King Jing of Zhou was perhaps the last King of Zhou to be able to speak into royal affairs. But even so, many of his affairs during his reign were still subject to the hegemonic Jin state at that time. A typical case is the matter of King Jing of Zhou establishing a prince. After the unfortunate death of the former crown prince Shou, King Jing of Zhou wanted to change the prince dynasty to crown prince, but was resolutely opposed by the royal master Shan Mugong. Common sense is that who to appoint as the prince is a family affair of the Son of Heaven, and Shan Mugong does not approve and has no right to decide.
However, things are not so simple.
Because the ancestors of the Shan clan had treated the Duke of Jin well, the Jin people had always been closely related to the Shan family. Shan Mugong opposed the Prince Dynasty, and as we all know, there must be Jin people behind it.
In order to ensure that the prince dynasty could be successfully made crown prince, King Jing of Zhou planned to kill Shan Mugong and his henchmen while hunting in the field. But he didn't want to, and before he could do it, King Zhou Jing himself had a heart attack and unfortunately died. After that, Shan Mugong brazenly proclaimed Prince Meng as king, and mourned the king of Zhou. For this reason, the indignant Prince Chao led the crowd to suddenly attack at the funeral of King Jing of Zhou and drove out Shan Mugong and his henchmen. Soon after, in the chaotic situation, King Mourning died prematurely, and Duke Mu of Shan renamed King Zhou Mourning's half-brother Prince Zhao as king, who was known as the King of Zhoujing, known as the "Eastern King"; and the prince dynasty, with the support of everyone, occupied the royal city (present-day west of the old city of Luoyang, Henan) as king, known as the "Western King".
The rebellion of the prince dynasty was the first time in the history of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty that the division of east and west appeared. It was not until 516 BC, when King Jing of Zhou, with the support of the Jin Dynasty, drove the prince dynasty to the State of Chu, that the division of the royal family was barely brought to an end. However, since then, the royal family has been dominated by the Shan clan. The descendant Han Feizi commented on the rebellion of the prince's dynasty and said: "According to what is heard today, Tian Chengzi took Qi, Sicheng Zihan took Song, Dazai Xin took Zheng, Shan Shi took Zhou, Yi Yazhi took Wei, Han, Wei, and Zhao three sons divided into Jin, these eight people, the subjects of the emperor also." ("Han Feizi Doubts")
However, with the decline of the Jin dynasty, the status of the Shan family in the Zhou royal family also gradually declined. But the royal power game has not weakened in the slightest. After the death of King Jing of Zhou's grandson King Ding of Zhou, several sons competed with each other for the throne, causing the royal family to erupt in a bloody power struggle. Within a year, after King Ai of Zhou and King Si of Zhou were killed one after another, King Kao of Zhou became the ultimate victor. Because of the irregular succession, in order to appease the other brothers, King Kao of Zhou unsealed his younger brother Prince in Henan (that is, Wangcheng) to continue the office of Duke of Zhou, for the Duke of Zhou Huan.
The prince's unveiling of the seal became the source of the zhou royal family's division again.
After becoming the Duke of Zhou, the power of the Prince Jie family grew rapidly. When the prince revealed his grandson Western Zhou Huigong, he also sealed his younger son Ban in Gong (present-day Gongyi, Henan), and lived in the king of Zhou, known as the Eastern Zhou Huigong. Since then, the Zhou royal family has split into the Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasties.
The split of the Zhou royal family was not voluntary, but suffered external pressure.
In 371 BC, because of the contradiction with the Korean puppet, Yan Sent the Assassin Nie Zheng to carry out the assassination. On the way to Korea, Nie Zheng passed by Zhou Wangji. Because he had had festivals with Yan Sui in the past, the later Eastern Zhou Jungongzi Ban received Nie Zheng solemnly to facilitate his assassination of Han puppets. Gongzi Ban thought that as long as the assassination was successful, the Koreans would definitely hunt down Yan Sui, so they would vent their anger in disguise. But no, Nie Zheng's combat effectiveness was extremely strong, not only killed Han Golem, but also killed dozens of Korean dignitaries such as Han Aihou and so on, almost killing even the Korean prince!
This is a terrible disaster!
