Committed in 506 BC
Location: Tomb of King Chuping
Victim: King Chuping
Perpetrator: Wu Zixu
Modus operandi: Dig up his grave and then whipp the corpses to three hundred
Credibility: Recorded in the Chronicle of History
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in order to strengthen diplomatic exchanges, various countries usually engaged in marriage. In 518 BC, King Chuping sent his crown prince Fu Wujie to propose to the princess of the State of Qin. Fei Wuji saw that Princess Qin was incomparably beautiful, so in order to please King Chuping, he secretly presented this Princess of Qin, who originally belonged to the crown prince, to King Chuping, and said: "Qin women are unparalleled in the world, and the king you can marry herself." King Chuping was originally a lustful person, and seeing that the princess of the Qin State was indeed beautiful and incomprehensible, he was very happy to accept Fei Wujie's suggestion.
Fei Wuji, who was a thief with a weak heart, was afraid that his act of betraying the prince in order to please the king would be retaliated against by the prince in the future, and he would not be able to live in fear forever. In order to relieve his worries, he secretly united with the princess of the Qin state, instigated the king of Chuping to abolish the prince Jian, and then made the son of the princess of Qin the prince, and the two of them had selfish desires and were adulterous. After many provocations, the fainting King of Chuping finally decided to send someone to kill Prince Jian. Fortunately, Crown Prince Jianren secretly helped, got the news in advance, and luckily escaped to the Song Kingdom to avoid being pursued and killed by King Chuping.
Although the prince fled the Chu kingdom, he was a worm with a hundred feet, dead but not stiff. In order to enable the crown prince to make a comeback, Fei Wuji pointed the spearhead at the prince's subordinates. The first to bear the brunt was crown prince Fu Wuhao, who was also Wu Zixu's father, and king of Chuping wanted to kill him to kill the wing built by the prince, so he was imprisoned by king Chuping. Fei Wujie said, "Wu Hao has two sons, both of whom are quite talented and capable, so why doesn't the Great King use his father as bait and kill both of them, so that he can truly never have any trouble." King Chuping listened and felt that it was very reasonable, so he ordered Wu Hao to write a letter to summon his two sons.
Wu Hao understood King Chu Ping's true intentions in his heart. After writing the letter, he said: "My eldest son Wu Shang is a benevolent man and will definitely come." The younger son, Wu Yuan, is stoic and strong, and I am afraid that he will not come to die. ”
King Ping's envoys saw Wu Shang and said, "Your father is a loyal minister, who was previously imprisoned, and King Ping is ashamed in his heart, but now he has been pardoned, and there is no reward, and now Wu Shang is made the Marquis of Hongdu, and Wu Zixu is the Marquis of Gai, and I invite you two to go and receive the reward." ”
After receiving his father's handwritten letter, Wu Shangwu immediately understood the intention of King Chuping, and Wu Shang said to his brother Wu Shang: "We went only to fall into the trap of King Chuping, and the three fathers and sons died together, and they could not save their father at all, what good is it?" It is better that you and I flee to another country and try to avenge our father. Wu Shang said, "How can I care about the Marquis?" I just miss my father very much, even if I see him, I am content to die! If my father and I are really killed, it will be up to you to avenge my father and brother. After saying this, the two brothers waved tears to say goodbye.
When Wu Hao learned in prison that Wu Ren really refused to come, he couldn't help but sigh: "The Chu Kingdom has been in trouble since then..."
Stay in Qingshan: Wu Zixu escapes
Wu Zixu escaped from the Chu state and visited that Prince Jian was in the Song state, so he went to Song, intending to assist Prince Jian in retaking power from song. Unexpectedly, at that time, a coup d'état was taking place in the Song Dynasty, and civil unrest continued. With no hope of borrowing troops, Wu Zixu and Prince Jian turned to Zheng Guo. Zheng Dinggong knew wu Zixu's fame and personally came out to greet him.
