Ji Jing, the King of Zhou Xuan, was a sage in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Between the two tyrants, Li and Yu, they created a glorious and prosperous world that lasted for 46 years. It must be said that this is a great miracle. King Xuan's father, Li Wang Ji hu, lost his country due to his tyranny and died in a foreign land. His son, King You, was the greatest of tyrants, eventually leading to the fall of the country and the ruins of the society.
Why was King Xuan of Zhou able to rise up resolutely in the ruins left by his tyrant father and rebuild the Zhou Dynasty into a majestic new state? Why did he fail to educate and choose a good heir, so that he passed the good country to a contrarian son, and finally ruined the Huanghuang foundation created by the previous kings such as Wen and Wu? All of this has to start with King Xuan of Zhou's infamous father, Li Wang Ji Hu.
In 878, Ji Hu, the son of Ji Xie, the King of Zhou Yi, ascended the throne, which was the great tyrant of the Three Dynasties of Ancient History, king Li of Zhou. The well-known idioms "the road is blind" and "the mouth of the people is more than the defense of the river" are related to this infamous King of Zhou.
Portrait of King Li of Zhou
The vast majority of the evaluations of Li Wang in the past generations were negative.
For example, Mencius Yun during the Warring States period: "If the tyrants are even worse, they will kill the country; if they are not, they will be in danger of the country." Although the name is quiet and powerful, although filial piety and kindness, the hundred generations cannot be changed. "Poetry" Yun: Yin Jian is not far away, in the life after summer. ” Mozi also commented on King Li in this way: "The tyrannical kings, The tyrants, the evil people of the world, and the rate of insulting ghosts in heaven, and there are many thieves, so the natural calamities have caused them to lose their country, and they have died for the sake of the world, and they have not stopped." ” Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty also severely criticized King Li in the "Records of History": "Yu Li was in a daze, and lost his pickaxe", and also said that "You, Li Li Le collapsed, the princes were strong, they were swallowed up, and virtue could not be cherished, and wei could not be controlled." ”
Due to the perverse behavior of King Zhou Li during his reign, the people and gods were indignant, and they could not listen to any advice and advice, but sat alone on the crater and fell asleep. In 841 BC, the people of the country finally could not stand the long and cruel rule of King Li of Zhou, and the people of the country broke out in silence. Suddenly, a huge national uprising quickly swept across the country. The enraged crowd defeated the guards and entered the palace, and the king fled in a hurry, not knowing where to go.
The angry countrymen invaded the palace, searched around, searched for King Li and disappeared, and turned to the whole city to search for Prince Ji Jing. The father's debt is still paid, and the angry people want to kill Ji Jing to vent their anger! However, Ji Jing had already been hidden by the loyal minister Summoning Mu Gong, and the people of the country received the news and surrounded Mu Gong's family to summon Mu Gong out of the crown prince.
In desperation, Zhao Mugong tearfully used his own son to impersonate Crown Prince Ji Jing, ordered the two to disguise themselves, and handed over the false prince. The people of the country believed it to be true, killed the prince in public, and cheered, and the prince Ji Jing was spared. The people of the country killed the prince, and the angry people of the country became angry, and the resentment subsided temporarily and gradually dissipated.
Where did king Zhou Li, the dog who lost his family, run? It turned out that he had escaped from Hojing and ran all the way along the Weishui River to the east, all the way across the Yellow River to hide, hiding in Yandi (彘地, in present-day Huozhou, Shanxi), where he heard that his son Ji Jing had been killed, was frightened and never dared to come back. King Li never returned, spending the rest of his life in turmoil and trepidation.
After King Li fled, for a while there was no master in the sect, and the people were panicked. The world cannot be left without a monarch for a day, and the princes who have come to calm the matter are discussing how to clean up this mess. However, King Li of Zhou was still alive and could not depose him, so he had to elect Mu Gong and Zhou Dinggong to act as Tianzi (a saying that Gongbo and Acting for Tianzi), known in history as "Republican Administration", for a total of fourteen years.
During this period, Crown Prince Ji Jing grew up in the home of Zhao Mugong. Summoning Mu Gong to hold the prince's hand, thinking of his son who died tragically, he couldn't help but burst into tears. Zhao Mugong was a virtuous man, and he systematically educated Ji Jing. He taught Ji Jing that as Zhou Tianzi, he should follow the example of the great kings of Wen, Wu, Cheng, and Kang, treat the people kindly, work diligently, and be diligent and thrifty, so that he could be regarded as a competent Son of Heaven.
In 828 BC, zhou Tianzi, who had been invincible and an enemy of the world, died in Yan. When the news of his death came out, he summoned Mu Gong, Zhou Dinggong, and the princes to support Ji Jing to take the throne, in order to declare the king.
