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Chapter 6 5. Five men who want to be bosses

what is history 1 袁腾飞 2178Words 2018-03-20
After the Zhou royal family moved eastward, its power plummeted, and the princes no longer obeyed the emperor's orders, and no longer made pilgrimage and paid tribute.When King Zhou Huan, the grandson of King Ping of Zhou, succeeded to the throne, Duke Zheng Zhuang of Zheng State refused to accept the pilgrimage, so King Zhou Huan led the Zhou army and the troops of Chen State, Cai State, Guo State, and Wei State to attack Zheng State. The national troops defeated the coalition forces, and King Huan of Zhou was defeated. The worst thing was that he was shot in the shoulder by an arrow from General Zheng Guo.The younger brother couldn't be punished for his rebellion, but instead was punished, and the boss' prestige naturally plummeted.From then on, the emperor of Zhou was only the co-lord of the world in name, and the princes no longer took him seriously.Later, princes from all walks of life rose up one after another, in order to win more land and population, opened the prelude to the spring and autumn struggle for hegemony.

Duke Huan of Qi was the first to rise up to dominate.In the early seventh century AD, Duke Huan of Qi appointed Guan Zhong as his prime minister to carry out reforms.Guan Zhong, also known as Yiwu, was not very good since he was a child. When fighting, everyone rushed forward, but he ran backward. He always used the excuse that he had an old mother and that he was the only child to explain his desertion behavior. .Even when he was doing business with his friends, he always calculated others.This person is a very pragmatic person. In order to achieve his goals, there is no ideological baggage that can restrict him.

Guan Zhong was particularly disgusted with rambunctious talk. When he was in Qiqi, he had a particularly brilliant statement: "The warehouse knows the etiquette when it is real, and the honor and disgrace are known when there is enough food and clothing."This passage is of great practical significance to today's China.In our words, you have to grasp material civilization first, and then spiritual civilization.Poor mountains and bad waters, shrews and troublemakers must complement each other.On the contrary, the richer the material, the higher the level of spiritual civilization.Adhering to Guan Zhong's pragmatic spirit, Qi State has a good geographical location, backed by the sea, and enjoys the benefits of fishing and salt. Qi State soon became bigger and became the most powerful country among the vassal states.

Duke Huan of Qi even established a standing army of as many as 30,000. According to previous regulations, the size of the army of the vassal states could not exceed 7,500, and the size of Zhou Tianzi's own army was only 35,000.So it is conceivable that other countries are no opponents of Qi State, but if Qi State wants to expand abroad, it cannot learn from the unknown, so it put forward a slogan: "Respect the king and fight against the barbarians". At that time, the countries in the Central Plains were in a state of melee, and the minority regimes Man, Yi, Di, and Rong, who had coveted the Central Plains for a long time, colluded and posed a serious threat to Chinese civilization.According to historical records, at that time, "the barbarians and the Rong and Di were at war, and China was like a thread." The Chinese civilization was hanging by a thread!The Chinese civilization at that time should be said to be relatively advanced. The settlement method of the Han people had been established, and the farming civilization had reached a certain level. At the same time, we also had our own written language. If the Chinese civilization is extinct at this time, it will be an immeasurable loss to the entire human civilization.Therefore, whoever can stand up to defend Chinese civilization at this time will defend the development requirements of advanced productive forces, the direction of advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the majority of the people in the Central Plains at that time.

Guan Zhong held up the banner of respecting the king and fighting the barbarians, which made Qi occupy the moral high ground. Duke Huan of Qi dispatched a large army to repel the invasion of Xing and Wei by the Shan Rong, and rescue Xing Cunwei, which greatly increased his prestige among the princes.Later, in the face of the northward expansion of the southern barbarians of the Chu State, the Qi State once again sent troops to join forces with the armies of the Central Plains countries to attack Chu, eliminating the threat of the minority regimes to the Central Plains.In 651 BC, Duke Huan of Qi held an alliance in Kuiqiu, and the emperor of Zhou sent people to the alliance to recognize his status, making him the first overlord recognized by all the princes in the Spring and Autumn Period, and Qi State officially became the first dominating country.

