Since the Yellow Emperor period, Yangyang Huaxia has a history of more than 5,000 years of civilization, and among the countless splendid dynasties, the most legendary is the Zhou Dynasty, and the establishment of this legendary dynasty, the greatest contributor is Jiang Ziya.
It was with the assistance of Taigong Jiang that King Wu of Zhou was able to finally defeat the King of Shang and establish the Zhou Dynasty. For meritorious men, many kings will reward them a lot, even if they have made a big mistake, they will deal with it and forgive it as appropriate.
However, after Jiang Ziya died, why were his descendants cooked alive by the Zhou Dynasty royal family? Today, let's talk about this story.
Jiang Ziya was "assigned" to the frontier
As we all know, Jiang Ziya is a well-known figure in China, and he has great merits in the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty. According to the custom of the feudal dynasty, the first major event after the establishment of the new dynasty is to divide the meritorious men, and Jiang Taigong, as the first class meritorious servant established by the Zhou Dynasty, should be the most rewarded.
However, the real fact was greatly unexpected, seeing that his former comrades-in-arms had received rich rewards one by one, but the reward that belonged to Jiang Ziya had not arrived.
Just when everyone was very puzzled, the reward that belonged to Jiang Taigong finally came, and the Taigong who had made great contributions to the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty was actually only crowned as a King of Qi. Qidi is basically the current Shandong Province, according to the current level of development, Shandong is really a noble land of Wuhua Tianbao.
It was a place of great human habitation, rich in products and fertile soil, but in the circumstances of the time, Qidi was not a good place to go. It is not difficult to open the map of the Zhou Dynasty at that time to find that Qidi was very far away from the capital at that time, Hojing, and in that era of very underdeveloped transportation, Jiang Ziya's treatment was no different from that of the frontier.
Although he did not get the reward he deserved, at least King Wu of Zhou still trusted Jiang Ziya, and Jiang Ziya finally died well. However, his descendants were not as lucky as he was, so where did this come from?
The development of the Zhou Dynasty
In 1043 BC, King Wu of Zhou died, and with the support of Jiang Ziya, King Wu's son King Cheng of Zhou succeeded to the throne smoothly. In the ancient mythological stories, Jiang Taigong devoted himself to the Zhou Dynasty and contributed all his strength to the stable development of the Zhou Dynasty.
However, looking at the real history, the truth of the facts is often inconsistent with what is depicted in the history books, and a large part of the reason why Jiang Ziya will help King Zhou Cheng is because King Zhou Cheng is the son of Yi Jiang, and Yi Jiang is the daughter of Jiang Ziya.
To put it in layman's terms with modern concepts, Jiang Taigong actually supported his own grandson, and Sima Qian wrote in the "History of the Lu Family": "The king of Wu has collapsed, and he has become a king, and he is in the midst of strength." In just 3 sentences and 12 words, it is not difficult to see how the political situation of the Zhou Dynasty was at that time.
40 years later, King Cheng died and was succeeded by his son King Kang of Zhou, and at this time, Jiang Ziya was already the elder of the Four Dynasties, and his power in the dynasty was incomparable even to that of King Zhou. In the sixth year of King Kang of Zhou, Jiang Ziya died in Hojing, and the entire Zhou Dynasty mourned.
King Zhou Kang even gave a state funeral to Taigong, which was unimaginable in the era of strict etiquette at that time, which can also show the status of Jiang Taigong in the mind of King Zhou Kang.
Time passed in a hurry, and decades passed, since King Kang of Zhou, the Zhou Dynasty has successively experienced five kings, including King Zhao, King Mu of Zhou, King Gong of Zhou, King Yi of Zhou, and King Xiao of Zhou.
With the continuous development of the times, the power of Zhou Tianzi became more and more weakened, and by the time of king Yi of Zhou, many princes no longer regarded the Zhou royal family as the co-lord of the world, and even no longer paid tribute to the Zhou royal family, and the most powerful clamor among these princes was the King of Qi.