Out of the interests of his country, Zheng Dinggong took advantage of Prince Jian's eagerness to borrow soldiers and secretly designed to kill Prince Jian. Then he had to assist Wu Zixu in dividing chu equally after destroying Chu. Wu Zixu felt that this move was unjust and was unwilling to do so. After Wu Zixu protected Prince Jian's son Sheng sheng who escaped from Zheng guo in the dark of night, he hid during the day and rushed to the road at night, making matters worse, Sheng was only a teenager after all, and after these days of desperate running, he had become tired and had difficulty moving.
A few days later, they arrived at Zhaoguan (in present-day northern Hanshan County, Anhui) on the border between Wu and Chu. However, the officials who were closed were very tightly checked, and Wu Zixu could not think of a way to escape for a while. Legend has it that Wu Zixu was so worried that he couldn't sleep for several nights, and even his hair was gray. At this time, they met a kind man, Donggao Gong, who sympathized with Wu Zixu and took him to his home.
Donggao Gong had a friend who looked a bit like Wu Zixu. Donggao Gong asked him to pass the pass by posing as Wu Zixu. The guard of the pass caught this fake Wu Zixu, and the real Wu Zixu because his hair was all white, his face changed, and the guard of the pass could not recognize it, so he was mixed out of the pass.
Wu Zixu came out of Zhaoguan, afraid that there were pursuing soldiers behind him, and hurried forward. A large river in front of me blocked the way. Wu Zixu was in a hurry, and an old man who was fishing on the river rowed a small boat over and crossed Wu Zixu across the river.
After crossing the river, Wu Zixu was very grateful, took off the sword beside him, handed it to the old fisherman, and said, "This sword was given to my grandfather by the King of Chu, and it is worth one hundred and two gold." Now I send it to you, which is also a little bit of my heart. ”
The old fisherman said, "In order to hunt you down, the King of Chu paid a bounty of 50,000 stones of grain, and promised to seal the title of Doctor of informants." I didn't even pay attention to this, would I want you to have this sword? ”
Wu Zixu hurriedly paid tribute to the old fisherman, collected the sword, bid farewell to the old fisherman and left.
Wu Zixu took Sheng, begged along the way, and entered the Wu kingdom of Tangyi.
Wu Zixu was found
Wu Gongziguang was an old acquaintance of Wu Zixu, and he introduced Wu Zixu to the Wu king's staff. King Wu had heard of Wu Zixu's abilities and had made Wu Zixu a doctor.
After some time, Wu Zixu found that Wu Wangfu did not really reuse his own meaning. After careful observation, he found that his lack of reuse was due to Gongzi Guang's repeated rumors around King Wu's staff, and it turned out that Gongzi Guang did not want Wu Zixu to be used by King Wu. Wu Zixu, who was aware of the situation, then realized that Gongzi Guang had a plot to usurp the throne. So he and Gongzi Guang said openly and honestly: "As long as you promise to send troops to the Chu Kingdom for me in the future, I can help you successfully seize the throne." Gongzi Guang agreed. Wu Zixu then planned a series of actions for him to seize power.
Wu Zixu recommended Hercules to assassinate King Wu. Gongzi Guang gave him a dagger that cut iron like mud, a fish intestine sword, which was only three inches long. After the assassination of the king's staff, Gongzi Guang stood on his own, and was the king of Wu.
Qingji, the son of King Wu, was also a man of strategy. When Wu wangfu was assassinated, he fled and hid in Weiguo, preparing to borrow Weiguo's army and horses to deal with Yanlu and regain power. In order to cut off the troubles, Wu Zixu personally sought out the East Sea warriors to leave to Lu Lu, and to leave the successful assassination of Qingji.
Therefore, Wu Zixu asked Lu Lu to send troops to attack Chu. Wu Wanglu pushed back and said, "Now, I still lack a general who leads the army." Wu Zixu said: "I have a long-time old friend, called Sun Wu, the Qi people's clan, his ability to march and deploy troops, and his ability to plan a decisive battle is unparalleled in the world, and I am willing to ask him to serve you." ”
King Wu was overjoyed and invited Sun Wu to come to the Kingdom of Wu. Sun Wu offered 13 articles on the Art of War.