Afterwards, South Korea immediately sent people to the Zhou royal family to condemn the actions of Gongzi Ban. Not only that, but three years later, Korea, together with the State of Zhao, forcibly divided the Zhou royal family into two: the Duke Hui of Western Zhou lived in Wangcheng, with jurisdiction over Wangcheng, The Yanshi (southeast of present-day Yanshijia, Henan), and Gucheng (present-day northwest of Luoyang, Henan); King Hui of Eastern Zhou, king Feng zhouxian, lived in Gong, with jurisdiction over Chengzhou (present-day eastern Luoyang, Henan), Pingyin (northeast of present-day Mengjin, Henan), Yanshi (present-day Yanshi, Henan), and Gongsiyi.
The division of the royal family during the rebellion of the princely dynasty was the result of the internal power struggle of the Zhou people; but once the royal family was unified, the division ended. This time, the division of the Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasties was the result of the domination of external forces, not the voluntary nature of the Zhou people. Curiously, after this split, the Zhou royal family was never unified again, until the Eastern and Western Zhou dynasties were successively annexed by the Qin state...
The Eastern and Western Zhou dynasties were forced to separate their families under the interference of external forces, but why could they no longer be unified?
Around the time of King Zhao of Zhou, he saw that rice in the south was extremely high yielding, and the Eastern Zhou also wanted to promote the cultivation of rice. Since rice is to be grown, the field naturally needs a lot of water. The Western Zhou was located in the upper reaches of the Yishui, Luoshui and other rivers, while the Eastern Zhou was downstream. Hearing that Eastern Zhou wanted to plant rice, Western Zhou Jun was reluctant to release water downstream. For this reason, Eastern Zhou Jun frowned all day.
At this time, the doctor Suzi took the initiative to ask The Eastern Zhou Jun: "The subordinates request that the Envoys of the Western Zhou Dynasty send them to release water, is it okay?" "Su Zi, either Su Li or Su Dai, is from the Su family and is famous in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty for being able to speak well.
Eastern Zhou Jun listened, of course, he couldn't ask for it.
Seeing The Western Zhou Jun, Su Zi did not say anything about the great truth of treating the brotherly state well, but said something that surprised people: "The monarch's plan is very wrong! Not releasing water today will only make the Eastern Zhou rich, because the people of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty have changed to wheat and nothing else. If you want to harm the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, you might as well put a burst of water to damage the wheat they planted; after releasing the water, they will definitely plant rice instead, and then they will rob their harvest. If so, the people of Eastern Zhou will rely on Western Zhou and obey your orders! ”
Western Zhou Jun listened, repeatedly praised the wonderful, and sure enough, he put down the water. In this way, Su Zi's visit was not only rewarded by the Eastern King, but also recognized by the Western Zhou Jun. Obviously, Su Zi was stirring up dissension between the two weeks, making the relationship between the Eastern and Western Zhou more and more distant.
Su Qin's family, no matter how to say it, are all Zhou people. As the saying goes, "rabbits don't eat nest grass", why doesn't SuZi persuade him to make peace for two weeks, but instead incites the wind and ignition in it?
First of all, the power changers of the Warring States originally had no fixed allegiance to them, and everything was for their own interests. Secondly, the ancestors of the Su clan also had a huge festival with the Eastern Zhou royal family. In the early years of King Huan of Zhou, he forcibly transferred the land of the Su state to the state of Zheng, which caused the Su clan to be highly dissatisfied with the royal family. Therefore, during the reign of King Hui of Zhou, in order to retaliate against the Zhou royal family, the Su clan joined forces with the Five Great Masters to support the prince's decadence and almost ousted King Hui of Zhou. Unfortunately, later, with the support of Zheng Guo and Xi Yu Guo, King Hui of Zhou successfully restored the throne, not only killing the prince, but also destroying the Su state by the way. As a descendant of the Su clan, did Su Zi still have the intention of avenging his ancestors at this time?
Not to mention the grievances, since the destruction of the Su kingdom, the Su clan has become a commoner. Although the family's income is still better than that of ordinary families, its political status has completely disappeared. No matter what suzi's mentality was when he went up and down his hand during the two weeks, this incident was enough to prove that not only had a gap between the upper layers of the Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasties, but even ordinary Zhou people had no sense of belonging to the Zhou royal family.
