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In the second year of the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty, in 770 BC, Yijiu, the son of King You of Zhou, succeeded to the throne as King Ping of Zhou. The Zhou Dynasty migrated to Luoyang, known as the "Eastern Zhou" in history, and became even weaker from then on. With the decline of the Zhou royal family, the political and economic development of various countries became more unbalanced, and after some feudal states became strong, they launched a competition for hegemony under the banner of "respecting the king and conquering the emperor", and Chinese history entered the Spring and Autumn era of competing for hegemony. Since the founding of the country, the state of Chu has been "blue wisps on the road to open up the mountains and forests", worked hard, reorganized the army and fought the military, and began to rise in the Jianghan River valley after more than ten generations of monarchs after the efforts and accumulation. Several generations of Chu monarchs, starting from Ruoao Xiongyi (died in 764 BC), were aggressive and enterprising, gradually entering the ranks of competing for hegemony with the princes of the Central Plains, and finally became one of the "Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons" during the reign of King Chuzhuang. This article introduces the main deeds of the Chu monarchs in the Spring and Autumn Period.
15, Chu Xiao Ao Xiongkan (reign: 764-758 BC, a total of 6 years)
Xiong Kan is the eldest son of Chu Ruoao Xiongyi, married a Zhao woman as a concubine, and gave birth to sons Xiong Wei and Xiong Tong. During his reign, Xiong Kan led his subjects to work hard and made a non-negligible contribution to the development of the Chu State, but because of his short reign, there is not much record in the literature.
16, Chu Wei Mao Xiong (reign time: 758 BC-741 BC, a total of 17 years)
Xiong Wei is the eldest son of Xiong Kan, and his name is Wei Mao, and he is also known as King Chu Li in "Han Feizi". "Mao" and "Ao" are the supreme commanders. After Xiong ascended the throne, he led his subjects to work hard internally to strengthen the country, and externally cautiously and boldly expanded to the surrounding areas, seeking to expand the territory. He once defeated Shen Yu with his arrogant tactics, subdued Baipu, and laid the foundation for the rise of the Chu State. The story of the famous Bian He's dedication to the King of Chu "He's Bi" began when he was in the middle of the year, and spanned the three generations of kings of King Li, King Wu and King Wen.
17, Xiong Tong, King of Chu Wu (reign: 741-690 BC, a total of 51 years)
Xiong Tong is Xiong Kan's second son and Xiong Wei's younger brother. When Xiong died of illness, he planned to pass on his son (name unknown), but Xiong Tong, who had great ambitions, suddenly launched a palace coup d'état, hunted down Xiong's son, and established himself as king. This was an epoch-making event in the history of the Chu State, announcing the rise of a great southern power. Xiong Tong successively married a woman surnamed Ji and Deng Man as a concubine, and gave birth to sons Xiong Yun, Xiong Yuanshan, and Xiong Fang (later sealed in Qu Yi, and his descendants took the fief as their clan, so they called Qu Shi, the ancestor of Qu surname, and the great poet Qu Yuan is his descendant).
King Wu of Chu was a promising monarch, and after he succeeded to the throne, on the one hand, he took advantage of the unique natural advantages to devote himself to the economic development of the Chu State; On the other hand, he expanded his armaments and war, married with Deng Guo, and actively opened up to the surrounding areas when the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was declining and the princes were in chaos, showing his ambition to dominate the world. He once destroyed the Quanguo and set up Quanxian in the hometown of Quanguo, making Quanxian the "first county in the Spring and Autumn Period". He forced Suihou to blackmail Zhou Tianzi for the Chu State, and asked the Zhou royal family to honor the title, but Zhou Tianzi did not agree, so he immediately proclaimed himself the title of king, called "King Wu of Chu", and opened a precedent for princes to claim the title of king. During the reign of King Wu of Chu for 51 years, he created a county system, changed the official system, and carried out a series of reforms. He fought three times, fought everywhere, allied with the princes, subdued the Eastern Han Kingdoms, and shocked the Eastern Zhou royal family. He took the lead in claiming the throne, so that the state of Chu bid farewell to the tributary and subservient relationship to the Zhou dynasty, and stood tall in the Jianghan valley with a tall posture, becoming the "head of the heroes", and thus the state of Chu became strong. King Wu of Chu finally died of illness on the way to the third expedition, making immortal contributions to the rise of the state of Chu.
