their lives.In the torrent, they scrambled to cling to the ship's side or grab the oars of their own country. In an instant, more than 30 warships were caught and sunk.Xun Linfu, commander-in-chief of the Jin army, ordered: "Whoever climbs a boat and grabs an oar, cut off his fingers." In an instant, bloody fingers fell all over the boats, and the soldiers on board threw them into the Yellow River one by one.

The battle of Biqian City confirmed the hegemony of the Chu Kingdom, and the hegemony of the Jin State declined.Thirty-six years have passed since the Battle of Chengpu.After the tail states of the Jin State were transferred to the Chu Kingdom, only the Song State, Wei State, Cao State, and Lu State had not changed, but the Wei State and Lu State soon secretly winked at the Chu State. The next target of Chu Kingdom is Song State.Two years later (595 BC), Wang Zikou led the Chu army to launch an attack.The Song State asked for help from the old overlord in the north, but the Jin State had just been defeated and had no strength to send troops.Suiyang (Shangqiu, Henan Province), the capital of the Song Dynasty, was besieged for nine months. The city ran out of food and socks, and the people starved to death in large numbers. Parents exchanged their children for cooking with tears in their eyes.Hua Yuan, Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty, resolved this crisis with a method that only worked in the Spring and Autumn Period.One night, he disguised himself as a soldier of the Kingdom of Chu, went down from the city, and sneaked into the sleeping tent on the entrance side (from this we can see the lax security of the Chu army and the incompetence on the entrance side), and forced a dagger on the bedside. Go to the throat on the mouth side and ask the Chu Corps to retreat.Hua Yuan said that the Song State could surrender, but the Chu Corps had to retreat 15 kilometers first, so that the Song State did not look like it was surrendering.The mouth side agreed, and the state of Song was also included in the camp of the Kingdom of Chu.

The hegemony of the Kingdom of Chu reached its peak, but at this moment, a knife was secretly raised behind it.This originates from a love story between a man and a woman that is even more absurd than a romance novel written by a third-rate writer, but it is a fact.It began at the beginning of this century (the first six), and occurred in the 1990s. The heroine Xia Ji, the wife of Xia Yushu, the minister of Chen Guo, is the daughter of Ji Lan, the king of Zheng Guo. After giving birth to her son Xia Zhengshu, her husband died.Xia Ji is a stunning beauty. From her vicissitudes of life and the international wars caused by her, we can be sure that she must be one of the most attractive women in the world.She first had an affair with Kong Ning, Minister of the Kingdom of Chen, and Yi Xingfu, and after the introduction of the two, Gui Pingguo, the king of the Kingdom of Chen, also joined the ranks of lovers.Worst of all, they teased Xia Zhengshu like their common son.In 599 BC (two years before the Battle of Biqian), Xia Zhengshu killed Gui Pingguo.Kong Ning and Yi Xingfu fled to the Kingdom of Chu to sue the overlord. Chu Wang's wife heard one side of the story, and he was about to show his hegemony, and condemning "rebellious officials and thieves" was an ideal and grandiose reason to launch a war.So he destroyed Chen Guo and executed Xia Zhengshu.

Xia Ji's beauty made her lover tempted, so she wanted to take it back to the palace by herself.But the minister, Wu Chen, warned him: "Your Majesty raises troops for righteousness, and no one in the world respects them. If you take the culprit as a concubine now, people will criticize you for being lustful and lustful. I am afraid it will have a negative impact on hegemony." The couple thinks he There is a deep truth in the words, and I admire them a lot.Prince Koubian (the commander-in-chief who was mixed into the tent by the enemy when he attacked the Song Dynasty) asked to send Xia Ji to him. The witch said: "This woman is an ominous thing. For her, a monarch has died and perished." One country. If you marry her, you will definitely regret it." The mouth couple said: "It really is an ominous thing, it is better not to mess with her." The mouth side said angrily: "I don't want her, but the witch minister can't either." The shaman said in an aggrieved tone: "What are you talking about? How could I have such evil thoughts? I just want to serve our country." Coincidentally, the wife of another minister Lian Yinxiang passed away. The couple sent Xia Ji to Mr. Lian Yinxiang, and Xia Ji had an affair with the son of Mr. Lian Yinxiang's ex-wife soon.