Later Confucius, the sage of Confucius, said affectionately: "Guanzi is in harmony, nine princes are in harmony, and the people of the world are under one roof. The people are rewarded by him. Micro Guanzhong, I have been sent to the left." It means that our common people are still receiving Guan Zhong's gift, if there is no Guan Zhong, we will be assimilated by ethnic minorities and nomads.Draped hair on the left lapel is a characteristic of ethnic minorities' clothing and hair style. Draped hair means that the hair is covered with heavy rings and ears hanging; the left lapel means that the left side of the clothes they wear is pressed against the right.The Han people in the Central Plains wear clothes on the right side and on the left side. In fact, it doesn’t matter which side is on the left side. However, in ancient China, changing the clothing and hairstyle would mean the collapse of the etiquette system, the collapse of the country, and the extinction of the orthodoxy.This is why the head can be broken and the hairstyle cannot be messed up.

For example, after the Manchus entered the customs at the end of the Ming Dynasty, a hair-shaving order was issued, asking the Han people to change their hairstyles to the Manchus, and they all shaved their hair and kept their braids.Keep your hair but not your hair, keep your hair but not your head, you can't have both shrimp and bear's paw.Even so, Jiangyin City resisted for more than 80 days in order to resist the hair-shaving order and to keep the hair.There is a couplet as proof: "On the 80th day, allegiance will be issued to represent the people of the seventeen dynasties of the Taizu; Die at the same time, just for this hairstyle.

The Chinese people in the past have always regarded this matter as very important. They are healthy and skinny, and they are taught by their parents, so they can't easily move around.You can shave your head when you are young, but you can't shave your hair after Guanli becomes an adult, and you have to grow your hair and beard until your deathbed.Therefore, when Emperor Chongzhen died for his country in Meishan, he had no face to see his ancestors under the Jiuquan, covering his face with hair, and the hair was spread out to be as long as his waist. If there hadn't been for Guan Zhongzun, the king who fought against the barbarians and tried his best to protect the Central Plains, the Central Plains at that time would have been assimilated by the ethnic minorities. Once the hairstyle was changed, it would not be the turn of the latter.

After Duke Huan of Qi became the hegemon, Duke Wen of Jin and King Zhuang of Chu rose one after another.Qi Huan and Jin Wen are called dukes, because Qi and Jin are both marquis states, and this duke is not their title, but an honorary title.Chu Zhuang is called king because the state of Chu is a viscount state, a regime of the southern barbarian minority, and was canonized by the emperor in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty.The king of Chu thought his status was low, so he simply called himself king and was on an equal footing with the Son of Heaven.The emperor at that time, King Zhou Zhao, was upset, so he went to the state of Chu to ask for an explanation.When the people of Chu State heard that the Son of Heaven was coming, they prepared a boat to meet him. King Zhou Zhao was very happy, thinking that the people of Chu State were afraid and knew that they had done something wrong.Who would have thought that because the barbarians of the state of Chu thought the people of Zhou would be a nuisance to the people, they designed the hull of the boat to be glued together. The boat fell apart shortly after King Zhao got on board.It can be seen that the Nanman of Chu State is a relatively individual nation.

The failure of Zhou Tianzi's southern expedition led to the shattering of the myth of the entire Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and the dynasty turned from prosperity to decline.In the late Spring and Autumn Period, King Helu of Wu and King Goujian of Yue competed for supremacy.Wu and Yue are in the Yangtze River Basin, the capital of Wu is today's Suzhou, and the capital of Yue is today's Shaoxing.At that time, Jiangnan had already begun to receive preliminary development. Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, King Zhuang of Chu, King Helu of Wu, and King Goujian of Yue who successively ruled over China were collectively referred to as the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons in history.

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