18, King Xiong Yun of Chu Wen (reigned 690-677 BC, a total of 13 years)
The eldest son of King Wu of Chu, he married a concubine and a concubine, of which Mrs. Xi gave birth to two sons, Xiong Jian and Xiong Yun. In his early years, Xiong Cheng took Bao Shen, who was invited from the Shen Kingdom, as his master, received a good and strict education, and grew up to be an aspiring and far-sighted king. After he ascended the throne, he made two major events that changed the fate of the Chu State, one was to move the Chu capital from Danyang to Ying, and then go all out to open up the Central Plains, using war as a means to realize King Wu's grand wish of "wanting to view the politics of China"; Second, he built the Chu Fang City (Great Wall) that connected hundreds of miles from north to south, which was a major innovation in ancient military architecture on the mainland. He raised troops to the north and marched eastward, and in a few years, he successively defeated Shen, Xi, and Deng, and attacked Chen, Cai, Zheng, Ba, Huang and other countries, and made outstanding achievements, making the Chu state stronger and more prosperous. King Wen is not only quick and sharp, but also cautious and rigorous, and pays attention to investigation and verification. Chu people Bian and Xianpu, after two generations of Chu kings wronged crimes, King Wen ordered people to carefully investigate and implement, carefully carved, and really got a piece of incomparably beautiful "He's Bi", famous all over the world.
19, Chu Ao Xiong Jian (reign time: 677 BC-672 BC, a total of 5 years)
Also known as Zhuang Ao, the son of King Wen of Chu. During the reign of Chu Duao, the state of Chu continued to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and competed in the Central Plains. It should be pointed out that Xiong Jian is an arrogant and arrogant person, he was a teenager when he ascended the throne, but he was ruthless and had no one in his eyes, and was finally killed by Yin Ziyuan and the minister Dougu Yusuo, and his brother Xiong Yun was renamed king.
20, Xiong Yun, King of Chu Cheng (reign: 672-626 BC, a total of 47 years)
The second son of King Wen of Chu, he married a concubine and gave birth to two sons, Xiong Shangchen and Xiong Zhi. King Chu Cheng was only 9 years old when he ascended the throne, and the military and political power was held by a group of old ministers, in order to stabilize the domestic political situation, he adopted the policy of respecting the princes of Zhou, giving benevolence and benevolence, repairing alliances with the princes, and sending tribute to the emperor of Zhou to consolidate the throne. As King Cheng grew up, he began to boldly forge ahead with a new look, actively going north and east, and competing for hegemony with Duke Qi Huan for more than ten years. In this process, the state of Chu suppressed the various ethnic groups of Yiyue, vigorously opened up the territory, destroyed the country, expanded the land for thousands of miles, made the Central Plains countries frightened, and made the prestige of the state of Chu great, although the king of Chu Cheng did not have the name of the overlord, but he had the reality of the overlord.
It can be said that King Cheng was a veritable generation of heroes in the Spring and Autumn Period, and made indelible contributions to the strength and prosperity of the Chu State. It is a pity that in the later period of King Cheng, although the state of Chu defeated Song Xianggong, who intended to succeed the hegemony of the state of Qi, in Hongshui, but then fought with the newly rising state of Jin, the result was the defeat of Chengpu, the momentum of northward expansion was frustrated, and the Duke of Wen of Jin became one of the "five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period" in one fell swoop. At the beginning, King Cheng wanted to appoint Shangchen as the crown prince, which made Yin Zishang and others oppose, so Shangchen held a grudge and caused trouble to force Zishang to commit suicide, causing chaos in the country. After King Cheng learned the truth, he wanted to change the position of his second son Xiong as the crown prince, but Xiong Shangchen preemptively killed King Cheng Xiong Yun, who had reigned for 47 years, and established himself as the monarch of the country, which was the king of Chumu.
21. Xiong Shangchen, King of Chumu (reigned 626-614 BC, a total of 12 years)
The eldest son of King Chu Cheng, he married Hu Nu as a concubine and gave birth to a son Xiong Lu and Xiong Gong. Although King Chumu killed his father and usurped the throne and established himself as a king, he was a king with both a pioneering spirit and a vision. After he assumed the throne, he took resolute measures to stabilize the domestic situation, judged the hour and sized up the situation, adjusted his foreign strategy, and tried to open up a development situation in the Jianghuai region. He successively destroyed the Jiang State, the Six Kingdoms, and the Tateshi State, attacked the Zheng State, and forced the Zheng State to make peace with the Chu State; Attack the state of Chen, capture the mound of the pot of the state of Chen; send an envoy to visit Lu to establish friendly relations; quelled the rebellion of Douyixi and Zhonggui; Captured the monarchs of Shu and Zong, attacked Chao, expanded the power of Chu to the Jianghuai region, and made great contributions to the expansion of Chu's territory.
