Comrade Guevara
In China's long monarchy era, the "long live" in the mouth of the courtiers specifically referred to the emperor, and the first monarch to call himself "long live" was King Song Kang in the middle and late Warring States period. As the most accomplished monarch after Song Xianggong, King Song Kang once brought the Song Kingdom and himself to the highest peak of popularity, and was deeply loved by the people. However, this promising monarch who should have left his name in history ended up being abandoned by the people and ruined by the country, why is this?
Today, let's talk about this fan-like long live master.
King Kang of Song, the 34th monarch of the Song Kingdom, was not only heroic in appearance and born with divine power, but also had great ambitions, and regarded the revival of the country and the revival of hegemony as his life's pursuit. For this reason, after many years of forbearance and inaction of his brother Junzihan, Ziyan finally staged a coup d'état and came to power in 329 BC, and proclaimed himself king in 318 BC, known as King Song Kang in history. After King Song Kang came to power, he carried out drastic reforms in the political, military, economic and other fields, and after more than 30 years of unremitting efforts, finally brought the Song State into the ranks of medium powers.
With the growth of strength, the idea of King Song Kang wanting to do something great and leave a name in history grew, and expanding his territory abroad was undoubtedly the best way to realize his ambitions. However, at this time, it was the middle of the Warring States period, and the differentiation of strength between countries was very obvious, and the world had largely become a game arena for the three superpowers of Qin, Chu, and Qi. In order to make a difference in this era of obvious strength and weakness, King Song Kang was destined to be the enemy of the great powers.
King Song Kang
Although King Song Kang was interested in challenging the great powers, considering that the country's military strength was not strong after all, and it was in the "land of four wars", there was no danger to defend within the territory, and external expansion would inevitably lead to direct conflicts with the surrounding powers, and if they united to attack themselves, the consequences would be unimaginable. Therefore, King Song Kang was very uncertain in his heart, and he did not dare to act rashly for a while. However, a strange event that happened soon after completely dispelled King Song Kang's concerns and led him to the point of no return for self-destruction.
It is said that one day a strange thing happened in Shangqiu City, the capital of the Song Kingdom, and a small bird gave birth to a quail bird in the corner of the city wall. According to the prevailing rumors at the time, the quail bird belonged to a kind of phoenix, lived on the Kunlun Mountain, and was in charge of various utensils and clothing in the daily life of the Emperor of Heaven. Therefore, King Song Kang was very surprised when he learned the news, because he didn't know whether this matter was auspicious or evil, so he asked Taishi to do divination.
Taishi is in charge of recording historical events, compiling historical books, drafting documents, and is also in charge of national classics, astronomical calendars, sacrifices and other affairs. However, this Taishi is a sloppy man, and he has long been aware of King Song Kang's ambition to expand and dominate the world, so he deliberately followed his intentions and said that a small bird gave birth to a big bird, indicating that the Song Kingdom would be able to dominate the world. King Song Kang was happy after hearing this, and thus firmly challenged the great power and dominated the world.
At the time of King Song Kang, there were birds and quails in the city. Shi Zhanzhi said: "Small and huge, will dominate the world." King Kang was overjoyed. See "Warring States Policy, Volume 32, Song Weice".
In the 33rd year after his accession to the throne (296 BC), King Kang of Song first started with a small kingdom and destroyed the neighboring state of Teng in one fell swoop. After "trying the knife", King Kang of Song pointed the target of expansion to the three major neighboring countries - Qi, Wei and Chu, and took advantage of their exhaustion to deal with foreign enemies to conquer 5 cities of Qi to the east, annex the Huaibei land of Chu to the south, and seize 2 counties of Wei to the west, which can be described as a remarkable achievement. At this time, the Song Kingdom, with an area of about 100,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 4 million, became the eighth powerful country in the Warring States Period, known as the "Five Thousand Times Song Dynasty".
Situation map of the middle and late Warring States period
After achieving brilliant war results, King Song Kang thought he was invincible in the world, and became increasingly proud and complacent, and no longer worried about state affairs, but completely indulged in wine. In order to show his dignity, King Song Kang often ordered his attendants to call him "long live" when he was drunk, and when the attendants just finished shouting, the hundred officials in the court and the crowd outside the palace gate immediately shouted in unison. Under this demonstration effect, no one in the Song Kingdom dared not express their "love" for the king, so the voice of "long live" resounded in all corners of the country, which was spectacular.
For the long night to drink in the room, the people in the room call long live, then the people in the hall should respond, the people under the hall should respond, and the people outside the door should respond, so that in the country, no one dares not to call long live. See "Zizhi Tongjian: The Twenty-Ninth Year of King Zhou Xun".