Wu Zixu suggested that King Wu ask Sun Wu to demonstrate the art of war on the spot. King Wu agreed, and he had the intention to embarrass Sun Wu, so he arranged for a harem woman to pretend to be a soldier, saying: "Since Mr. Sun is proficient in the art of war, female soldiers can naturally be dispatched freely." ”
Sun Wu nodded and said yes. During the exercise, the concubines were full of anger and laughter, and Sun Wu was furious and immediately beheaded the two concubines of the general on the spot. When the palace concubines saw the blood light bursting out, they knew that it was not a child's play, so they solemnly followed Sun Tzu's orders to advance and retreat, showing the mystery of Sun Tzu's art of war. It was King Wu's favorite concubine who was killed, and King Wu was heartbroken, but he no longer dared to despise Sun Wu.
King Jing of Zhou was in September of the fourth year of Gengshen, king of Chuping was critically ill, and summoned a group of ministers to entrust the orphans: "After my death, I will take the throne by hui, he is still young, you must provide good assistance, the soldiers in the state of Wu are always a big problem in their hearts, protect the defense of Wu, remember." "Gongzi Yun, born to a daughter of Qin, reigned as King Zhao of Chu.
Wu Zixu received the news of King Chuping's death in the Kingdom of Wu and cried loudly. Gongzi Guang advised, "King ChuPing has no way, so why should you be sad for him?" Wu Zixu said: "I am not sad for him, but sad that I cannot avenge my father and brother." ”
After four years of FuLu, Wu Zixu's years of operation finally had results, and With Sun Wu as his commander and Wu Zixu as his general, he sent troops to attack Chu.
The great revenge is repaid: Wu Zixu digs up the grave and whips the corpse
The first thing Wu Zixu did when he returned to the Chu kingdom of Yingdu was to send someone to inquire into the location of the tomb of King Chu Ping. I don't know whether it was because the war had not found anyone to know, or because King Chuping had already anticipated it and adopted secrecy measures, and the cemetery was difficult to find for a while. This made Wu Zixu feel very upset. Just when he was restless and uneasy, his men reported that an old man volunteered to say that he knew the specific location of the tomb of King Chuping. But the old man left after saying it, so he only knew that the general location was outside the East Gate of The Lake, and the specific location was unknown.
After Listening to the soldiers' report, Wu Zixu brought a team of more than 20 people to The Lake outside the East Gate of Yingtai Lake. I saw a patch of decaying grass on the plain of Lake Yutai, and the water on the lake was vast. Where the grave is, there is not a trace of it. Wu Zixu was anxious, but this lake was tens of miles around, how to find it?
In the blink of an eye, it was going to be dark, but Wu Zixu and his men still found nothing. Looking at the soldiers' tired faces, Wu Zixu couldn't help but be discouraged. Prepare to find another hour, if there is no news, first withdraw the troops tomorrow and continue to search. Wu Zixu secretly swore in his heart that he would find the tomb of King Chuping to avenge his father and brother's blood hatred, even if he dug up the lake three feet, he would not hesitate.
Another hour had passed, and Wu Zixu still hadn't found it. But I don't know why, in the darkness, he felt that today was the day of his revenge. So he ordered the soldiers to take a break by the lake. Just as Wu Zixu was sitting on the ground and falling into contemplation, an old man suddenly appeared in his sight. I saw that this person was fifty or sixty years old, his body was thin, and his eyes were like torches. Wu Zixu vaguely felt that this person was absolutely extraordinary, and must have come to help him. So he hurriedly got up and stepped forward.
Without waiting for Wu Zixu to speak, the old man took the lead in asking, "Could it be General Wu Zixu who came?" ”
"Exactly."
"You're here to look for the grave of an enemy, right?"
"Old man, how do you know?" Wu Zixu was a little surprised and asked.
"It is well known to women and children in the Chu Kingdom that you want to avenge your father's revenge, so how can I be an exception?"