22, Chuzhuang Wang Xiong (reigned 614-591 BC, a total of 23 years)
The eldest son of King Chu Cheng, he married Yingnu as a concubine and gave birth to sons Xiong Xian, Zinan, Zigeng, and Zizhen. King Chuzhuang was not yet 20 years old when he inherited the throne, and the state of Chu was in a state of instability, and his throne was not secure. The clever King of Chuzhuang decided to keep his eyes on it, gather his wings and wait for the time, wait and see the changes, deliberately indulge in the sound of dogs and horses, indulge in pleasure, and use great wisdom and foolishness to endure for three years, leaving an allusion of "three years without a sound, a blockbuster". Three years later, he rectified the court, reformed the political system, abolished hundreds of ministers and mediocre ministers, hired hundreds of loyal advisers with both ability and political integrity, and reused loyal and upright ministers such as Wu Ju and Su Cong, attacked the nobles who controlled the government, stabilized the situation in the court, destroyed the Yongguo that came to invade, and expanded the power of Chu to the northwest. He appointed Sun Shuao as Lingyin, attached importance to social production, developed the economy, enriched the national strength, expanded the army, trained sergeants, and prepared for a decisive battle with the Jin State.
In 597 BCE, the state of Chu won a great victory in the battle of Chu Yi of the Jin Dynasty, and the king of Chu Zhuang adopted the strategy of uniting Qi to control the Jin, so that the control of the Jin state over the princes gradually weakened. Pan Dang, the great doctor of the state of Chu, suggested piling up the corpses of the Jin army and building the city of "Jingguan" to show off his martial arts. However, the king of Chuzhuang objected, saying: "The war is not to promote martial arts, but to stop the violence and calm the people." The word 'wu' is composed of the words 'stop' and 'ge', and stopping ge's martial arts is the real martial arts. So, the state of Chu worshiped the river god by the Yellow River, and the class teacher returned to China. This is also the origin of the idiom "stop fighting for martial arts". The state of Chu took the opportunity to destroy the state of Xiao and Chen, and attacked the states of Zheng, Song, and Cai to force them to sue for peace. The king of Chuzhuang drank the Yellow River and won the Central Plains, and the princes of the Central Plains were all sideways, and some small vassal states defected to the command of Chu, and finally successfully ascended to the throne of the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons.
During the reign of King Chuzhuang, he inherited and carried forward the spirit of his ancestors and kings, and in the internal and external struggles, he was sober-minded, quick-thinking, thirsty for talent, and knew people well, and gathered a large number of outstanding talents around him, which became the foundation of the Chu State to be strong. He rectified the rule of officials internally, improved laws and regulations, stabilized the people's hearts, and consolidated the political power; In order to compete for hegemony with foreign countries, he fought all his life, fought in the south and the north, "annexed 26 countries, opened up 3,000 miles", dominated the Central Plains, shocked the Quartet, and made the hegemony of Chu enter its heyday. King Chu Zhuang is worthy of being one of the famous overlords of the Spring and Autumn Period, and is also an outstanding politician and military strategist in ancient times on the mainland, and the most prestigious monarch of Chu State.
23, Xiong Zhen, King of Chu (reign: 591-560 BC, a total of 31 years)
Son of King Chuzhuang. The king of Chu Gong ascended the throne at a young age, and was assisted by Ling Yin Zizhong. Due to the re-exclusion of the courtiers, the doctor Shen Gong Wuchen rebelled against Chu and joined the Jin, became a strategist, and helped the Jin State defeat the Chu State, which is the allusion of "Chu Cai Jin". The king of Chu was a romantic man, and he married the royal daughters of several countries, and of course there were political considerations here. Among them, what he really loves is "An Ling's good", and he named her An Lingjun, and later only An Lingjun gave birth to five children for him: Xiong Zhao, Xiong Wei, Xiong Bi, Xiong Hui, and Xiong Qiji.
After the king of Chu Gong ascended the throne, relying on the assistance of a group of old ministers of King Zhuang, although the hegemony weakened, he still followed the route of the first monarch to the north to fight for hegemony, and continued to compete fiercely with the princes of the Jin State and other princes, and maintained the status of a great power, but the long-term struggle for hegemony also led to a decline in national strength, and the feeling of powerlessness was not enough. The king of Chu did not forget the hegemony of his ancestors, competed for hegemony with the north and south of the Jin State, and continued to integrate the barbarians and China into one, making great contributions to the development of the Chu State and the formation of the special style of Chu culture.