Two years later (before 597), in the battle of Biqian City, Lian Yinxiang was killed.The scandal of Xia Ji's affair with her legitimate son gradually spread, and she couldn't live in the capital Yingdu (Jiangling, Hubei), and asked to return to her mother's home Zheng Guo.Wu Chen had already sent someone to inform Zheng Guoguo Lord Ji Jian to welcome his sister, and Ji Jian naturally obeyed the order of the overlord.In 589 BC, Jin State and Qi State went to Anyi (Jinan, Shandong) for a battle. Qi State was defeated and sought an alliance with Chu Kingdom.The mouth couple sent people to the state of Qi to make a treaty, and Wu Chen volunteered to go.In 584 B.C., Wu Chen set off, but when he passed through the state of Zheng, he declared that he had come to marry Xia Ji under the order of the king of Chu.Then he didn't even go to Qi State, and the matter of signing the contract was forgotten. He knew that he could not return to Chu Kingdom, so he took Xia Ji and both went to Jin State.Wu Chen is a well-known think tank figure in the Kingdom of Chu, and is famous internationally for his strategy.The state of Jin was overjoyed and treated him as a guest of honor.For the sake of Xia Ji, Wuchen tried every means and tried many twists and turns, and finally achieved his goal.

——Let's assume that Xia Ji was sixteen years old when she got married for the first time, and her son Xia Zhengshu killed Gui Pingguo when she was sixteen years old.So in 599 BC, she was already thirty-two years old.When she married Wu Chen in 584 BC, she was at least forty-eight years old.What an extraordinary woman, she is not only beautiful.It's a pity that in that era, she could only be at the mercy of fate beyond her control. But Wuchen, like Gui Pingguo, also paid a terrible price. Prince Koubian and Wuchen's other political opponent, Kou Yingqi, were jealous after Wuchen married Xia Ji and fled to Jin. The families remaining in the Kingdom of Chu will be beheaded regardless of gender, age or age.Wu Chen sadly wrote a letter to the two, saying: "I am certainly guilty, but my family is innocent. They did not betray the country. You slaughtered like this. I will make you die on the road without stopping." The two princes sneered at Wu Chen's intimidation, they underestimated Wu Chen's wisdom, ability and determination to revenge. As early as the beginning of this century (the first six), Wu Shoumeng, the chief of the Wu tribe in the north of Taihu Lake, established the Wu Kingdom, proclaimed himself the first king, and set his capital in Meili (Xishan, Jiangsu).However, his kingdom was very backward, and the army was still naked when fighting.Wu Chen discovered the incomparable value of the Wu Kingdom in geopolitics, so he presented the strategy of "Uniting Wu to Conquer Chu" to the Jin government. Strengthen the government's organization and train their army to modernize - how to use horses, chariots, bows and various tactics.Since then, the Kingdom of Wu not only prevented the Kingdom of Chu from advancing eastward, but also became the deadly enemy behind the Kingdom of Chu. For the first time, the Kingdom of Wu faced the threat of possible attacks on its homeland. Ten years later (574 BC), the Kingdom of Wu began to send troops to the Kingdom of Chu, and maintained a continuous offensive, so that the Kingdom of Chu sent troops seven or eight times a year.Kou Fang died ahead of schedule in the battle of Yanling we will introduce in the next section, and Kou Yingqi died on the road after a battle with the Kingdom of Wu, and the power of the Kingdom of Chu was exhausted. Battle of Sanyanling The state of Jin also knew that in order to regain its hegemony, it had to defeat the state of Chu in turn. In 575 BC, Ji Shouman, the king of the state of Jin, personally led an army to attack the state of Zheng.The state of Zheng asked the Kingdom of Chu for help, and the king of Chu, Kou Shen (the son of his wife), also personally led the army to help.The two countries fought a decisive battle in Yanling (Yanling, Henan), and this time it was the turn of the Chu Corps to be defeated.Kou Shen was shot in the eye with an arrow, and his son Kou Xiong Fa was captured by the Jin Corps. However, although the Chu Corps was defeated, it was not as defeated as the Jin army in the last battle of Biancheng.The mouth examiner gathers the remnant soldiers, regroups and prepares for another round.However, we got news that the states of Lu and Wei had fallen to the state of Jin and sent troops to join the battle, and the Jin Corps had ordered a general attack at dawn tomorrow.The mouth judge was shocked, and hurriedly sent someone to