After the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang, because the power of the Zhou State was far in the northwest, it was very unfavorable for the Zhou State to control the vast territory and rule the descendants of the Shang Dynasty. Coupled with the fact that the State of Zhou was able to destroy the Shang, relying on the strength of the State of Zhou itself, the territory of the State of Zhou was not more than 100 miles, the population was only 60,000 or 70,000, and the army that could be mobilized was only "3000 chariots, 3,000 tigers, and 45,000 jiashi", and without the assistance of the 4,000 yuan of rongches of the 800 princes such as Yong, Shu, Qiang, Mane, Wei, Lu, Peng, and Pu, the Zhou Kingdom alone would never have been able to defeat the 700,000 troops of the Shang Dynasty.
Therefore, based on the above factors, in order to control the vast territory of the East, after the destruction of the Shang, King Wu of Zhou adopted the policy of "feudal relatives, with the feudal screen Zhou", and began to implement the system of sub-feudalism, the princes of Dafen, when "(The King of Zhou) also ruled the world, established seventy-one kingdoms, and the surname of Ji lived alone fifty-three people", and king Wu of The early Zhou Dynasty divided seventy-one kingdoms, of which Wu Geng, the son of Shang, was sealed in the Shang capital, so as to control the merchants; The brothers of the Wu King, Guan Shu, Cai Shu, and Huo Shu, respectively, were sealed in Guan, Cai, and Huo, respectively, to supervise Wu Geng; the brother of the Wu King, Zhou Gong, was sealed in Lu, and the Gongchen Zhao Gong was sealed in Yan. This was used to prevent the rebellion of the remnants of the Yin merchants; the meritorious jiang Shang sealed Yu Qi, thus controlling the east.
At the same time, the princes of the Wu Dynasty had five ranks, and the Yi zhou Shu Zhi Fang Clan stated: "All kingdoms, gong, hou, bo, son, male, to know the world." Where the size of the state is different, the king sets up his pastor, the system of its position is according to its ability, the system of its tribute is all its own", the princes of the Zhou Dynasty are divided into gong, hou, bo, son, male five, etc., with the gong being the most respected, the male is the most humble, and in the final Monday Dynasty, the only monarchs who were named as dukes by the king of Zhou were the monarchs of the seven kingdoms such as the State of Song, the State of Qi, the State of Zhu, the State of Jiao, the State of Ji, the State of Chen, and the State of Xia, and these seven principalities, except for the founding monarch of the State of Qi, who was surnamed Ji, and the founding monarchs of the other six kingdoms were all descendants of the previous kings, and the State of Song was a descendant of Shang Tang, and the State of Qi was a descendant of Xia Yu. Zhu Guo was a descendant of Yao, Jiao Guo was a descendant of Emperor Yan, Ji Guo was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, and Chen Guo was a descendant of Shun.
That is to say, in the Zhou Dynasty, only the monarchs of these seven countries can be called dukes, and the monarchs of other countries cannot be called dukes in the strict sense, such as the Duke of Qi Huan, the Duke of Song Xiang, the Duke of Jin Wen, the Duke of Qin Mu, and the King of Chu Zhuang (taking the "History of Suoyin" as an example), except for the Duke of Song Xiang who can be justified in name, the titles of the other four powers are lower than those of dukes, of which the titles of Duke Qi Huan are marquises, the titles of Duke Wen of Jin are marquises, the titles of Duke Mu of Qin are counts, and the titles of King of Chu zhuang are viscounts (Huan, Wen, Mu, and Zhuang are all nicknames) That is to say, the correct titles of the Spring and Autumn Five Lords should be Song Xianggong, Qi Huanhou, Jin Wenhou, Qin Mubo, and Chu Zhuangzi, as stated in the Spring and Autumn Period: "(Zhuang Gong sixteen years) May decay ugly, the guild Jin hou, Qi hou, Song gong, Cai Hou, Zheng Bo, Wei Zi, Ju zi, allied in the practice of the soil."
Then many people here do not understand, why the Spring and Autumn Four Hegemons, of which only Song Xianggong is a righteous duke, the other four hegemons are not, why do they dare to call "Gong"? Even King Chu Zhuang dared to call himself "King" without shame?
First of all, the three people of Qi Huan, Jin Wen and Qin Mu are not much wrong, because "Gong" in the Zhou Dynasty can not only be used as a title, but also as an honorific title, such as the book "Spring and Autumn" that the twelve princes of Lu are all princes, but in fact the State of Lu is only a prince, and the reason why the monarch of the State of Lu is called a Duke, how to say in the "Biography of the Ram": "Lu is called a duke, and the courtiers want to honor their fathers." The Duke, the Fifth Lord, is the most honored. The heart of the king's courtiers wants to honor his father and make him a duke", that is because the courtiers in the lu state believe that their monarch can be called a prince, and the so-called "heart desires to honor his father, so that he is called a prince".