In addition to arrogance, in order to show his personality of not being afraid of heaven and earth, King Song Kang actually filled a leather bag with blood, hung it up and shot it with an arrow, known as "shooting the sky". Perhaps because he didn't think it was enough, King Song Kang beat the earth with a whip, and cut off the gods of earth and ceres and burned them, declaring to his subordinates that this was using power to subdue the ghosts and gods of the world. Worthy of the name, the upper sky, the lower ground, and the middle air can be described as extremely arrogant.
King Song's perverse behavior caused many loyal ministers to worry, and they feared that if this continued, the country would be ruined sooner or later at the hands of this tyrant. For this reason, these people have made blunt remarks to King Song Kang, hoping that he can quit drinking, worship heaven and gods, and return to the good king who worked hard and loved the people like a son. At the same time, they also persuaded King Song Kang to change his foreign policy of making enemies everywhere and restore and develop peaceful and friendly relations with his neighbors, so as to ensure the country's security.
It is a pity that at this time, the officialdom of the Song State prevailed the rule of "reverse elimination", and it was difficult for officials with conscience and truth-telling to survive, while traitors who were evil and flattering were favored by the king. Therefore, King Song Kang, who was carried away by all kinds of "victories" and was willing to enjoy all kinds of "fancy" touting, was extremely disgusted by the bitter exhortations of his ministers, and in his opinion, this was a provocation to his supreme authority. Therefore, in order to deter the court, King Song Kang actually shot all the ministers who entered the court to death.
The ministers and the admonishers shot it. So the princes all called it "Ji Song". See "Historical Records, Volume 38, Song Weizi Family").
The Song State under the rule of King Kang of Song was called "Ji Song" by other vassal states
The various atrocities of King Song Kang shrouded the Song Kingdom in an atmosphere of extreme terror. However, although the people of the Song Kingdom did not dare to openly express their opposition, and pretended to love King Song Kang on the surface, they all resented this tyrant who "went all the way to the black", and wished that he would step down and die as soon as possible. At the same time, the countries also resented the tyranny of King Song Kang, and in order to express their disgust, they called the Song State at this time "Ji Song", and regarded King Song Kang as a cruel emperor as much as Xia Wei and Shang Xuan.
The ending can be imagined, King Song Kang's perverse actions eventually led to the destruction of the country.
In 286 BC, the restored state of Qi united Chu and Wei to attack the Song state. Because the coalition forces far surpassed the Song State in terms of total strength, and the latter had no danger to defend and the armament was weak, it was impossible to resist the fierce attack of the strong enemy, so they fought a series of battles along the way, and soon reached the city of Shangqiu. Seeing that the situation was critical, King Song Kang, who usually regarded himself as "Lao Tzu's No. 1 in the world", suddenly showed his true colors of cowardice, hid in the city and did not dare to fight, and coerced the military and civilians in the national capital to defend the city to protect his personal safety.
The Three Kingdoms united to destroy the Song Dynasty
However, the soldiers and civilians of the Song State had long hated King Song Kang, so they not only refused to defend the city for the tyrant, but also fled out of the city in groups, unable to stop them. Seeing that the general trend had gone, King Song Kang, who had rebelled and left his relatives, fled to Ni Hou's residence for refuge, but was soon "betrayed" by the countrymen, and was searched out by the Qi army who first entered Shangqiu City, and ended up with a chaotic corpse. With the killing of King Kang of Song, the Song Kingdom (1114-286 BC), which had been established for more than 800 years, collapsed, and its territory was divided among the three kingdoms of Qi, Wei, and Chu.
So he destroyed Teng Daixue and took the land of Huaibei. The more self-confident he is, the more he wants to dominate it, he shoots the sky and the earth, cuts the society and burns it. He said: "Conquer the ghosts and gods of the world." "Scolding the old man of the country and saying, for the shameless crown to show bravery. Cutting the back of the sword, the shin of the court, and the people were shocked. When they heard about it, the people scattered, and the city was not defended. Wang Nai fled from the mansion of the Marquis of Ni and died. See "Warring States Policy, Volume 32, Song Weice"
King Song Kang was finally abandoned by the people and ended up with death and the destruction of the country
Thousands of years of ancient Chinese history have repeatedly proved that "not being strong externally, not tossing and turning internally" is the common characteristic of all virtuous monarchs and masters, and only by knowing how to do something and not doing something, and cherishing the people, can they keep their positions and the country achieve long-term peace and stability. However, King Song Kang did not understand this truth at all, and not only openly provoked and attacked powerful neighbors, but also acted perversely in the country, resulting in the destruction of the country and the death of the country, which can really be said to be self-inflicted.
bibliography
1. [西汉] 司马迁: 《史记》, 中华书局, 1982 edition.
2. [西汉] 刘向: 《战国策》,中华书局, 2006 edition.
3. [Northern Song Dynasty] Sima Guang: "Zizhi Tongjian", Zhonghua Book Company, 2015 edition.