During the Spring and Autumn Period, as the first half of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, everyone was still at peace with each other, the princes were only competing for hegemony at best, and even if they were rarely destroyed, they were still polite. However, during this period, there was a country that was somewhat special, basically other princes were called "Gong", Zhou Tianzi was still there, Tianzi was called king, but some monarchs of the Chu State called themselves kings, among which the most famous was the King of Chu Zhuang. So why did the Chu State do this, and was the Chu State very powerful?
In ancient times, there were many rules on the title, between the princes during the Zhou Dynasty, although they were all princes, but the status was not necessarily equal, according to the "Gonghou Bozi Baron" the title rank division of different titles, so even if many people called Gong, it is not in line with the rules, because many of them original status is not "Gong", but because of the decline of the Zhou royal family, Zhou Tianzi is also angry about this situation, the only thing that can be done is to pretend to be blind and see nothing.
However, to be called a prince, more or less to give tianzi a little face, but some people obviously want to fight against tianzi, and they call themselves kings as princes, this person is Xiong Tong, the king of the Chu state, and later generations call him the King of ChuWu. Since he beat him, basically all the monarchs of the Chu state began to claim the title of king, until the end of the Warring States period, the Chu state was destroyed, and the reason why the Chu state dared to do this was because they were indeed very confident and ambitious, and they would not hide their ambitions at all, that is, to tell all the people in the world.
The State of Chu was originally only a small tribe, and was crowned as a viscount by King Zhou Cheng, the land was very small, the title was not high, it was remote, and it was the "Southern Barbarian" in the eyes of the Central Plains princely states, but the State of Chu still embarked on the road of prosperity. It is precisely because of the remote terrain, the so-called Emperor Tiangao is far away, the monarch of the Chu State has expanded his territory, and on the one hand, he has tried his best to serve Zhou Tianzi, develop his own domestic politics, economy, culture, military and many other aspects, and is not willing to be only a small prince, so he constantly strengthens his own power.
When xiong tong came, he was very dissatisfied with his title, but Zhou Tianzi did not agree to give him a title, Xiong Tong also had the confidence, self-proclaimed as king, became the first "king" among the princes in the Spring and Autumn Period, other countries saw him do this, but Zhou Tianzi swallowed his anger, so one by one they began to call the king, completely ignoring the son of heaven in their eyes, the original tribute also stopped, the son of heaven fell sharply, but he did not have the ability to confront the princes, which was useless.
Later, there was a famous King of Chu, the King of Chuzhuang, who was said to be the one who asked Ding Zhongyuan, and he directly revealed his ambition through The Crown, although later he realized that he was not yet there, but his words actually expressed the ambitions of many princes and said what they did not dare to say.