After King Wu of Zhou established the Zhou Dynasty, in order to manage such a vast piece of land, in order to keep his children and grandchildren from fighting with each other, to create great chaos, and for the sake of eternal peace in the world, he formulated the "Zhou Li" together with Zhou Gongdan. The Zhou Li had a huge impact on the world at that time, so that for the next seven or eight hundred years, the princely states felt that life could not be called life without the Zhou Li.
At that time, the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty stipulated that if a princely state did not commit a crime, other countries, including the Son of Heaven, could not use troops against it. This rule was basically respected by everyone in the Spring and Autumn Period, even in the later Warring States period, people did not abide by this rule, before fighting the war, they still had to find a false accusation to the enemy country. But in such a peaceful atmosphere, there is an extremely discordant voice.
In 741 BC, the Spring and Autumn Period had only begun for a few decades, but some places were already in a mess, such as the Chu state. Xiong Tong saw that his father, King Chu Li, had died, and he did not establish himself as the heir to the throne. It doesn't matter if I Xiong Tong is the heir to the throne or not, anyway, I Xiong Tong will be the king of the Chu Kingdom. So he decisively killed the legitimate heir to the throne of Chu and became the king of Chu himself.
After such a "hegemonic" person became the king of Chu, the Chu state, which was already very "hegemonic", was even more "hegemonic". After some unbridled reforms by Xiong Tong (King Wu of Chu), the State of Chu quickly became powerful. The ancients often said that those who are not filial to their parents are often not loyal to the Son of Heaven, and King Chu Wu is probably the best example. After the strength of the country, he began to challenge the authority of the Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou Li.
He first found a small country on his side, Suiguo. Regardless of the three seven twenty-one, the king of Chu Wu prepared weapons, soldiers, horses, and grain, and began to fight against the country. Suiguo's performance at this time is: dazed and overwhelmed. Why hit me? I didn't do anything? The tribute that should be given to Zhou Tianzi was given, and I didn't do anything in China that made people angry, so why was I beaten?
So the Suiguo people said to the Chu people, "I am not guilty." "Meaning, I didn't make a mistake!" It makes sense for you to hit me. This answer is quite personal. But the Answer of the Chu people was more personal than theirs, and the Chu people said to Sui Guo: "I am a barbarian also." "This means that I am not a courtier of Zhou Tianzi and am not bound by the Zhou rites formulated by Zhou Tianzi. To put it bluntly, it is: Lao Tzu does not need a reason to beat people! Lao Tzu is not a reasonable man!
However, king Chu's mouth was quick and cool, and his words were ridiculed by later people for more than two thousand years. To this day, many people say that the Chu kingdom is a barbarian, and they themselves have said: "I am a barbarian." "Don't say today, the princely states at that time basically laughed at the Chu state as a countryman, and the expression was as funny as a group of people seeing a monkey wearing human clothes, so this is the saying behind "Chu people Mu monkey and crown".
So, why did the Chu state call itself a barbarian? First of all, let's look at the continuation of the story of the unfortunate Suiguo and Chu State, who found that this guy from the south was completely unreasonable, and he couldn't beat him, so he instigated it. He asked, "Then what do you want me to do, and I can't do it?" Chu Guo said, "You go and ask Zhou Tianzi for a favor and ask him to mention my title again!" That way I won't hit you. ”
In the eyes of our modern people, the State of Chu was a very powerful country, but at that time the State of Chu was a powerful but unrecognized country. Why? Because the title system of Zhou Tianzi is the duke bozi male, the duke is the largest, followed by the hou, then the bo, then the son, and finally the baron. And the title of the Chu State is, viscount, which is a little older than the baron, which can be said to be a "bow horse Wen".
We look at the Spring and Autumn Five Lords, the Duke of Qi Huan - is the Duke, the Duke of Jin Wen - is also the Duke, the King of Chu Zhuang - why is Chu called the King? Because it was too faceless to call Chu Zhuangzi, he was simply called Wang. In fact, after asking Suiguo to "intercede" with Zhou Tianzi, Zhou Tianzi very decisively rejected the unreasonable teasing of King Chu Wu, and King Chu Wu was furious, and he gave himself the title of "King" and sat on an equal footing with Zhou Tianzi, so he was called King Zhuang of Chu in the back.
So, why is the status of the Chu state so embarrassing? This has to start from the origin of the Chu state. The ancestors of the Chu state are also descendants of Yan Huang, which is beyond doubt. Qu Yuan was also very proud to say that "Emperor Gaoyang's Miao descendants", the so-called "Gaoyang", that is, Emperor Huan, his fiefdom was in Gaoyang, so he was also called "Gaoyang", Emperor Huan was the grandson of The Yellow Emperor of Xuanyuan, so the Chu state was also a descendant of Yan huang. The ancestors of the Chu state once had a relatively good relationship with the Xia Dynasty.
However, after the fall of the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty that replaced the Xia Dynasty was not very friendly to the Chu State, and it can be said that it was very unfriendly. The Book of Poetry describes his conquest of the Chu state as follows: "Tart Yin Wu, fight against Jing Chu." Go deep into its obstacles and take a journey through the thorns. There is a cut of its place, Tang Sun Zhixu. Wei nu Jing Chu, living in the southern township of the country. In the past, there was a soup, and since the other Qiangqiang, do not dare not to come to enjoy, do not dare not come to the king. Quotient is constant. ”
Therefore, when King Wen of Zhou wanted to rebel against the Shang Dynasty, the State of Chu was very active in joining this anti-Shang alliance. However, it is a pity that the King of Zhou was also more jealous of the Chu state in the south, and only gave him a viscount after the fact, and the aggrieved Chu state was of course very unhappy, so there was a roar of "I am a barbarian" in the back. In essence, this is a tantrum at Zhou Tianzi, the big patriarch: if I don't pay attention to me anymore, I will open my own sect!