In the era when the hegemony of the Jin state was in decline, the state of Qi, which had been defeated many times by the state of Jin in the past, had a tendency to replace the state of Jin as the hegemon.
In 530 BC (the twelfth year of Lu Zhaogong), the Duke of Jinping held a banquet to entertain the monarchs of the countries who had come to see him, and held an entertainment of throwing pots (throwing arrows into a pot) during the banquet. Starting from the Duke of Jinping, the monarchs of various countries threw pots one after another, and when it was the turn of Qi Jinggong, he took the arrow and said: There is as much wine as water, and there is meat like a pile of woods, and if my arrow is thrown into the pot, it will prosper in place of the Jin kingdom. After saying that, he did throw in. Qi Jinggong's words seemed to be a joke, but in fact revealed that he had ambitions to replace the Jin State as the overlord.
In the following four years, Qi Fa Xu, Xu Ren asked for peace, and Tan ren and Ju ren also allied with Xu with the Qi hui and gave treasures to the Qi state. Lu Dafu's uncle Sun Zhaozi sighed and said: "It is also a bad thing that the princes do not have hegemons, and it is precisely because of this that the State of Qi dares to conquer small countries and force other countries to recognize his authority and raise expeditions, and no one resists." This reflects that the State of Lu has always opposed the State of Qi, and it is also a lament for the decline of the hegemony of the State of Jin.
In 523 BC (the nineteenth year of Lu Zhaogong), because juguo disobeyed Qi, Qi sent Gao Fa the grand master to lead an attack on Juguo, and Jujun fled to Jiju (about north of present-day Ganyu County, Jiangsu), but then the Qi army captured Jiju, and Ju Gonggong escaped from the west gate. This was another victory for Qi Jinggong in the use of troops against the outside world.
During the reign of Qi Jinggong, although he took action externally, he did nothing in internal affairs and lived in stealing security. At this time, although the State of Qi had attempts and actions of Qi Jinggong to restore hegemony, due to the lack of internal affairs, some successes in foreign relations were only partial and short-lived. In terms of internal affairs, the office represented by him was corrupt and extravagant, but the Tian clan was able to give favors to the scholar class, co-opt the people of the country, and win them over to their own side step by step. As a result, the Tian clan became stronger and stronger, the office weakened day by day, and by the end of Jing Gong's life, it was a foregone conclusion that the Tian clan would replace the Jiang Qi regime.
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the Tian clan, which replaced the nobles with the surname Of Jiang in the State of Qi, was originally a nobleman of the State of Chen. In 672 BC (the twenty-second year of the Duke of Luzhuang), Chen Gongzi was defeated in a political struggle in the State of Chen and fled to the State of Qi, and duke Huan of Qi admired him and asked him to be a secretary of state, but he resigned and only accepted the post of gongzheng as a management craftsman, and from then on, the Tian clan (i.e., the Chen clan) gained a foothold in the state of Qi.
The decadent old aristocrat Luan Shi, the strong and good wine, greedy for cups, ignored government affairs, and had many grievances. At this time, the strength of Tian, Bao, Luan and Gao was equal. In the summer of 532 BC (the tenth year of Lu Zhaogong), some people provoked on both sides, and Tian Wuyu and Bao Guo suddenly attacked while Luan and Gao were drunk and unguarded. When Tian and Bao's army arrived, Gao Qiang said to Luan Shi: "As long as the monarch is controlled in our hands, Tian and Bao will not be able to run." So he went to attack the palace gate of the monarch's residence, the Humen Gate.
The armies of both sides came to the Tiger Gate, and after some fighting, Tian and Bao's side won. In order to curry favor with the monarch's descendants, Tian Wuyu recalled the sons who had fled and gave them land. The poor, widowed, and miserable people of the country are given food. Duke Qi Jing gave the land next to Tian's Juyi, but he resigned, indicating that he was not greedy. Jing Gong's mother, Mu Mengji, requested that Gao Tang (高唐, in modern Gao Tangdong, Shandong) be given to him, and Tian Wuyu accepted it and became the base for the Tian clan to sit on.
In the later years of Jing Gong's life, the power of the Tian clan developed faster. At this time, Jing Gong had not yet established a crown prince, and when he was dying, he made Gongzi Di the crown prince, entrusted to Gao Zhang and Guo Xia, and they became powerful orphan ministers, and they also became an obstacle for Tian Qizi (Tian Qi, tian Wuyu's son) to seize state power, and Tian Shi naturally wanted to find a way to get rid of them.
In 489 BC (the sixth year of the Duke of Lu'ai), Tian Beg pretended to be very obedient to Gao Zhang and Guo Xia, and every time he was in the same car with them, just like their guards, in fact, they were collecting the faults of Gao and Guo, and at the first opportunity, they provoked the relationship between Gao, Guo and the doctors, and the doctors believed Tian Qi's words and talked about driving away Gao and Guo. Tian Beg added fuel to the fire again, encouraging the doctors to act as soon as possible. Just like when Tian Beg contacted Bao Mu and the doctors to take the soldiers into the monarch's palace.