ask the commander-in-chief, the mouth side, to discuss it, but the mouth side was so drunk that he couldn't wake up after trying his best.The mouth examiner was disappointed and said: "The military situation is so urgent, but the commander-in-chief is so drunk, how can he still fight." He was instructed to tie the unconscious mouth side to the car, and the whole army retreated.Halfway through the journey, the mouth side just woke up, afraid of committing suicide. ——The mouth side has a ferocious personality and is especially an alcoholic. Every time he sends troops, the king of Chu will strictly order him to stop drinking.This time, due to the defeat on the battlefield, the mouth side was in a bad mood, and wandered in the camp until late at night, thinking about how to reverse the situation.But he is a mediocre man of limited ability, so he has nothing to do but worry.His confidant and attendant, Guan Gu Yang, sympathized with him, took out a bottle of wine he had kept privately, poured a glass and gave it to him, took a sip from the side of his mouth, and said in amazement: "It seems to be wine." Gu Yang said: "No, it's cold tea The mouth side drank it knowingly, and asked urgently: "Is there any cold tea left?" Gu Yang poured another cup, and the mouth side said happily: "Gu Yang really loves me." Wait until Hua Shenyi sent someone to invite him At that time, he had already swallowed a bottle of cold tea, and he was lying in the tent like a dead man.Gu Yang wept and said: "I offered wine because I loved the commander-in-chief. Who knew that I would harm him, and the king would definitely investigate this matter." Xingye fled. Twenty-three years after the Battle of Yanling, the Battle of Biqian City, the Jin State regained its hegemony, and the Wei State returned to its camp.However, the main force of the Kingdom of Chu was not seriously injured, so they were still eyeing it, and continued to launch aggression as before.Jin's hegemony was not as strong and solid as after the Battle of Chengpu. Four International Peace Conferences The continuous war between Chu and Jin for two hundred years prompted the rise of the peace movement.Just in this century (the first six), three international peace conferences were held. All the feudal states hoped that the two superpowers could reconcile, be content with their status quo, maintain the existing balance of power, and no longer use military actions to solve problems. The first peace conference was invited by Prime Minister Hua Yuan of Song Dynasty.In 579 BC, it was held in Suiyang (Shangqiu, Henan Province), the capital of the Song Dynasty. Both Jin and Chu Kingdoms sent representatives to sign an oath. This is probably one of the oldest peace treaties in the world.The oath of alliance said: "Jin and Chu agreed to abandon war forever, and agreed to help each other in disasters and emergencies. If the Kingdom of Chu is attacked by a third country, the Kingdom of Jin will help the Kingdom of Chu to fight against the third country. If the Kingdom of Jin is attacked by a third country, the Kingdom of Chu will also Help Jin to fight against the third country. The two governments agree to keep the road open, often send envoys to communicate, consult at any time, and jointly fight against rebellion. If you violate this oath, the gods will send disaster to him, causing the army of other countries to collapse, and the country will not be ordered. Long." The words of this oath are too beautiful, like a poem, so it cannot be implemented in actual politics.In the fourth year after signing the contract, the Battle of Yanling broke out. The second peace conference was invited by the minister of the Song Dynasty to Shu, and the place was still in Suiyang, the capital of the Song Dynasty. The time was 30 years after the Battle of Yanling (546 years ago).Nations know that peace conferences are useless, yet no one dares to speak out against efforts for peace.A total of fourteen countries participated in this peace conference, including all important countries at that time.The representative of the state of Jin is Zhao Wu, the prime minister, whose groups include Zheng, Wei, Cao, Song, and Lu; the representative of the Chu kingdom is Qu Jian, whose groups are Chen, Cai, and Xu; Qin and Qi are independent first-class powers and are not included in the tail countries.There are also Zhu State (southeast of Zoucheng, Shandong) and Teng State (Shengzhou, Shandong); Zhu State is a vassal of Qi State, and Teng State is a vassal of Song State (it can be called "the tail of the tail"), and they can only attend as delegates. Observers are not eligible to sign the