During the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Tianzi divided the world, gave meritorious ministers, people with the same surname, and the first saint and the latter, etc., and crowned them as princes, guarding the four squares for his town and Weizhen Siyi. And the princes and Zhou Tianzi always have a close relationship, the town also has a difference in weight, so the titles given by Zhou Tianzi to the princes naturally have a high and low, the Princes of the Zhou Dynasty, their titles are divided into dukes, marquises, counts, viscounts and barons.
Among them, the duke's status is the most noble, second only to the King of Zhou. At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the title of duke was only granted to the descendants of the first saint and the surname of Ji, and among the seven dukes and princely states of Song, Qi, Zhu, Jiao, Ji, Chen, and Yu, except for the founding monarch of the State of Yu, who was the concubine of the Ji surname and the brother of King Wen of Zhou, the other six kingdoms were all descendants of the first saints, and the descendants of Xia Yu were divided into the state of Qi, and the descendants of Shang Tang were divided into the state of Song. The four descendants of the Yellow Emperor, Emperor Yan, Yao, and Shun were divided into Jiguo, Jiaoguo, Zhuguo, and ChenGuo respectively.
Among the fifth-class lords, the baron has the lowest status, and according to current research, the archaeological community can fully determine that it is the Zhou Dynasty princely state for the baron, that is, the Xu state.
Xu Guo, its founding monarch Xu Wenshu, surnamed Jiang, Xu shi, name Ding. Regarding the origin of Xu Wenshu, there is still no conclusive conclusion in the historical circles, one is said to be the son of Jiang Taigong, and the other is said to be the same as Jiang Taigong as the Lü State (according to legend, the Yan Emperor of the Shennong clan, because he lived in the Jiangshui River Valley, took this as his surname, which was the surname of Jiang. Later, due to the expansion and migration of the population, the Jiang clan gradually developed four branches, which were for the "Four Yue", and the Lü tribe was one of them, and later in the summer, the tribal leader was named Lü Hou and established the lü state). During the reign of King Wen of Zhou, Xu Wenshu served as the State Of Zhou's Ming Punishment And was responsible for the affairs of the law. After King Wu succeeded to the throne, Xu Wenshu followed King Wu in his crusade against the Shang Dynasty and established a great merit in the Battle of Muye. Subsequently, the King of Zhou divided the princes, and Xu Wenshu was knighted as Xu Nan and established the State of Xu.
Xu Guo's position, at that time, was a real important place, for the "Central Plains", and was the most central center of the Central Plains. Its jurisdiction radiated from the capital to the surrounding area, with a radius of about 30 kilometers, and had jurisdiction over the areas of present-day Xuchang County, Henan, north of Linying County, and southwest of Yanling County. Judging from the geographical advantages of the territory under the jurisdiction of Xu Guo, Xu Wenshu, the founding monarch of xu guo, was very valued by the king of Zhou, and if he did not have great trust, the king of Zhou would definitely not give up such an important place to Xu Guozhen to guard.
Of course, the so-called "Pifu is not guilty, Huai Bi is guilty", Xu Guoben has no absolute strength to defend this area, if it were not for the Western Zhou, its territory would have been occupied by other countries long ago. In fact, it is also true that when the Zhou Dynasty entered the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, as the Zhou Dynasty's power declined and the prestige was gone, the princely states did not take him seriously. As a result, the Xu state, which had lost its dependence, could only survive in the cracks between the surrounding powers in order to survive.
Since xu guo is located in the central plains, if the princely states want to have the capital to dominate the central plains, he must occupy the xu state, so Xu guo can be said to have half a foot hanging on the cliff, and there is a threat of annihilation at any time. In this way, in order to allow the Xu kingdom to continue to survive, the monarch of the Xu state was exhausted, racked his brains, and carefully maneuvered between the powerful powers, attached to Qi when Qi was strong, attached to Chu when Chu was prosperous, and returned to Jin when he came.
However, even so, those powerful and ambitious princely states still did not give up the idea of occupying the Xu State, and among them, the northern power Zheng Guo was the most eyeing. Earlier, Zheng Zhuanggong, the ruler of the State of Zheng, took the opportunity of King Zhou Ping's eastward migration to destroy the State of Yu and the State of Qi, and at this time, he was ambitious and coveted the State of Xu.
In July 712 BC, Zheng Zhuanggong, on the grounds that Xu Guo did not listen to Zhou Tianzi's orders, joined forces with the States of Qi and lu to attack Xu Guo, agreeing that whoever attacked the capital of Xu Guo first would have the right to divide the land of Xu Guo. Then, Duke Zheng Zhuang personally led the xiong army to cut Xu, straight to the capital of Xu Guo, at this time Xu Zhuang Duke, the eleventh monarch of Xu Guo, although he swore not to surrender, and led the people to fight to the death, but the helpless Xu State was already weak and widowed, in the face of the absolute strength of the Three Kingdoms, the capital of Xu Guo was still destroyed, Xu Zhuang led the crowd to break through, fled to Weiguo, and two years later Xu Zhuang died in another country.
Of course, although the capital of Xu Guo was destroyed, it did not destroy the country. At this time, neither Qi nor Lu wanted Zheng guo to monopolize Xu Guo, so on the grounds that Xu Guojun had not committed the crime of destroying the country, they forced Zheng Guo to welcome back Xu Shu (Xu Zhuang's brother) and let him restore Xu Guo. Later, in 697 BC, civil unrest broke out in the State of Zheng, and Uncle Xu took the opportunity to retake the capital, drive out the Zheng army, and once again restore the old land of the State of Xu.
After that, under the commission of several generations of monarchs of the State of Xu, the State of Xu survived in the cracks for more than 120 years, and in these more than 100 years, in order to survive, xu Guo had to start the road of migration everywhere to escape the attacks of Chu, Zheng and other countries. In 576 BC, Xu Linggong led his subjects to move to Yedi (present-day southwest of Ye County, Henan); in 533 BC, Xu Mourning moved the capital to Yiyi (southeast of present-day Bozhou, Anhui); in 524 BC, Xu Mourning moved the capital again to Yanyi (present-day Xixia County, Henan); in 506 BC, Xu Nansi moved the capital to Rongcheng (southeast of present-day Lushan County, Henan).
However, no matter how Xu Guo moved the capital, in the case of poor strength, it could not escape the fate of destroying the country. In 504 BC, zheng guo was defeated, Xu guo was unable to resist, the seventeenth monarch Xu Nansi was captured, and Xu Guo was destroyed. After that, although Xu Guo restored the country again with the support of the State of Chu, at this time Xu Guo was no longer a state, a pure puppet emperor, but the State of Chu wanted to embarrass the State of Zheng, nothing more.
After the fall of the State of Xu, a small number of people moved to present-day Jingshan, Hubei and Zhijiang, Hunan, and most of them multiplied or migrated north, and the northern part initially migrated to Gaoyang, Jizhou (present-day Gaoyang, Hebei), and then spread everywhere, until the Qin and Han dynasties, when the Xu surname had spread to most of the present-day Henan and Hebei provinces. Since then, the Xu surname has spread throughout present-day Henan, Hebei, Anhui, Shaanxi, Shanxi and other vast areas. Today, the Xu clan is mostly in Jiangsu, Shandong, Yunnan, Guangdong, Henan, Anhui, Zhejiang and other provinces, and the Xu clan in these seven provinces accounts for about 55% of the han Xu population in the country.