Gao Zhang and Xia Guo learned of this news, rushed to Qi Jun's place by car, and met the troops of the Tian clan and Zhu Dafu in the street, and were defeated. Taking advantage of the victory, Guo Xia fled to Ju, and then fled to the State of Lu with Gao Zhang, Yan Yuan, and Xian Shi. In this way, Tian Beg drove away the close ministers around Qi Yan's widow (荼). The monarch was isolated and gradually became a puppet in the hands of the Tian clan.
Then, Tian Beg sent people to the State of Lu to pick up another son of Duke Jing, Gongzi Yangsheng, stayed in his home for two months, and swore an oath with the doctors that Li Yangsheng would be the monarch, which was the Duke of Qi. Gong Gong sent people to kill Gongzi Di. The duke of mourning was a monarch for four years, but he was also killed by his subordinates.
After Duke Mo was killed, in 484 BC (the eleventh year of Duke Lu'ai), The Tian clan welcomed Gong Hui's son Gongzi Ren (公子壬) from the State of Lu to become the monarch of the state, that is, Duke Jian. When Duke Jian was in Lu, Kan Zhi was trusted, and after returning to China, he was appointed to the government, Tian Chang (that is, Tian Chengzi, The son of Tian Beg) was somewhat afraid of him, and looked at Kan Zhi sideways at the imperial court, and the grand master Zhu Yumartin said to Jian Gong: "The Tian clan and the Kan clan are incompatible, and the monarch mainly chooses one." But the mourner did not heed this advice. Later, there was a case of Kan's imprisonment of the innocent murderer of the Tian clan, Tian Rebellion, and in the middle, he was drunk by the Tian clan and killed the guards to rob Tian Rebellion, as a result, the Kan clan compromised and swore an oath with the Tian clan to reconcile, temporarily alleviating the contradiction between the two families.
However, these two great nobles, one is a close vassal of the monarch and the other is a strong clan with a strong social foundation, both want to control the power of the State of Qi, and the contradictions cannot be reconciled. In 481 BC (the fourteenth year of the Duke of Lu'ai), the Tian clan destroyed the Kan clan.
Prior to this, Tian Bao, a member of the Tian clan, had become Kan's vassal, and showed that his uncle was in agreement with kan's political views, and Kan was favored by trust. Soon, Kan Zhi said bluntly to Tian Bao, "I want to drive out all the Tian family, and you will replace them. Tian Bao replied, "Although my surname is Tian, I am very estranged from them." There are only a few of them who don't listen to you, so why drive them all away! Secretly, he told tian the news.
After Tian Que learned of this news, he finally decided to disagree with Kan. If you don't attack first, the consequences will be unimaginable, so you take action, and Tian Wei first hides in the palace of Duke Qi Jian. Then, the 8 brothers led by Tian Chang also came to Qi Jun's residence in 4 chariots, and Tian Qi came out to welcome them in, blocked Kan Zhi outside the palace gate, and killed Qi Jun's attendants who greeted him.
At this time, Qi Jian Zhengyi was drinking and having fun with the beauties in Tantai, and when he saw that there was an incident in the palace, he was moved into the palace by Tian Chang, and he was very angry, and he wanted to kill Tian Chang, and Tian Chang was also scared and even wanted to run away. Tian Xiang was imprisoned because of his previous killings, and he was determined to get rid of Kan and then quickly, forcing Tian Chang to work to the end, and Tian Chang became resolute.
Kan saw that the Tian clan had kidnapped the monarch and led jiading to attack the palace gate, but neither of them had attacked. Kan Zhi lost the support of the monarch Jian Gong, and all the people in the country supported the Tian clan, so he had to flee, lost his way halfway, broke into the Fengqiu fief of the Tian clan, and was caught and killed by the Fengqiu people. Kan's cronies were either killed or fled to the Chu state.
After Tian Chang defeated Kan's last opponent, he arrested Duke Jian, and Duke Jian regretted that he had not listened to The Imperial Martingale, and only two months later, he was killed by Tian Chang and made Duke Ping a prince. One by one, the Tian clan killed all the powerful people in the Gong clan. The fiefdom of the Tian clan was expanded to a larger size than the monarch's fiefdom. By the time of Tian Chang's son Tian Xiangzi (田番), his brothers and clansmen were appointed to be the grand masters of the Capital of the State of Qi, which completely controlled the State of Qi from top to bottom. It was not until 387 BC in the early Warring States period that the King of Zhou officially appointed Tian Chang's great-grandson Tian He as one of the princes.
The content of this article is compiled from the "Spring and Autumn History" of the China International Broadcasting Publishing House's China Reader's "Classic General History of China". The authors of "Spring and Autumn History" are Wang Guimin, Ying Yongshen, and Yang Shengnan, all of whom are researchers at the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
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