The communist king grew up in glory and tranquility, lacked heroic and decisive political and military qualities, and was indecisive or even out of shape when encountering a critical situation. For example, because the five sons were all concubines, the king could not decide who would inherit the throne, so he sent a priest to worship the famous mountains and rivers of Chu, and prayed to the gods to choose one of the five sons to preside over the society. Perhaps because of this somewhat absurd behavior, the state of Chu has been in civil strife since King Kang. In his later years, the communist king became depressed and sick, deeply reflected, and thought that he was not virtuous, especially the defeat of the battle of Yanling, the communist king was also shot blind in one eye in this battle, humiliating the society, feeling ashamed, and asking his subordinates to give him a bad reprimand, this spirit of self-blame is also very valuable.
24. Xiong Zhao, King of Chukang (reigned 560-545 BC, a total of 15 years)
The eldest son of the king of Chu Gong. At the beginning of King Kang's ascension to the throne, he was quite ambitious, and implemented drastic administrative and military system reform internally, suppressing the powerful and consolidating the royal power; Intensify efforts to tackle key problems externally, and be good at making princes as friends, so that the national strength continues to grow. At this time, Ling Yin Zigeng (the word Ziwu) was the son of King Zhuang and the younger brother of King Gong, who made important contributions to the state of Chu and was buried in Xichuan, Henan after his death. In 1978, after the tomb of Zigeng was excavated in Xichuan, Henan, a large number of exquisite funerary goods were unearthed, among which the largest piece of "Prince Wuding" is romantic and strange, the shape is beautiful, the decoration is fine, the inscription is smooth and rhymed, and its inscription font "bird and insect seal" is called the earliest "art character" in China, representing the outstanding characteristics of Chu culture and art.
King Kang once fought against Jianghuai to defeat Eastern Wu, and attacked Zheng State to the north to seek hegemony, but the two-sided battle also made the soldiers tired and miserable, and the grim situation made King Kang try to seek a path of reconciliation and break the deadlock that was not conducive to the development of Chu. In the later years of King Kang, under the mediation of the Song State, Chu and Jin signed an alliance with several princes to stop the war and stop the army, which was known as the "meeting of the soldiers" in history. When King Chu Kang died, the throne was inherited by his eldest son Xiong Yuan, but King Kang's four younger brothers were still alive, and they fought for the throne, turning the state of Chu upside down for nearly half a century, and also left a heavy page in Chinese history.
25, Chu Jia Ao Xiong (reign time: 545 BC-541 BC, a total of 4 years)
The son of King Chukang, he was buried in Jiaodi after his death, so he was called Jiao Ao. Xiong Yuan was only a teenager when he ascended the throne, he was young and weak, and the military and political power was actually in the hands of his uncle Gongziwei. Ziwei was an ambitious man who coveted royal power, he excluded dissidents, harmed the virtuous, cultivated cronies, and openly used the costume of the king of Chu, and his intention to usurp the throne was clearly revealed. In the winter of 541 B.C., Xiong Yuan fell ill with a high fever and fell into a coma, Ziwei entered the palace on the grounds of visiting the sick, strangled Xiong Yuan to death with his own hands, and drew his sword to kill Xiong Yuan's two young sons Xiong Mu and Ping Xia (7 and 4 years old respectively), Ziwei's third brother Gongzi Bi and four disciples escaped from Chu State for refuge after hearing the news, Ziwei established himself as the king and changed his name to Xiong Wai.
26, Chu Ling Wang Xiong Wei (reign time: 541 BC - 529 BC, a total of 12 years)
The second son of King Chu Gong, the younger brother of King Chu Kang, married Feng Nu as a concubine, gave birth to a son Xiong Lu, and defeated the enemy. King Chu Ling was an ambitious monarch who was determined to prosper and conquer the world, and after he ascended the throne of Chu'an, he took Zheng State as a breakthrough point, and quickly went north to fight for hegemony. But he was so happy with his achievements, blindly adventurous, and did not sympathize with the soldiers, causing the army's morale to be unstable, left and right, and the princes carried two.
King Chu Ling is also the famous tyrannical king of the Spring and Autumn Period, during his reign, he was extremely poor and extravagant, spent all day and wine, built a magnificent and gorgeous Zhanghua Palace, and recruited the world's thin-waisted women into the palace, so it is also known as the "Slender Waist Palace", so that "the people resigned", the people were resentful, and finally lost the hearts of the people, and the rule was shaken. In 529 B.C., the younger brother of King Ling of Chu formed a political alliance with Gongzi Bi and Gongzi Hui, and with the cooperation of the armies of neighboring countries, he invaded Yingdu and killed the two sons of King Ling. The spirit king, who was fighting abroad, led his army back, and the army was scattered, and the spirit king was full of remorse, and after wandering alone in the mountains for three days, he hanged himself.
