When we were children, we should have all watched a TV series - "List of Gods". This story tells the story of king Wu who cut down the yin, overthrew the Yin shang, and established the Zhou Dynasty. If we look deeply into the history, we will find that many things in the TV series are not what they appear on the surface. Today, we will carefully ponder the matter of why king Huan did not kill Ji Chang.
The Xia Dynasty was the first hereditary dynasty in China's history, which ended the era of Zen concession and opened the history of "family world".
However, at this time, the Xia Dynasty practiced a system of sub-feudalism and did not really unify the whole country. Therefore, the Same is true of the Shang Dynasty, which inherited the political system of the Xia Dynasty. Although the Shang Dynasty was the only orthodox state in the Central Plains, and the princely states were subordinate to the Shang Tianzi and guarded the four directions of their towns, the princes still had unique absolute power in their own kingdoms.
People who have watched the TV series "Fengshen List" or the book "Fengshen Yanyi" should know that the Shang Dynasty had four princely states, and each princely state had an uncle, namely: Jiang Huanchu, the Marquis of The Eastern Bo, the Marquis of the Southern Bo, the Marquis of Echongyu, the Marquis of xibo, jichang, and the marquis of the Northern Bohu. Among the four major princely states, Ji Chang, the Marquis of Xibo, and Chonghou Hu, the Marquis of Northern Bo, were more famous, and the kingdom under their rule was stronger.
As a vassal state of the Shang Dynasty, the four princely states needed to guard the border for the Shang Dynasty town to defend against foreign enemies, and once the king was in difficulty, they also had to lead troops to serve the king, and there was no mistake. However, corresponding to the obligation, as an independent kingdom, they had absolute autonomy, and their politics, military, and economy were not controlled by the Shang Dynasty, and they could decide the heirs of the kingdom on their own.
Of course, under the rule of the four major princely states, there are many small princely states, and the number is extremely large, if it can be unified and twisted into a rope, it is also a very powerful force.
At that time, the four major princely states and the small princely states under their rule added up to more than half the total territory of the Shang Dynasty. Therefore, as the lord of the world, the Shang Dynasty was naturally quite jealous of these four princely states.
You know, the best way to strengthen the centralization of power is to cut the domain, think of the "Tui En Order" in the han wudi period, this hand can be described as very beautiful. Without bloodshed, the soldiers took all the power in the hands of the princely states to the central government. During the Shang Dynasty, of course, it was impossible to cut the domain, but no monarch would let the local forces be too powerful, thus threatening his own position, the so-called "lying on the side of the bed can others sleep soundly".
Although the King of Shang was a very faint monarch in history, he was also a king, and if he was a king, he would definitely need to submit to the four sides. Therefore, he would definitely not watch the four great princely states become more and more powerful and ignore it. In his heart, he had long wanted to find an opportunity to shock these four princely states.
It is said that after Queen Jiang was persecuted to death, Fei Zhong, You Hun and other traitors sensed their intentions and gave a bad idea to the king of Jiang, who secretly hated the four princely states with itchy teeth. They suggested that the King of Sui lure Jiang Huanchu, Ji Chang, E Chongyu, and Chonghou Hu all to Chaoge and eliminate the four great uncles in one fell swoop. Fortunately, at this time, the King of Lu still had some brains, so this idea did not have the following.
Although king Huan gave up the idea of booby-trapping the four princes, he still did not give up weakening the four princely states. Therefore, the King of Lu first chose Jiang Huanchu, the Marquis of Dongbo, to commit a rebellion, and then, in name only, killed him.
When Jiang Wenhuan, the son of Dong Bohou, learned of this news, he was devastated and raised an army to rebel. Jiang Wenhuan was a fierce general, Xiao Yong was good at fighting, and his soldiers were all brave people like him, so this group of people initially really made it difficult for the King of Lu to sleep and eat for a while. However, Jiang Wenhuan was brave and fierce, but had no strategy, and in the end, this rebellion was quickly suppressed, and it did not shake the foundation of the Shang Dynasty at all.
In this so-called Jiang Huan Chu conspiracy case, The Southern Bo Marquis E Chongyu was also implicated. He had vouched for Jiang Hengchu with his life, but what the King of Qiu wanted was not the facts but their lives. Therefore, after the death of Dong Bohou, he also ended up with a tyrant and a public display. After both the Eastern And Southern Bohou died, it was the turn of the Western Bohou Jichang, but in the end, Ji Chang escaped the fate of the King of Sui and returned to his fiefdom intact.
So, why is that? King Huan knew that this move was a move to return the tiger to the mountain, so why did he finally let Ji Chang go? Most people believe that the reason why Ji Chang was not killed was because he pretended to be stupid and dispelled the suspicion of king Huan about him.
At that time, everyone in the world said that Ji Chang was a divine operator, and for the King of Qi, who believed in ghost gods, he was actually the most jealous of Ji Chang. However, when King Huan invited Ji Chang to eat a meatloaf made from the meat of his son Bo Yikao, Ji Chang ate very happily. King Huan felt that Ji Chang was just like that, he didn't have any great ability, he couldn't even count on such a thing as eating his own son's meat, so he simply let him go.
However, the fact that Ji Chang was able to return to Xiqi alive had nothing to do with this.
Ji Chang was able to walk out of Chaoge alive only because King Huan had no intention of killing him so early. If the conditions permitted, of course, the King of Lu would not let this confidant leave, but the problem was that the conditions at that time did not allow it.
So, why do you say that the conditions are not allowed?
Because, at that time, the Western Zhou was very powerful, and his western part was the power of the Rong people. The power of the Rong people has always been a headache for the Shang Dynasty, these Rong people are brave and good at fighting, barbaric and easy to kill, once they enter the territory of the Shang Dynasty, the consequences are unimaginable. If, at this time, Ji Chang was killed, and even if the Western Zhou Dynasty did not rebel, but only let the Rong people enter the shang dynasty's territory, then the Shang dynasty would be broken, and even, it was very likely that it would be powerless to control the various princely states.
Moreover, if Xi Zhou was angry and united with the Rong people, then the consequences would be unimaginable. Therefore, under the consideration of the king, he still let Ji Chang go back to continue to defend the frontier. The King of Lu may not have known that Ji Chang was pretending to be stupid, but after all, he had already killed Bo Yikao, which indirectly shocked Ji Chang, so it was better to let him go. However, King Huan did not expect that in the end, it was really Western Zhou who replaced the Shang Dynasty and drove him off the throne.
Since Ji Chang had escaped the disaster, the Northern Bohou Chonghou Hu was naturally spared. Because, king Huan knew very well that there was a deep hatred between these two people, and it was really a good thing to let Chonghou Hu restrain Ji Chang. In this regard, the king of Lu is quite competent. Later, when the Western Zhou Dynasty was cutting down the Silk, Chonghou Hu did bring a lot of trouble to Ji Chang.
Resources:
["Shi Ji Yin BenJi", "Shi Ji Zhou Ben Ji", "Chinese Wu Wang Fa Yin"]