So the old man did not wait for Wu Zixu to speak, and took the lead in leading Wu Zixu and the soldiers to go in another direction. As he walked, the old man stopped in a place of overgrown grass
"This is it!" With the old man's shouts, the team stopped in front of a mound. This round, bald mound was not tall or eye-catching, and it was overgrown with cluttered grass.
Wu Zixu got off his horse and walked around the mound. "Is it really here?" His questioning was not angry.
"It's true, and now only I know." The old man's words were tinged with a faint sadness.
"Well, dig me up!" With Wu Zixu's order, the soldiers took out their tools and dug them up, and under the scorching sun, the soldiers wielding pickaxes were sweating like rain in a short while.
About an hour later, a coffin finally broke through.
"Open, open it for me!" The already exhausted soldiers struggled to pry the coffin in Wu Zixu's hoarse shouts. The coffin was made of fine wood and sealed so well that, despite the efforts of the soldiers, the coffin remained motionless. "Go away, I'll come!" Wu Zixu shouted angrily. Only to see him "whizz" and draw a sword from his waist: this sword can be described as sharpening iron like mud, but it is the ancestral treasure of the Wu family. He raised his sword, turned his grief into infinite power, and cut it down, the original extremely strong wood appeared vulnerable under the sword, and where the sword fell, the sawdust flew randomly, the seven swords fell, and the coffin was gone.
"Ah!" With everyone screaming, Wu Zixu couldn't help but sigh at the sky, it turned out that there were only clothes and hats in this coffin, but there was no corpse of King ChuPing.
"What's going on?" Everyone turned their doubtful eyes to the old man.
"Not busy, this is a suspicious coffin, The King of Chuping has been treacherous and vicious, and he has not forgotten to deceive people until he dies, it is really hateful to go home." But if you have deceived others, how can you deceive me? Don't worry, the real coffin is underneath. The old man's words gradually revealed a sense of sadness and indignation.
So the people removed the empty coffin, and sure enough, it was the real coffin. After some slashing and slashing, a corpse finally appeared in broad daylight.
The body, which had been buried for some time, had begun to decay and its face was somewhat blurred. But Wu Zixu recognized at a glance that this was his enemy who did not share the heavens: King Chuping.
The so-called enemy met, extremely red-eyed, Wu Zixu saw the corpse of King Chuping, and after many years of resentment surging into his heart, he couldn't help but be angry, he drew nine copper whips from behind, pointed at the corpse, and pumped wildly.
One, two, three... Three hundred times. Straight to the bone, Wu Zixu's anger had not yet subsided. He trampled the corpse with his feet again, and at the same time loudly rebuked: "Who taught you to believe in the words of the slanderers and kill my father and brother, you have today, purely to blame yourself!" ”
After doing all this, Wu Zixu was already weak, screaming, and kneeling on the ground, at this time, he was already in tears.
Wu Zixu, who had to repay the great revenge, remembered that he did not know the origin of the old man! So I talked to the old man. It turned out that the old man and dozens of brothers were ordered to build a tomb for the king of Chu, but the king of Chu was afraid that someone would dig his grave, so he unloaded and killed the donkey, and poisoned the old man and the craftsmen who were responsible for repairing the tomb for him. Those who built a half-life mausoleum for the King of Chu became the ghosts under the sword of King Chu Ping, and only the old man escaped by chance. Over the years, the old man has been thinking about how to avenge the brothers who were wrongfully killed, no coincidence is not a book, just when he was almost desperate, Wu Zixu led the army to attack the Chu country, so the old man knew that his great revenge could be repaid, so he volunteered to lead the way for Wu Zixu. Only then did Wu Zixu understand that he and the old man were originally people with the same disease.