The mentality of the ordinary people is like this, and in the upper echelons of the Zhou royal family, the people's hearts have become extremely delicate.
There is a sentence in the famous "Treatise on Passing Qin": "Therefore, the people of the Six Kingdoms, including ning yue, Xu Shang, Su Qin, and Du He, conspired for it, and qi ming, Zhou Zhi, Chen Yun, Zhao Shui, Lou Huan, Zhai Jing, Su Li, and Le Yi's disciples understood their meanings..." The "Zhou Most" mentioned in this is actually a Zhou person, and he is also the son of the Western Zhou Emperor.
As the son of Western Zhou Jun, he can be put together by posterity with Chen Yi, Lou Huan, Le Yi and others, which proves that Zhou's most talented ability is extremely outstanding. In the eyes of ordinary people, Zhou would stay in the Zhou royal family to assist his father in governing the country or assist the King of Zhou. But in fact, Zhou Most had been in Qi and Wei for a long time, and had served as a xiangguo in both countries! For this reason, King Xuan of Qi also admired Zhou Most. To this end, someone suggested to King Xuan of Qi: "Why doesn't the Great King divide the land and give it to Zhou to help him become the Prince of Western Zhou." ”
Zhou was the best able to become crown prince, which was politically beneficial to the State of Qi. King Xuan of Qi listened, and indeed sent Sima Hun to Western Zhou to recommend Zhou Zhi.
However, things came as a bit unexpected.
Although Western Zhou Jun did not oppose Zhou Zhi as the crown prince, Zhou Zhi himself did not agree. In desperation, Western Zhou Jun could only appoint another prince and prepare to rebuff King Xuan of Qi.
When the royal priest Koubu learned of this, he went to dissuade him: "The monarch told the king of Qi what Zhou did not want to be the prince of, and his subordinates thought it was inappropriate. Now the monarch you also want zhou to be the crown prince, but you are the only one in the world who knows about this, and no one else in the world believes it. I am afraid that the King of Qi will mistakenly think that the monarch originally wanted to make Gongzi Guo the crown prince, and then falsely cede to Zhou Zhi in order to fool the State of Qi. There is no one more sincere than Zhou, please let everyone in the world see this first! ”
Zhou gave up being the prince, and I am afraid that few people will believe this. Therefore, Si Koubu advised Western Zhou Jun not to easily reject King Qi Xuan, so as not to cause misunderstanding.
As the most talented son of Western Zhou Jun, why did Zhou least want to be a prince, but preferred to go to another country to serve? If Zhou Most has a gap with his father, but when the royal family encounters difficulties, Zhou Most repeatedly appears to resolve the crisis for the royal family; if Zhou Most has no gap with his father, then why is he unwilling to stay and assist his father?
The most fundamental reason for this may be that Zhou most believes that the small temple of the Zhou royal family is difficult for him to show his talents. To go elsewhere, Zhou can best achieve the Xiangguo of a great power; staying in the Zhou royal family is only the king of a small country that manages three or four seats, only equivalent to the governor of Qi and Wei Counties, which is a bit too condescending. Therefore, Zhou Will most refuse to be the prince.
As the son of Western Zhou Jun, he did not want to stay in the Zhou royal family, and only occasionally appeared to help when the royal family encountered a crisis--for Zhou, the Zhou royal family may only have a blood bondage to him.
In 426 BC, King Kao of Zhou enfeoffed his younger brother Yu Wangcheng and continued the office of Duke of Zhou Huan; in 367 BC, just two years after King Zhou Xian's succession, Duke Huan of Zhou was forced to divide his sons into Gong, and Eastern and Western Zhou were divided; by the time king of Zhou Xian's grandson King Zhou Zhao was in the same water, the second zhou was in the same water and fire, and became an enemy state.
From the forced division of the Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasties to the appearance of an enemy state, it was only three generations and several decades. During these decades, the upper echelons of the Eastern Zhou and Western Zhou dynasties who were out of the same door fought with each other endlessly, and the situation was the same, which caused the hearts of the people in the Zhou king's room to fall apart. When the commoners represented by the Su family and the upper echelons represented by Zhou no longer regardEd Zhou as the motherland, how can the Eastern and Western Zhous become one again? This may be the sad situation that Zhou Huan, Western Zhou Huigong and Eastern Zhou Huigong did not want to see back then?