27, Chu Chu Wang Xiong Bi (reign: 529-528 BC, less than 1 year)
The third son of the king of Chu Gong. Xiong Bi has been wandering abroad for more than ten years, plus he is kind-hearted, has a weak personality, and does not understand politics at all, and his younger disciple is the same person as him. Five months after Xiong Bi ascended the throne, his fifth brother Xiong Qiji spread rumors that King Chu Ling was not dead, and led a large army to approach the capital, preparing to severely punish the coup d'état. Xiong Bi and Zihui believed it and thought that they had reached the end of their rope, so they both committed suicide. As a result, the old five bears gave up their illness and successfully ascended the throne and changed their name to Xiongju.
28, King Xiongju of Chuping (reigned 529-516 BC, a total of 13 years)
The youngest son of the king of Chu Gong, formerly known as Xiong Qiji, married Cai Nu and Ying Nu as concubines, Concubine Cai gave birth to Xiong Jian, and Concubine Ying gave birth to sons Xiong Zhen, Xiong Shen, Xiong Jie, and Xiong Lu. At the beginning of King Ping's accession to the throne, in addition to rewarding meritorious heroes, he also supported the people and allowed their subjects to recuperate, and externally reconciled the princes and formed good diplomatic relations, so that Chen and Cai could restore the country, and the war was relatively reduced. But later, he favored the ministers, indulged in luxury, killed Zhongliang, aggravated the political turmoil, and frequently built cities to disturb the people, so that the national strength of the Chu State declined, not only lost the strong strength of Jin and Chu to compete for hegemony, but also was repeatedly violated by small countries, the vassal states all rebelled against Chu and returned to Jin, and the king of Chuping finally died of depression. During the reign of King Ping, he listened to slander and killed the very talented Wu Hao, Wu Shang father and son (Wu Zixu's father and brother), and forced Wu Zixu out of Zhaoguan, resulting in a historical grievance of "Wu Zixu came out of Zhaoguan and turned white overnight". Wu Zixu fled to the state of Wu, and finally led his troops back to the state of Chu to take revenge, and dug up the grave of the dead king of Chu Ping and whipped the corpse to vent his hatred, and also left the misfortune to his successor.
29, Chu Zhao Wang Xiong Zhen (reigned 516-489 BC, a total of 27 years)
The son of King Chuping, who once married the daughter of the Marquis of Qi (surnamed Jiang) as a concubine, died early of loyalty, and was called Mrs. Zhenjiang; He married a Yue girl as a concubine and gave birth to a son, Xiong Zhang. King Zhao of Chu was only 8 years old when he succeeded to the throne, and the power in the first ten years of his reign was in the hands of the immoral, talentless and very greedy Ling Yin Zichang, which pushed the state of Chu to the brink of danger. Later, Shen Baoxu cried to Qin Ting, and only then did he ask Qin Jun to help restore the country.
After the restoration of the country, King Zhao learned a lesson, reused Zixi, Ziqi, Zilu and other virtuous ministers, reformed politics, developed production, and made great efforts to govern, so that the Chu State could recuperate and recover from the catastrophe on the verge of peril. What is even more valuable is that King Chu Zhao is not as domineering as other overlords, he has made the people peaceful at home, and the people are grateful and supportive, and he has also established an image of the southern hegemon with affinity abroad, and he has always pursued the personality charm of the "people-oriented" strategy, which still shines brilliantly. In 489 BC, the 35-year-old King Zhao of Chu personally led his troops to rescue the state of Chen, which was attacked by the Wu army, and fell seriously ill and died in the military camp of his father. King Zhao of Chu was a lord of Zhongxing in the state of Chu and one of the most accomplished monarchs in the history of the state of Chu. In addition, around the time of King Zhao, Lao Tzu (the founder of Taoism) of the Chu State completed the writing of the Tao Te Ching, which had a great influence on later generations.
After the death of King Zhao, his son Xiong Zhang ascended the throne as King Chu Hui. King Hui reigned for 57 years, and Chinese history also entered the Warring States period from the Spring and Autumn Period. (Chu Culture Research Association)
![[800 Years of Chu Ba] 800 Years of Chu History from the Monarchs of the Past Dynasties (1): 14 Dynasties of the Western Zhou Dynasty[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)