covenant.This list is the same as the actual situation, with clear barriers, showing the blueprint for the two superpowers of Jin and Chu to carve up the world. ——At that time, it seemed to people that China was the world. At the meeting, the Kingdom of Chu insisted on being the leader of the alliance, and the Kingdom of Jin said: "In all international meetings, the Kingdom of Jin has always been the leader of the alliance." The Kingdom of Chu said: "Because the Kingdom of Jin has always been the leader of the alliance, so this time the Kingdom of Chu should also be the leader. "The representative of the state of Jin had to accept it, and the meeting did not break down.However, the oath still has no specific content, and only stipulates one item as a symbol of reconciliation: that is, the Tail Kingdom originally only paid tribute to the overlord to which it belonged, but now divides the gift into two parts and pays tribute to the two overlords respectively.In this regard, the Kingdom of Chu obviously got an advantage, because it has only three tail states, while Jin has five tail states. Five years later (541 BC), the third peace conference was held in Guocheng of Zheng State (north of Xingyang, Henan Province). When the conference was in full swing, the State of Ju (Juxian County, Shandong Province) sent envoys to the meeting place to accuse The State of Lu is invading it and has captured Yuncheng (Yuncheng, Shandong).This is really extremely ironic. The representative of the Chu Kingdom, Kouwei, ordered the beheading of the representative of the Lu Kingdom, Shusun Bao.However, Zhao Wu, the representative of the Jin State, firmly opposed it and released him again. He was eager to return to the country to seize power, and had no intention of putting more effort into this abstract principle. Can be changed. After the third peace conference, in the 1960s, there was no war between Jin and Chu.However, this is not the effect of the peace treaty, but that both countries have internal problems and have no time to externalize.The hegemony of the two countries has also withered one after another, and there is no power and no need to wage wars. The historical center of gravity began to shift to the emerging Wu Kingdom. Five Wu Zixu flogging corpse incident Less than three months after the third peace conference, a coup took place in the Kingdom of Chu.Kouwei, a representative of the peace conference, returned home and killed his nephew, King Kouyu of Chu, and ascended the throne himself.He was one of the tyrants of the Chu Kingdom, and he loved women with slender waists the most, so many court ladies starved to death in order to cultivate slender waists—perhaps out of voluntary weight loss, or out of compulsion.In 529 BC, Kou Wai's younger brother, Kou Qiji, staged another coup. Kou Wai was cornered and hanged himself to death.Kou Bi, another younger brother of Kou Wai, was also forced to commit suicide by Kou Qiji after he succeeded to the throne.Kou Qiji became king and made his son Kou Jian the crown prince. In order to unite with the Qin Dynasty and rule the Jin Dynasty, Kou Qiji hired Meng Ying, the younger sister of the King of Qin, as his wife for his son Kou Jian.Meng Ying is the Wuxiang princess described by the novelist.In 526 BC, Kou Qiji sent his minister Fei Wuji to marry him.Fei Wuji is a clever and ambitious politician, eager to climb up to the position of prime minister.When he welcomed Meng Ying to Yingdu (Jiangling, Hubei), he immediately reported to Kou Qiji, exaggerating Meng Ying's peerless beauty and unparalleled beauty in the world, and suggested that he marry her himself, which Kou Qiji readily accepted.Fei Wuji told the escort minister of Qin State that according to the customs of the Kingdom of Chu, the bride must first go to the palace to meet her parents-in-law before the formal wedding can be held.So, when Meng Ying entered the palace, the father kept him.And a dowry girl from Qi State pretends to be Meng Ying to marry Kou Jian.A year later, Meng Ying gave birth to a son, Kou Zhen, and the scandal began to leak. This is a reenactment of the Weiguo Xintai incident in the eighth century BC a hundred years ago. The plot is the same, but the male and female protagonists are replaced by Chu and Qin.There is an old Chinese proverb that says: "Whoever has a strange lewdness must have a strange disaster." Of course, this is not a law. Occasionally, some people can escape, but most of them cannot escape.The disaster caused by the abandonment of illness and extravagance is even more tragic than the disaster caused by Wei Jin, Jiang Zhuer, and Cai Tong. Meng Ying, like