Exhuming the grave and whipping the corpse can be said to be the pinnacle of punishment or revenge, but this method is not too cruel, and even Sima Qian, who has always presided over justice, has issued an exclamation that "resentment is even worse than others". However, there are other legends about Wu Zixu whipping the corpse of King Chuping, which are more specifically described in the "Wu Zixu Variations":
King Zhao abandoned the city and left, so he was captured by the servants and returned to King Zhao. "Where is your father's tomb now?" King Zhao, Qizi Xu, said: "My father, King Ping, has been materialized, bears the sins of the king, and is destined to be punished by Huangquan, and the matter is comparable, and the body is cut from the neck, and the father is sorry for the son, so why use the corpse?" Please be quick to be vengeful, and let the axe cross (钺). "King Zhao was examined, endured hardships, endured the pain, and was unable to bear the pain, so he became the tomb of his father. Zi Xu ti de wei ling, cut the heart and liver, cut off the heart and liver, and decapitated the nine tribes. The son-in-law summoned Zhao, saying: "My father was killed, and he threw the deep river." Sui Nai stopped flowing, took the skeleton of King Ping, and Wei Ling and Emperor Zhao, and Xi Zong took the heart and liver, and traveled to the river to sacrifice his father and brother's spirit: "Son-in-law, deep filial piety, father and brother are cursed to see and kill!" Than for the power is not added, so stagger years. Now he also kills Yi's father and son, abandons the deep river, and sacrifices his father and brother. Only God accepts. "The son-in-law was anxious, crying loudly, feeling that the sun and the moon were dark... From the above, we can know that Wu Zixu knew the specific location of King Chuping's tomb from the mouth of King Chuping's beloved son, King Chu Zhao, and dug up the tomb and whipped it.
Wu Zixu
Wu Zixu (?) –484 BC), courtesy name Zixu, was a native of the State of Chu, and was a heavy vassal of the State of Wu along with Sun Wu.
Wu Zixu was born in a family of generations of civilian and military generals, received a good education from an early age, and learned everything. Because his father Wu Hao and his brother Wu Shang were slandered and killed by King Chuping, he passed through Zhaoguan, took refuge in Wu, and surrendered to Gongzi Guangmen, he participated in the plot to assassinate King Wu and seize the throne for Gongzi Guang, and after Gongzi Guang became the King of Wu, Wu Zixu suggested to Lu Lu, "First establish a city outline, set up a garrison, shicang, and govern the army." Lu Lu ordered Wu Zixu to rebuild the city. Wu Zixu looked at the sky and measured the hydrogeology, and on the basis of the original Wuzi City, expanded the big city of Lu, which is now Suzhou City.
In 506 BC, King Lu of Wu used Wu Zixu as a counselor and Sun Wu as a general, and launched an attack on the State of Chu, five battles and five victories, capturing the Chu capital, and King Cangchao of Chu fled. Wu Zixu excavated the tomb of King Chuping and whipped the corpses of three hundred to avenge the killing of his father and brother. He himself was also enfeoffed by Shen for this reason, so he was also called Shen Xu.
In 496 BC, He lu was wounded in the war and died on his way home. After Fu Cha ascended the throne, he sent an army to attack the Yue kingdom in 494 BC and won a great victory. Yue Guo used gold and silver jewelry to seek peace, Wu Zixu entered the advice, and the husband almost did not listen.
In 491 and 487 BC, Fu Cha twice raised the division to fight Qi, and Wu Zixu once again advised that the trouble in the heart of the Yue kingdom should be removed first, and it was not appropriate to attack the state of Qi. However, Fu Cha still did not listen to the advice, but instead listened to the rumors of Xinbo, causing Wu Zixu to commit suicide. Wu Zixu said to the Sheren: After I die, I will gouge out my eyes and hang them above the East Gate, and I will see with my own eyes the invasion of the Yue Kingdom and the destruction of the Wu Kingdom. So he killed himself. It was in 484 BC. When King Wu heard this, he was furious and put Wu Zixu's body in a leather pocket and threw it in the river.
