The "qualifications" of the Chu state as a prince are quite old! As we all know, the State of Qin, which was once responsible for raising horses for Zhou Tianzi, was officially recognized as a prince after King Ping of Zhou moved east; and the State of Chu, which was once responsible for providing thatch for Zhou Tianzi, had been officially divided into viscounts and became princes of one side as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty! However, the Chu state, which was quite old in "qualifications", has not been able to integrate into the large circle of central plains princes, and has long been regarded as "outlier" by the central plains princes. One of the most intuitive embodiments is the fable story handed down in ancient China, in which the images of "stupid" and "stupid" are almost all Chu people! A glimpse of the whole leopard shows what kind of image the Chu State was in the eyes of the princes at that time.
It is precisely for this reason that the Chu state and the princes of the Central Plains have not been very compatible. Later, the Chu state produced a monarch named Xiong Tong. After the death of his brother King Li of Chu, this benevolent brother directly killed his nephew and established himself as the king of the Chu state! Then there is the "law of history" – the vast majority of emperors who come to power through usurpation are kings who work hard to govern. Xiong Tong was no exception, and soon after coming to power, he destroyed the power state adjacent to the Chu state! Later, he launched a large-scale attack on another neighboring state, forcing Suihou to write to Zhou Tianzi to request the elevation of the status of the State of Chu, which was to put it bluntly, to raise the viscounts of the State of Chu to counts, marquises, dukes, and the like. As a result, Zhou Tianzi did not take the Chu state seriously at all, and directly did not dump Xiong Tong.
This made Ke Xiong's ventilation bad, and Xiong Tong's benevolent brother was not covered: "Old Ji, you don't give Grandpa Jin Jue, right?" Come on your own! As a result, Xiong Tong directly changed himself from Chuzi to King of Chu... You must know that at that time, in addition to Zhou Tianzi, the highest status among the princes was only a duke. Xiong Tong's intention in this move is very obvious - since you don't give me a knighthood, let's just "sit on an equal footing"! You Zhou Tianzi is the king, then I will also make a king to be the king. When some people questioned Xiong Tong's unseemly move, this benevolent brother was even more "rogue" and directly threw out a sentence: "I am a barbarian!" "—Don't you mean that our Chu country is a barbarian, then I am a barbarian, why? Go for your set of etiquette, it's useless to me this barbarian!
Of course, behind this "rogue", Xiong Tong has the confidence, this confidence is the gradual decline of Zhou Tianzi and the increasing strength of the Chu State, the strength of the Chu State is no longer afraid of any of the princes, let alone the Zhou Tianzi who has long been reduced to a decoration! Zhou Tianzi heard that Xiong Tong had established himself as king, and although he was angry and corrupt, he could not do anything... And Xiong Tong's title of king this time also became the last straw that crushed Zhou Tianzi. Since then, Zhou Tianzi's prestige as a unique king has disappeared, and he has been directly hanged by the princes. Later, in the middle and late period of the Warring States, the kings of the various countries and the princes were called kings and began to "sit on an equal footing" with Zhou Tianzi. Later, King Zhaoxiang of Qin could not even look at the king, and directly created himself an "emperor", and incidentally destroyed the last Zhou Tianzi, the King of Zhou Zhao.
As for the other princes' titles, to put it bluntly, it is still a manifestation of "liturgy and happiness". At the beginning, when King Wu of Zhou and King Cheng of Zhou divided the world, the rank was quite strict, and only dukes could be called dukes. Later, as Zhou Tianzi became more and more powerless, the princes began to put gold on their faces, not only asking their subjects to honor themselves as dukes in the feudal country, but also calling each other gong among the princes. But this is just a kind of "self-hi", and Zhou Tianzi did not formally give it clearly. For example, Zheng Zhuanggong is still called Zheng Bo in the "Zuo Biao", and the article "Zheng Boke Duan Yu Yan" must be familiar to all the kings, right? The so-called Zheng Bo refers to Zheng Zhuanggong. Zheng Bo is the official name given by Zhou Tianzi, and Zheng Gong is the "self-deprecating" of Zheng Guojun.