This article is written with reference to historical sources and personal opinions, and relevant literature sources have been marked at the end of the article.
(Image of Gong Zhuang)
During the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a country called the Kingdom of Di.
This country is a very small country, located in today's Zoucheng, Shandong Province.
There is a monarch in the state of Yi, called Gong Zhuang of Yi, whose name is Cao Chuan, and he is the sixteenth king of the state of Yi.
There is a day when the Duke of Zhuang and a minister named Yi Shegu had dinner in the palace, the food was very good, there was wine and meat, and the two of them were very happy to eat.
Outside the main hall of this palace, there was a servant guarding the door, and the servant stood at the door, watching the two of them, Gong Zhuang and Yi Shugu, eating and drinking, but he was envious.
It's not enough to be envious, the servant is quite greedy, so he has the courage to ask Duke Yi Zhuang and Yi Shegu to also share a piece of meat for themselves.
If you don't want much, just give a piece of meat and give it a tooth sacrifice.
In this Spring and Autumn Period, there is this customary rule, or unwritten rule, the servants watch the door for you all day long, people are very hard, looking for you to eat a piece of meat, you should give it to others.
However, before the Duke of Yi Zhuang could speak, the minister Yi Shugu was not happy, he picked up a wooden staff, and beat the servant with his head and face, and directly beat the servant away.
The meat was not eaten, and he was beaten, the servant was both angry and resentful, but there was no way, after all, he was just a lowly servant, he dared to be angry and did not dare to speak, but this matter is not over, the seeds of hatred have been planted, this servant must be looking for an opportunity to wait for an opportunity to take revenge on Yi Shugu.
How did he get his revenge?
Soon after, the servant cleaned up outside the temple, he finished sweeping the floor, and then poured water on the ground with a basin of water, which was generally done to keep the ground moist, but it was enough for the servant to splash a basin of water, but he took another basin and poured it on the ground, and the ground was soon full of water, flowing everywhere.
After pouring water, the servant was watching the door outside the hall as usual, and after the Gong Zhuang in the hall woke up, he looked at the ground outside the hall and found that it was all water stains, so he asked the servant what was going on.
(Yi Shogu image)
Then at this time, the servant began to talk nonsense, and the nonsense he said was very outrageous, Gong Zhuang asked him how the water on the ground came from, and he actually said that Yi Shegu had come just now, and there was water on the ground because Yi Shegu had just sprinkled a soak of urine here.
You see, this servant is powerful enough, he is burying people here, sowing discord here, and tying Yi Shugu and Gong Zhuang to each other here.
This palace is the residence of the Duke of Yi Zhuang, and the outside of the palace is also the private area of the Duke of Yi Zhuang, you Yi Shegu is a minister, and you pee outside the palace, which is equivalent to urinating in the house of the Duke of Yi Zhuang, which is really too unparticular and has no lower limit.
Moreover, Yi Shegu's blatant behavior of urinating in the palace is not only unhygienic and impolite, but also seen as a contempt for royal power and a challenge to authority.
Therefore, Gong Yi Zhuang must be unbearable.
However, Gong Yi Zhuang should also think about whether what this servant said was true or false.
Yi Shooting Aunt, at that time in the country of Yi was a doctor, we take the Zhou Dynasty as a reference, under a monarch there are secretaries, doctors, scholars, etc., the doctor is already a middle and high-level official, Yi Shooting Gu is already in such a position, doesn't he understand etiquette, does he still lack political maturity, would he do such a ridiculous thing?
Ordinary people listen to the servant say this, then they will definitely call the person concerned to inquire, because they can't just listen to the servant's words, not to mention that this servant has had a conflict with Yi Shegu not long ago, so it is more necessary to be rigorous in verifying.
However, you see that there is such a record of Di Zhuanggong in "Zuo Biography", saying that he is "anxious and clean", which exposes his two character characteristics, one is that he has an impatient personality and has no room for slowness in doing things, and the other is that he is a person who loves cleanliness very much.
The servant said that Yi Zhuanggu peed outside the palace and made the palace dirty, which made Yi Zhuang Gong very disgusted, and he was poking his reverse scales, he was angry and emotional, and then his character was more anxious, so he couldn't wait to call Yi Zhuanggu to ask clearly, the servant said that Yi Zhuanggu was urinating outside, and Yi Zhuang jumped up directly from the bed where he slept, but he jumped up, but he didn't find a good foothold, and he didn't jump far in a hurry, but fell into the charcoal brazier that was placed under the bed for heating.
He finally jumped out of the brazier again, and his body was covered with scaly wounds, either burns or scalds, and he died a few days later because of wound infection.