To put it simply, during the Zhou Dynasty, the princes were called "Gong" in their own fiefdoms, which was an unwritten practice in the Zhou Dynasty, although it was not made public, but secretly it was a practice that even the King of Zhou acquiesced to. As the "White Tiger Tong Knighthood" said: "Uncle, son, male, courtiers in their country to praise their kings as dukes", to put it bluntly, dukes as the most honorable titles at that time, courtiers want to pat the horse's ass, call its monarch a duke, is the best horse's ass.
Of course, this unwritten practice is limited to the self-amusement of the internal monarch, but it is impossible to put it on the surface, and if "the princes have a meeting and a way to hire each other", then they cannot "privately the righteousness of their subjects", that is, once the princes meet, such as when they meet the King of Zhou, the princes can only call the title given by the King of Zhou, but cannot call themselves "Dukes".
As a result, the Duke of Qi Huan, the Duke of Jin Wen, and the Duke of Qin Mu, who called gong, were not much of a mistake, not a transgression.
After that, during the Spring and Autumn Period, the strength of the Zhou Dynasty had turned from strong to weak, the royal family was weakening day by day, the King of Zhou had long lost control of the world, and the princes had long since stopped paying attention to the King of Zhou, they attacked each other, desperately annexing small countries, and even the state of the same emperor of the Zhou Dynasty could not be spared. Therefore, in this situation, the status is no longer determined by the title, but by the strength, who is strong, who is the master of the world's right to speak, even if the powerful country was a viscount before, it can also control the principality.
In this way, in this situation, even the monarchs of small vassal states such as Qiu and Ju were called gong, such as The Duke of Qiwen, the Duke of Ding, and the Duke of QiuXuan, not to mention the powerful monarchs of Qi, Jin, and Qin.
However, at that time, even if it was the most powerful countries such as Qi, Jin, and Qin, their monarchs did not dare to call themselves kings, at most they only dared to claim the title of gong, after all, at that time, although the Zhou royal family had begun to decline, but the prestige was still there, and calling the king was at most the practice of turning unwritten practices into legal practices, no one could say anything, but calling the king was equivalent to rebellion, which was probably caused by a group attack, but it was greatly unfavorable to the development of the country, so when there was no absolute strength to deal with the repeated attacks of other princes, they naturally did not dare to be king.
At this point, many people do not understand why qin, Jin, Qi and other powerful countries dare not call the king, and why does the Chu state dare to call the king?
Quite simply, because the Chu people were not originally Central Plains people, they were barbarians, the Chu state was up to Chu Jun, down to the Chu people, they did not have that sense of respect for the King of Zhou, nor did they have that sense of obedience, in our current words, the Chu State did not have the strength of the Zhou King at all, at first the Chu State did not have that strength, chu Jun naturally did not dare to call the king, can only be obedient, at that time in the Xiongtong period, the strength of the Chu State was by leaps and bounds, becoming one of the top two powerful countries, first destroying the power state, gaining the western part of the Jianghan Plain, and then conquering the Suiguo, defeating the states of Deng, Yun, Hang, Luo and other countries. Become the overlord of Handong.
It can be said that the Chu state during the Xiongtong period has long become the hegemon of the south, and he already has the strength to go to the King of Zhou to compete, so after having enough strength, coupled with the fact that the Chu people themselves are not accustomed to the King of Zhou, and they are not the King of Zhou, so Xiong Tong's title of King of Zhou has become a matter of course, after all, Xiong Tong is a male lord, and his ambition is to sit on an equal footing with the King of Zhou, which is from Xiong Tong once said: "I am a barbarian also." Now all the princes are treasonous or murderous. I have our armor, I want to look at the government of China, please ask the royal family to honor the number" (to the effect that you princes of the Central Plains kill each other, I now have a powerful army, I can calm the world for you King Zhou, but the title is not enough, so I hope that the King of Zhou will give me a high enough title so that I am qualified to help manage the world).
It must be said that there are two main reasons why the monarch of the State of Chu is called king, one of which is that the strength of the State of Chu is strong enough, and it is not afraid of the King of Zhou, nor is it afraid of other princes. The State of Chu was located in the south, far from the Central Plains, and the South was the only one who could pose a threat to him, and at the same time, the princes of the Central Plains were also beyond its reach. In this way, the State of Chu did not have to fear at all what the princes of the Central Plains would do to make it king, would they still go on an expedition to the State of Chu when the surrounding areas were full of enemy countries? This did not do them any good, and the central plains princely states were not as exclusive in a region as the Chu state, in the central plains, Qi, Qin, Jin, etc. were all powerful countries, and no one could help anyone, and once there was turmoil among them, other countries were bound to rise up and attack them. Therefore, they would definitely not send troops to expedition to the Chu kingdom because of the fact that the Chu emperor was called king.
Second, the Chu people were already scornful of the Central Plains Princes' set of "Honoring the King" statement, for the King of Zhou, the Chu people were far less important than the Central Plains Princes, so they would not care about the views of the Central Plains Princes, since I have strength, then I should sit on an equal footing with you, this is the real idea of Chu Jun at that time, and it is also something that the Chu people take for granted.