It is said that once, King Yi of Zhou sent an emissary to Qidi, but king Qi'ai did not see him behind closed doors. A few months later, under pressure, the King of Qi'ai had no choice but to summon an envoy.
During the banquet, the King of Qi'ai's attitude towards this envoy of the Zhou royal family was very arbitrary, and after the banquet, he even said such a rebellious remark as "non-violent and not offering".
According to historical records, King Yi of Zhou once failed to go to the court due to illness, and when the princes heard the news, they sent emissaries to visit. However, when the King of Qi'ai learned of this news, instead of sending emissaries to visit, he feasted at his home.
As soon as this matter was carefully learned by king Yi of Zhou, king Yi was immediately angry. If the previous few things only made King Zhou Yi dislike King Qi'ai, then the next thing was to really bring the disaster of killing King Qi'ai.
The tragic life of king Qi Lai
At that time, king Qi'ai, without receiving the orders of King Yi of Zhou, took the liberty of leading an army to attack the state of Ji. Ji Guo was a small country with a projectile, and where it was the opponent of the State of Qi, the Ji State was captured in just a few days. Desperate, King Kikoku had to flee to Hokyo.
After seeing King Zhou Yi, the monarch of the State of Ji directly fell to the ground and cried bitterly, and said in a loud voice: "Great King, where this King of Qi ai wants to occupy our Country of Ji, he clearly wants to rebel." Hearing this, King Zhou Yi suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and he hurriedly sent someone to help up the King of Ji.
However, at this time, ji Guojun, who was possessed by the drama, fell to the ground, scolded qi aigong for plotting rebellion, and began to constantly fabricate various rumors.
When scolding and emotional, Ji Guojun said even more sharply: "Great King, the name of the King of Qi'ai is Bu Chen, what is not Chen? Even if you want to rebel and stand on your own, you also ask the great king Mingjian not to be blinded by such a villain. ”
After saying this, King Yi of Zhou was completely moved by the words of The King of Ji. Not long after, King Yi of Zhou issued a rebellion against King Qi Ai, inviting the princes of the world to come and fight together. Although the Zhou royal family has declined and has long lost the strength of that year, it is still the co-lord of the world after all.
As a result, the various princes responded to the call of King Yi of Zhou and went to Qidi to suppress King Qi' lai. With two fists and four hands, facing the tidal wave of the princes' army, the Duke of Qi Ai still had a slight chance of victory. The battle lasted only a few days, and the capital of the State of Qi, Linzi, was captured.
The King of Qi'ai was also brought to the capital City of Hojing by the people, and the former king of Qi'ai, who was once high above, became a prisoner of king Zhou Yi. However, even though he had reached such a situation, the King of Qi Lai still shouted: "I am a descendant of the Prince, and who is qualified to punish me" is really sad and deplorable.
"In the third year of the zhou dynasty, the king sent to the princes, and the duke of Qi mourned Yu Ding." This record in the Bamboo Book Chronicle becomes a true portrayal of the last moments of Qi Aigong's life. The great king of the Tang Dynasty, the famous descendant of Jiang Taigong, ended up with such a fate, which is really regrettable.
"Birds are exhausted, good bows are hidden, cunning rabbits die, and lackeys are cooked", which has always been an iron law that has not changed in feudal dynasties. But in fact, from the experience of King Qi'ai, his tragic experience is more due to self-inflicted blame.
According to the Zuo Biography, King Qi'ai was very extravagant and lascivious during his reign, and was very cruel to the people of the territory. In "Poetry Qi Feng", there is an 8-word comment that "from the beast is insatiable, and the dusk is not good".
Whether it was because of the king's suspicion or his own indiscretion, Jiang Taigong's descendants did not end well in the end. Every time I read such a story, I can't help but think of Liu Bei's teaching to Liu Chan: "Don't do it with good and small, don't do it with evil." "What do you think about that?"