(Song Jinggong image)
There was another country in the Spring and Autumn Period, called the Song Kingdom, which was not so unpopular compared with the State of Di, and was mostly seen in the historical materials of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
The capital of the Song Kingdom at that time was in Shangqiu, Henan, and the territory was roughly between the southwest of Shandong, the northwest of Jiangsu and the east of Henan, which was relatively large at that time, with a rough estimate of 100,000 square kilometers.
There was a monarch in the Song Kingdom, whose name was Song Jinggong, and he was the twenty-eighth monarch of the Song Kingdom.
Jing Gong has a younger brother called Gongzidi, and this Gongzidi likes a person named Yu Fu.
This son's land is quite large, after all, he is the younger brother of the monarch, so he must be very rich.
One day, this prince divided all his wealth into eleven shares, and in order to show favor to the rich hunter, he gave all five of them to the rich hunter.
In addition to money, Gongzidi also raised four white horses.
These four white horses, not ordinary horses, are all first-class good horses, white-maned horses and white horses, open their mouths and flutter, bright all over their bodies, are four hooves without miscellaneous hair, better than plum blossom leopards, good as the waves, these four horses, that is really a peerless good horse, usually the son of the land is never easy to show people, but this time in order to show favor to the rich game, he also plans to give these four horses to the rich game.
But Gongzidi didn't expect that his four horses would be stolen by his brother, that is, Song Jinggong, the monarch of the Song Kingdom, before they could be given to Yu Fu.
Song Jinggongtang is the monarch of the country, why did he steal the horse of his younger brother Gongzi's land?
The reason is very simple, because this Song Jinggong, he also has a person he likes, and the person he likes is called Xiang Wei.
Xiang Wei especially likes the four white horses in Gongzidi's hands, but Xiang Wei is embarrassed to ask Gongzidi, Song Jinggong looked at it, since Xiang Wei likes it, then he must get it, so Song Jinggong even smuggled and robbed, so he got the four horses in Gongzidi, and then gave them to Xiang Wei.
Not only did he give the horse to Xiang Wei, Song Jinggong also ingeniously dyed the mane and tail of these four horses red.
(Hakuba)
Think about it, usually this horse is in the hands of Gongzidi, and he has to feel distressed for a long time if the stone scratches the horse's hooves, but now it's good, Song Jinggong stole the horse, and it didn't count, but also burned the heads of these four horses, and it became a non-mainstream, and after Gongzi found out, he was very, very angry.
Gongzidi really didn't give Song Jinggong face, and he was not used to Xiang Wei, not only sent someone to beat Xiang Wei, but also took back the four white horses.
Xiang Wei's beating, he was a little inexplicable, because in essence, he just liked these four horses, he just wanted, but he never thought of snatching and stealing them from Gongzidi's hands, this matter was completely Song Jinggong's own opinion, and it had nothing to do with him at all.
You want to get your horse back, it's you who takes it away, you're angry, you're angry, you're looking for your brother Song Jinggong, what are you doing with me?
So Xiang Wei was very aggrieved, he simply closed the door of the house, began to pack his luggage, and planned to leave the Song Kingdom.
This head was going to go, and Song Jinggong on the other side heard that Xiang Wei was leaving, he couldn't stand it at all, and ran to the door of Xiang Wei's house to beg Xiang Wei not to leave.
Song Jinggong was really anxious, he pleaded again and again at the door of Xiang Wei's house, tears fell into tears, and snot bubbles cried.
At this time, Gongzidi, he also reacted a little, he is indeed prominent, but no matter how good he is, can he beat his brother? The eldest brother Song Jinggong is the heaven of the Song Kingdom, and he beat the eldest brother's people, can the eldest brother give up and spare himself? What's more, this Xiang Wei was still yelling to leave after being beaten by himself, isn't this purely giving himself eye medicine?
So in this case, someone suggested Gongzidi, saying that Xiang Wei wants to go, you also go, you also leave the Song Kingdom, Xiang Wei has no relatives with your Song royal family, if Xiang Wei really leaves, it will be a good thing for you, Song Jinggong will not necessarily keep him, but you are different, you are Song Jinggong's younger brother after all, your blood is thicker than water, Song Jinggong will definitely let you come back.
As soon as you leave, you make trouble, and as soon as the monarch retains you, your relationship can still heat up, and if you hit Wei, maybe it will be over.
As soon as Gongzidi heard that this method was good, he also followed Xiang Wei to learn, left the Song Kingdom, and ran to the Chen Kingdom.
(Childe's image)
Chen, in the Zhoukou area of present-day eastern Henan.
You see that this place where Gongzi ran out is also very ingenious, Song Guo is only more than 100 kilometers away from Chen Guo, not far away, he ran to Chen Guo, the purpose is to hope that Song Jinggong will quickly pick him up.
But he waited, waited, waited, waited, waited until spring went to autumn, waited until the flowers were gone, and there was no movement on Song Guo's side.
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Resources:
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Historical Records
Research on the History of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period