Xuan Jiang in the Xintai incident, is a sacrificed woman, and she has no power to prevent this from happening.But she is kinder and more loyal than Xuan Jiang, she has no intention of killing her ex-fiancé and seizing the heir.But Fei Wuji became nervous, if Kou Qiji died and Kou Jian succeeded, he could imagine that he would be overwhelmed and walk around.Even if Kou Jian doesn't kill him, he will have no future. His future rests on Meng Ying and her son Kou Zhen.So at his instigation, Kou Qiji drove Kou Jian out of Qiandu and sent him to the northern frontier to guard Chengfu (East Baofeng, Henan).Then Fei Wuji framed Kou Jian for treason, and proposed to kill Kou Jian and make Kou Zhen the crown prince. Fei Wuji is an inventor in this regard. He invented the secret weapon of "false accusation of rebellion", which is specially used by the authorities to attack those who want to be excluded.Since then, it has played an important role in Chinese history. This method of destroying human rights, destroying human nature, undermining the rule of law, and even subverting one's own regime in turn, is the same as the "Fengtian Seal" in "Fengshen Bang", and it will be banned anytime and anywhere. Sacrifice it out, play its vicious function, and become one of the biggest stains on Chinese culture. Kou Qiji felt apologetic towards Yu Ying, he used various methods to flatter him, but he couldn't untie this knot.Although Fei Wuji's design is devoid of conscience, he can finally untie this knot.In 522 B.C., Kou Qiji recalled Wu She, the palace teacher of Koujian, and asked, "Why didn't you report the prince's rebellion?" Your Majesty has taken away his daughter-in-law, if you want to murder your son again, how can you bear it?" Of course, these words made Zuo Qiji go crazy, and he ordered Wu She to be imprisoned.When Kou Jian heard the news, he fled to the state of Song.Kou Qiji made Kou Zhen the crown prince and appointed Fei Wuji as the prince's court teacher.According to the custom, when the crown prince ascends to the throne, the court teacher will usually act as the prime minister. Fei Wuji has managed the business for a long time, and now everything is fulfilled according to his wishes. However, Wu She must be executed.His eldest son, Wu Shang, and his second son, Wu Zixu, both had superhuman wisdom. Wu She wrote a letter to his two sons: "When your two sons arrive, I will forgive you together." Wu She wrote , Wu Shang is a person who does not understand politics, and he is very happy to see the letter.But Wu Zixu warned him: "I don't believe in any foolish and tyrants." So the brothers separated, Wu Shang followed the envoy to Yingdu, and Wu Zixu fled.When Wu Shang arrived in Yingdu, father and son beheaded at the same time.Wu Ziguan fled to the State of Song and joined Kou Jian, but there was a domestic turmoil in the Song Dynasty, and the two fled to the State of Zheng.When he was in the state of Zheng, Kou Jian was involved in a failed coup, and the state of Zheng killed him.Wu Zixu escaped from the tiger's mouth by good luck holding his four-year-old son, Kou Sheng, who was born to Kou Jian and a girl from Qi State.But although the world is big, there is no place to stand on. Only the newly emerging Kingdom of Wu is far behind the Kingdom of Chu, is fighting against the Kingdom of Chu, and is willing to take them in. From the State of Zheng to Gusu, the capital of the Kingdom of Wu (Suzhou, Jiangsu. The capital was moved here from Meili in 560 BC), the air distance was 720 kilometers, and it had to pass through the territory of the Kingdom of Chu. This was a murderous journey.When Wu Zixu arrived at Zhaoguan (Hanshan North, Anhui Province) at the junction of Wu and Chu with Huasheng in his arms, notices were posted on the street offering a reward for the arrest of the fugitive Wu Zixu, and the investigation was extremely strict.Wu Zixu hid in the countryside and slept in the fields, but he had no way to get through.Excessive melancholy and worry made his hair all white overnight.It is precisely because his hair is all white and his appearance has changed that he was able to sneak out of the country. The Kingdom of Wu is already strong with the planned and full support of Wu Huyong and Wu Huyong's backer, the Jin State.The Kingdom of Chu has already changed from offensive to defensive in its eastern boundary, and built three giant cities along the border: Zhoulai (Fengtai, Anhui), Juchao (southeast of Shouxian, Anhui), and Zhongli (Fengyang, Anhui), in an attempt to prevent the The Kingdom of Wu marched westward.However, the old-fashioned army of the Chu Kingdom could not resist the