Wu Zixu's life can be described as full of legends. Sima Qian called him a lie husband, and said in a large biography: "Zi Xu was embarrassed on the river, begging for food, and Zhi Zhi had to forget the evil spirit?" Therefore, hidden forbearance is a meritorious name, and who can a non-martyr husband cause this? "The so-called wrath of the monarch, bleeding for thousands of miles, the anger of cloth clothes, splashing blood five steps." From ancient times to the present, in the eyes of people, Wu Zixu is a man who stands tall in the sky.
Whether Wu Zixu dug up the grave and whipped the corpse
According to legend, Wu Zixu avenged his father and brother's hatred, once dug up the tomb of King Chuping, and angrily whipped king Ping's corpse three hundred times. For this legend, there are two different records of "whip corpse" and "whip grave" in ancient documents, and in recent years, there has been a complete denial of "whip corpse" and "whip grave".
First, the whip said. "History of wu taibo shijia" Yun: "Zi Xu and Bo Whipping the corpse of the king to avenge their father." The Biography of Wu Zixu in history says: "And Wu Ziyin, Wu Zixu asked the king of Zhao, neither, but dug up the tomb of King Chuping, and out of his corpse, whipped three hundred, and then has been." It can be seen that Sima Qian's record of this matter should be correct. Yang Xiong's "Fa Yan Chongli" also has this statement, and then criticizes Wu Zixu for "whipping the corpse coffin, and all of them are not moral." In the Eastern Han Dynasty Zhao Ye's "Biography of Wu Yue Chunqiu And Lu Lu", in addition to recording the plot of "digging up the grave and whipping the corpse", it also added the details of "the left foot trampling the abdomen, the right hand supporting his eyes, and the slanderous 'Who made Ru use the mouth of slander to kill my father and brother, will not be wronged'". According to this point of view, it is said that Wu Zixu dug up the grave and whipped the corpse, which is based on evidence.
Second, the whip said. This theory first appears in the record of the "Lü Shi Chunqiu Shoushi", which says that Wu Zixu "shot at the royal palace with his own hands and whipped jingping's grave for three hundred". The "Fourth Year of the Duke of Dinggong" says that he "tarted the tomb of the king". The Huainanzi Tai Training and the Yue Zhi Shu Jingping Wang Nei Biography also say that Wu Zixu whips the tomb. Judging from the historical value of ancient documents, the "Lü's Spring and Autumn" was written more than a hundred years earlier than the "History", and the history of the Chu State should be credible. In this way, Wu Zixu only whipped the grave three hundred, and did not dig up the grave and whip the corpse.
Third, the negative theory. Zhang Jun published an article entitled "Wu Zixu He Once Excavated a Grave and Whipped Corpse" in the Third Issue of the Journal of Wuhan University in 1985, completely overturning the two theories of "whip corpse" and "whip grave". He believes that Wu Zixu did not dig up the grave and whip the corpse, nor did he whip the grave to vent his anger, and even did not participate in the Battle of broken Yin. The main reasons for this are:
"Spring and Autumn" and other books are the earliest and most authoritative classics that record the history of the Spring and Autumn Period, and none of them mention this matter. The "Zuo Biography" only records the killing of Wu Zixu's family by King Chuping, in a tone of condemnation, and the penmanship of sympathy for Wu Zixu, Qu Yuan also praised and self-imitated Wu Zixu.
The invasion of the Capital of the Chu state by the Wu army was the time of Confucius's lifetime. Confucius was the most tolerant of chaotic courtiers and thieves, and Wu Zixu lured Wu into the room and dug up the grave and whipped the corpse, which can be described as a great crime, but Confucius's remarks were mentioned only in words.
The "Four Years of the Ram Turning and Dinggong" clearly records the idea that Wu Zixu was loyal to the king and did not repay his personal vendetta: "The matter is the king's father, the righteousness of the king, the revenge of the father, and the subject does not do it." "It is very important that he is subjectively reluctant to do the work of exhuming the grave and whipping the corpse.
The story of Wu Zixu's digging up the grave and whipping the corpse has been adapted into countless operas, legends, and novels, and has been widely circulated in the folk. But it seems that the truth of history can only be doubted.