King Zhuang of Chu, one of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period, exerted great efforts to govern, and the monarch used his life to eventually become a hegemon. Every successful person will always have one or two special hobbies, and use this hobby to reduce stress at leisure. King Chuzhuang also has a special hobby, that is, he likes horses, we like to raise dogs and cats as pets, and King Chuzhuang has raised many horses as pets!
In particular, several of the horses, king Zhuang of Chu gave the treatment of retired senior cadres. Each horse is equipped with 3 people to take care of life, there is a special mansion to live, the horse is draped with exquisite embroidered brocade, sleeps on a very elaborate soft bed, and each meal is fed with dried dates, which makes the horse fat and shiny. The more King Chu Zhuang looked at it, the more he liked it, and he watched it three times a day. But heaven does not follow man's wishes, and this horse, like man, is born of sorrow and dies of happiness! Every day, the horse is fed more and more fat, the horse's stomach is also getting bigger and bigger, afraid that the horse is tired, and do not let it exercise, and finally one day the king of Chuzhuang's favorite horse died, it was fat, died of obesity complications.
At this time, the king of Chuzhuang, like his dead father, was distraught and ordered all the ministers to give Aima a funeral and set up a funeral committee. It is required to perform a state funeral with the rank of court doctor (the Zhou Dynasty doctor was an aristocratic class) and buried in a coffin. There were many objections among the dprk and the Chinese ministers. King Zhuang of Chu arrested and imprisoned the ministers who opposed the most, and at the same time said, "Whoever opposes the burial of horses any longer will be decided." "It can be seen that King Chuzhuang's determination to bury the horse, there is no way, who called him the boss."
At that time, there was a court actor, called Youmeng (You is a profession in the Spring and Autumn Period, which is equivalent to an actor who plays acrobatics, cross-talk, and magic, with the profession as the surname, named Meng. Tall and tall, superb acting! He was also older, so King Chu Zhuang liked and respected him more. (In the past, the ancients were not as rich as we are now, when they could only listen to plays and drink tea for leisure and entertainment, so the actors at that time were more popular.) ）
After this Youmeng heard that the king of Chuzhuang had buried his horse with a doctor's ceremony, he came to the king of Chuzhuang crying and crying, and the king of Chuzhuang widened his eyes and said, "My horse is dead, I have not cried, what are you crying?" Yu Meng said, "It is so sad that your beloved horse is dead, it is your favorite horse, how can you use only the doctor's ceremonial state funeral?" It should be buried with the etiquette of the monarch. When King Chu Zhuang heard this, his heart was overjoyed, and he thought that there was finally a reasonable person who was as good as I thought. Yu Yu immediately asked Youmeng, "Then what do you think you have to do?" ”
YouMeng told King Zhuang of Chu: "We in the Chu kingdom are vast and rich, our soldiers are strong and strong, and now we are the overlords, so we must show our strength." It is necessary to make the coffin of the horse with the best jade, make the rafter of the delicate catalpa wood, and make the guard board of the precious wood. Mobilize the army and the whole city to build ornate burial chambers for horses. At the time of the burial of the State of Qi, the envoys of the State of Zhao accompanied the sacrifice in front, and the envoys of the Han and Wei countries escorted in the rear, and then sacrificed cattle and sheep to the Ma Li Ancestral Hall, and sealed the horses and ten thousand households, so that there were always people to worship this horse. In this way, the princes of all countries also know that you, the Great King, despise your subjects and value your horses. ”
After hearing Youmeng's last words, the King of Chu Zhuang was like a sobering up, and immediately sobered up, saying to himself, "How did I get so confused to this point, so wrong, so what is going on now?" Youmeng quickly hit the iron while it was hot and said, "I think the animals should still be buried by the method of livestock, build a large earthen stove as a coffin, use a large copper pot as a coffin, add some ginger and garlic to taste, spices to fishy, add a fierce fire, bury it in the belly is the most real." As soon as the palace actors said this, the effect was different, and the heat was in place, causing the King of Chuzhuang to laugh and say loudly that it would be done. In the end, King Chuzhuang's beloved horse was not wasted and buried in the belly of the Wenwu Hundred Officials.
When a thing enters an impasse, if you think about it from another angle, it may have the effect of willow and dark flowers. Just as Youmeng in the matter of King Chuzhuang burying horses, he has made it clear that everyone's opposition is invalid, then Youmeng does not oppose, in order to retreat into advance, support the King of Chuzhuang to give the horse a state funeral, and also suggest that the King of Chuzhuang upgrade to use monarchy etiquette, the King of Chuzhuang sees that Youmeng supports himself, and he is certainly willing to listen to Youmeng's opinions when he relaxes his vigilance, and the final result of this matter is that all the people in the world know that the king of Chuzhuang is heavy on horses and light on subjects. This was unacceptable to king Chu Zhuang, and in the end it was reasonable for king Chu Zhuang to accept that the horse was buried in his belly.