modern Wu Corps, and the three cities fell into the hands of the Wu Kingdom one after another. The territory of the Chu Kingdom shrank for the first time since the founding of the country. In 522 BC, Wu Zixu entered the Kingdom of Wu. He was lonely and poor, so that he became a beggar on the streets of Gusu, begging for food along the streets.Taking revenge on a king is already the most difficult thing in the world.For a beggar, it is even more a dream.In particular, the power struggle within the Kingdom of Wu is now facing an explosive stage, and it is even more impossible to attack a superpower for a foreign beggar.Wu Zixu's future is bleak, he is doomed to wander like this, and finally died on the street.Fortunately, Prince Wu Guang took him in and gave him a few acres of land to cultivate.Knowing Wu Zixu's talent deeply, Wu Guang introduced him as his confidant and participated in the secret conspiracy. Six years later (516 BC), Kou Qiji died, and Meng Ying's son, Kou Zhen, succeeded him.Wu Zixu beat his chest and cried bitterly. He lost the chance to revenge Xiang Zuqiji face to face. Next year (before 515), Wu Guang launched a coup and stabbed King Wu Liao to death.Wu Guang succeeded to the throne and appointed Wu Zixu as prime minister.And in this year, Fei Wuji, the great director of the Chu Kingdom's Xintai scandal, was beaten to death by angry crowd in Yingdu (Jiangling, Hubei), and his whole family was slaughtered. In 506 B.C., it was 20 years since the Xintai scandal in the Kingdom of Chu, and 16 years since Wu She was killed and Wu Zixu passed through Zhaoguan.The Kingdom of Wu launched a large-scale general attack unprecedented in history against the Kingdom of Chu. Wu Guang served as the commander-in-chief and Wu Zixu served as the chief of staff.The straight-line distance from Gusu to Yingdu is 800 kilometers. The water armies of the Wu Corps went up the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River respectively, while the army marched westward from Zhaoguan. escape. After Wu Zixu entered Yingdu, he dug up the body of Kou Qiji from the grave, and whipped three hundred leather whips until the body was smashed.This is a famous flogging incident in Chinese history. For thousands of years, every time, people have lamented and praised Wu Zikou's difficult heroic deed. The Kingdom of Wu cannot annex the Kingdom of Chu because the area of ​​the Kingdom of Chu is too large.In the following year (before 505), Shen Baoxu, a minister of the Kingdom of Chu, led a rescue force of 500 chariots from the State of Qin to Yingdu.It just so happened that another civil strife broke out in the Kingdom of Wu. Wu Guang's younger brother, Wu Fubi, led his troops directly under him and returned home, intending to attack the capital, Gusu.Wu Guang had no choice but to retreat, of course full of the gold and silver treasures he had looted. ——Shen Baoxu is a respectable patriot of the Kingdom of Chu.It is said that the king of Qin refused to help, but Shen Baoxu stood in front of the palace gate and wept. He did not eat a drop of food for seven days and seven nights. The Qin king and his ministers were deeply moved by his loyalty. Kouzhen was finally restored to the country, but the Kingdom of Chu suffered such catastrophe and was dilapidated. The capital was moved to Ruoqian City (northwest of Zhongxiang, Hubei), 120 kilometers north of Yingdu, and the long-term hegemony came to an end. The Kingdom of Wu, the last of the five hegemons, determined its hegemony through this battle. The Politics of the Three Huns in the Six Kingdoms of Lu In the Spring and Autumn Period, the feudal state that had the greatest and longest influence on Chinese history was not the Five Hegemons, but a state of Lu that was as small as a bean and located at the foot of Mount Tai on the Shandong Peninsula.It is closely adjacent to Qi State, and in order to compete for the farmland in the Wenshui area at the junction, it has been in constant conflict with Qi State.As a result of the conflict, Lu always suffers because it is small, weak, pedantic, and does not seek progress. The State of Lu was the feudal state of Ji Boqin, the son of Ji Dan who created all the cultural relics systems of the Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, the collection of books and documents is the largest, and the cultural level of the nobles is also the highest.After the capital of the Zhou Dynasty, Haojing (west of Xi'an, Shaanxi), was captured by the Quanrong tribe in the eighth century BC, all the books and documents were lost, and only the books and documents of the State of Lu remained.Its capital, Qufu (Shandong Qufu), became the only cultural giant city in the world at that time.In addition, the state of Lu had never suffered the bad luck of being looted and burned, and the cultural relics system in the early Zhou Dynasty was the most complete.Among these rich cultural heritages, the most important are the various laws and regulations implemented or drawn up in the early Zhou Dynasty and the ritual procedures used in various ceremonies. ——It is always called "rituals".Intellectuals and well-known cultural figures from various countries must go to the State of Lu to investigate for themselves in order to understand.Because in this century (the first six), no one remembers these complicated and cumbersome old antiques. There are many contents in Zhouli, and only the part of the ritual procedure includes sacrificial rites, funerals, weddings, crown ceremonies (men wear hats when they come of age), Ji rites (women wear hairpins when they come of age), etc., as well as class-specific king ceremonies, The gift of the king, the gift of the nobility. ——There is no civil ceremony.Because etiquette is only for the nobles, not for the common people, it is only necessary for the nobles, and the common people are not taken seriously at all, let alone slaves.This is a kind of specialized knowledge, which requires experts to be competent.Experts who engaged in this kind of presiding ceremony were called "Confucians" at that time.According to ancient regulations, they performed various important ceremonies, ranging from the burial of the dead to the visit of the monarch.When the monarch visits or meets the monarch, he usually hires a Confucian as the "guest minister". His task is exactly the same as the "guest minister" who is called the best man or bridesmaid in the 20th century wedding ceremony. What the monarch should do or say.In ordinary aristocratic occasions, Confucians were employed as masters of ceremonies, chief managers and other positions.We can understand here that the original meaning of Confucianism is the consultants of ceremonies, and their most honorable high position is in diplomatic occasions, when they are hired as guests of the monarch. Pay attention to the position of "binxiang", which is the origin of China's "prime minister" system.We used the word prime minister at the beginning of this book, but in fact it was not until the next century (first five years) that the guest prime minister changed from a purely ceremonial and transactional consultant to a political prime minister; , transformed into a full-time senior assistant to the monarch.However, there is no word "Prime Minister" in China's official official title. The term "Prime Minister" is just a colloquial language among the people. The name of the prime minister has been constantly changing in successive dynasties, and sometimes it is even more grotesque and full of tricks.When we narrate, if we write them out one by one, it will not only be boring, but also more confusing.So we use the word chancellor throughout to keep the image of this position clear. Confucianism has a strong admiration for the ancient times that produced "ethics" because of professional needs, and rejects non-ancient things.The problem is that the past cannot be restored, and people can barely abide by it in small occasions.But in the ceremonies of big occasions, they are out of tune, which creates many unnecessary jokes and disputes.An example can be used to illustrate. In the next century (the first five years) in 478 BC, Jiang Yu, the monarch of Qi State, and Ji Jiang, the monarch of Lu State, held a high-level meeting in Mengyi (Mengyin, Shandong). Ji Jiang kowtow (Before the eighth century, the Chinese sat on the ground - to be precise, they sat on their own calves. So the so-called kowtow is just bowing their heads deeply, and kneeling on both knees first after the eighth century. kowtow), which is the most respectful of all etiquettes.However, Ji Jiang, the monarch of the state of Lu, arched both hands and only made a bow. In this situation, in a modern social situation, you extend your hand, but the other party does not extend his hand, but only slightly nods his head.Jiang Yu and his entourage ministers were all furious. Lu Guobin quoted the scriptures and said: "According to the regulations of 'ethics', the monarch sees the monarch. However, when bowing, the monarch only kowtows when he sees the king. Why don't you even understand this!" Qi Guo really didn't understand, but he soon understood.Four years later, in 474 B.C., the monarchs of the two countries met again in Guyi (northeast of Juancheng, Shandong). Kowtow to Jiang Qi.At this time, "ethics" was useless, so Ji Jiang had no choice but to kowtow.Qi Guo wrote a poem about this matter: Lu people are stubborn How many years have you been awake embarrass us They cling to that poor Confucian scholar cause unnecessary strife Confucian books, that is, the books Confucianism relies on for food-books that specifically record the complicated and complicated etiquette in ancient times. In this kind of strong antiquity society, Kong Qiu, one of the ancient Chinese thinkers and the founder of the Confucian school, was born.Kong Qiu is a descendant of the nobles of the Song Dynasty. Kong Fujia, the prime minister of the Song Dynasty who died in the 1990s because his wife was too beautiful, was the sixth grandfather of Confucius.Kong Fujia's son fled to Lu to live after the coup, and became a commoner.Kong Qiu's father, Kong He, was an officer in the Lu army, but he died too early.Kong Qiu was a posthumous child who grew up under the hard-working mother Yan Zheng.When Confucius was young, he studied Confucianism assiduously, and became a very profound "ethics" expert when he was an adult, and his reputation rose, and he even got the attention of Zhongsun Jue, one of the three Huans.When Zhongsun Dang was dying, he asked his two sons, Zhongsun Wuji and Zhongsun Jingshu, to learn this knowledge from Confucius.This is an opportunity to combine Confucius with the special form of "Three Huan Politics" in Lu State. Let us try to list a brief list of the three Huan political systems of the State of Lu below: Ji Yun, the fifteenth monarch of Lu State (the one who died at the hand of Jiang Zhuer of Qi State), had four sons. The eldest son Ji Yun was the first son and inherited the throne of the monarch.The second, third, and fourth sons are all bastards and can only serve as senior government officials.Ji Yun was honored as Duke Huan, that is, the mighty monarch, so his three concubine sons were called "Three Huan".The descendants of Sanhuan, change their surnames respectively (All the nobles and all officials in the country are the descendants of the monarch, and have the same surname as the monarch. Therefore, the descendants of the concubine must change their surnames, otherwise the bustling and crowded, there is only one surname in the whole country, and it is very difficult to distinguish difficulty).The descendants of the second son Ji Qingfu changed their surname to Zhongsun (sometimes called Mengsun or Meng), the descendants of the third son Ji Ya changed their surname to Shusun, and the descendants of the fourth son Jiyou changed their surname to Jisun. At the beginning of this century (the first six), Zhongsun Mie (the father of Zhongsun Jue) became the prime minister. He introduced the Shusun and Jisun families, and the three major families took turns to control the power, which was passed down from generation to generation. The long-standing Sanhuan politics.Sanhuan seized the power and the ownership of the vast land from the monarch, and built the capital on his own fiefdom, which is called the three capitals on the table.Like the king of the Zhou Kingdom, the king of the Lu Kingdom was left out in the cold.In the 1980s, the twenty-sixth monarch, Ji Yuzhou, once launched a military attack against Sanhuan, but was expelled by the three major families and wandered abroad until her death. The problem is that although the three Huan united to seize the power of the Lu state, each of the three Huan also had their own assistants and cadres, who were called "retainers" at the time, and the power of these retainers was also expanding day by day.The most outstanding of them was Ji Sunsi's retainer Yang Hu, who represented a force against separatism, not only suppressing Ji Sun, but also suppressing the other Er Huan.Yang Hu later became Prime Minister of Lu State and was in charge of actual politics for three years.他谦卑地延揽专家，曾亲自拜访过孔丘，邀请孔丘任职，但孔丘怀疑他政权的稳定性，没有接受。 本世纪（前六）最后第二年（前五○二年），季孙斯向阳虎反攻胜利，阳虎逃亡。三桓对孔丘拒绝跟阳虎合作这一点有深刻的印象，于是任命孔丘担任中都（山东汉上）县长（中都宰），开始孔丘的政治生涯。 seven east west world 纪元前五九七年（夏征舒杀陈国国君妫平国后第二年），后巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒攻耶路撒冷，犹太国王约雅敬出降。尼布甲尼撒立约雅敬的儿子约雅斤为王，不久又把约雅斤废掉，立约雅敬的弟弟西底家为王。 纪元前五九四年（必阝城之役后第三年），雅典执政官梭伦建立公民会议跟司法陪审制度。世界各国平民参政和陪审团设立，这是首创。是雅典人对人类文明最伟大的贡献之一。 纪元前五八八年（齐晋两国鞍城之役次年），犹太国王西底家背叛后巴比伦帝国，尼布甲尼撒围耶路撒冷。 纪元前五八六年（吴王国建国前一年），耶路撒冷陷落，尼布甲尼撒挖出西底家的双目，下令焚城，把犹太人全部掳到巴比伦当奴隶，犹太王国亡。 纪元前五五○年（齐国大臣崔杼杀国君姜光前二年），波斯帝国崛起，灭里海南岸米太帝国，兵力益强。 纪元前五四六年（第二次和平会议举行），吕底亚王国和波斯帝国，在提力亚会战，吕底亚王国大败。又在首都撒狄城外会战，吕底亚的战马看见波斯的军用骆驼，既怪又臭，惊骇狂奔，遂又大败。国王克里萨斯被掳，吕底亚王国亡。 纪元前五三九年（第三次和平会议后第二年），波斯居鲁士大帝攻陷巴比伦城，后巴比伦帝国亡。居鲁士定都苏萨，释放后巴比伦掳掠的犹太人返耶路撒冷，犹太人在巴比伦为奴四十八年。 纪元前五○九年（伍子胥鞭尸前三年），罗马王国改建为共和国，设立执政官和元老院。开始信史时代。