After King Xuan ascended the throne, he learned the lessons of his father, King Li, and with the assistance of two sages, Mu Gong and Zhou Dinggong, he eliminated all the maladministrations of the Li Dynasty and restored the policies of Wen, Wu, Cheng, and Kang, so that the dying tree of the Zhou Dynasty grew new branches and new vitality. Under the rule of King Xuan, the sage king, the Kingdom of Zhou once again showed a long-lost vitality, showing a new and different atmosphere.
King Xuan was able to humbly listen to the opinions of his subordinates, and strictly forbade officials from embezzling and collecting taxes without authorization. A strict prohibition policy was imposed, and officials were warned not to indulge in alcohol and make trouble. After some painstaking management, the internal situation of the Zhou Dynasty has been greatly improved, and the princely states have also come to the royal family to meet, and the prestige of Zhou Tianzi has slowly been restored.
The main achievement of Xuanwang Zhongxing was in martial arts, and the political reform of civil rule was difficult to achieve great things due to the strong opposition of the nobles. In order to neutralize the growing external threat, King Xuan of Zhou launched a series of wars. It has quelled the rebellions of the Xiongnu in the north, the Rongdi in the west, the Huaiyi in the east, and the Chu state in the south, and opened up a vast territory.
After the Southern Expedition surrendered to the Chu state, King Xuan ordered Mu Gong to build residences, palaces, temples, and capitals in Xie (present-day Nanyang, Henan) to repay his nurturing teachings.
In addition to a series of military achievements, King Xuan of Zhou also took some political measures to restore the authority of the Son of Heaven. During his reign, King Xuan ordered the construction of a palace, and ordered Zhongshan Fu to go to the State of Qi to build a city and strengthen the defense of the eastern border. King Xuan also followed the example of his ancestor Xingqi and met with the princes at the eastern capital of Luoyi (present-day Luoyang, Henan).
After forty-six years of hard work, King Xuan did not fail to live up to the teachings and expectations of Zhao Mugong, and finally realized the comprehensive revival of the Zhou Dynasty. In the early and middle period of his reign, the country was strong and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. Hundreds of years after the "reign of Cheng Kang", a new Taiping dynasty finally reappeared, for the "Xuanwang Zhongxing".
Later historians have a high evaluation of "Xuanwang Zhongxing".
Sima Qian exclaimed in the "Records of History": "Zheng Zheng, the legacy of French, Wu, Cheng, and Kang, and the princes of Fuzong Zhou." ” The famous Confucian Dong Zhongshu also said: "Fu Zhou Dao declines in You, Li, non-Dao also dies, You, Li is not also." As for King Xuan, the virtue of si xi xian wang, the xing and stasis, the merits of Mingwen and Wu, and the revival of Zhou Dao, this long night of unremitting good deeds is also caused. ”
It is said that if there is a father, there must be a son, but how to explain the father and son of King Li and King Xuan? The Father is a tyrant and the Son is the Lord, which is also a great anomaly. But even more bizarre things were still to come, it was this sage who had cultivated the Emperor of Zhou You, who thought he was as pathless as his father. This king had no wisdom of his father Xuan Wang's virtuousness, and his fainting and brutality were the same as that of King NaizuLi, and even more than that, and eventually even led to the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
There is a contrarian son from the father to the father, what is going on?
It turned out that Queen Xuanwang was pregnant and gave birth to a boy before she was ten months pregnant, and King Xuan, very fond of his weakness, personally named him Gong Xiang (pronounced shēng), and asked the chancellor what was the sign. One of the courtiers, who was proficient in divination, replied, "If this son is disabled, he will not be hindered by the country; if he is intact, he will be destroyed." King Xuan was horrified, believing that the child was ominous and intended to abandon him. The chancellor Zhongshan Fu advised King Xuan, "Your Majesty! You are older and now have no other heirs. If this child is abandoned again, what is the difference between the demise of the state? No filial piety has three, no queen is great! King Xuan felt justified when he heard this, and although he was sad, he still dispelled this idea.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, a strange thing happened in the palace. Legend has it that during the Xia Dynasty, two divine dragons descended from heaven in the Tianzi Palace, and they called themselves the king of the Kingdom of Praise. After divination, killing or driving them away all get a bad omen, and the only way to collect the saliva left by the dragon is Daji. The King of Xia then ordered a prayer to the dragon to collect the saliva left by the dragon and seal it in a box. This box has been passed down in the palace for hundreds of years, and no one dares to open it.
In the last years of The Zhou Dynasty, the curious King Li ordered the box to be opened to watch. He accidentally knocked over the box, causing the dragon's saliva to flow through the courtyard and could not be removed. King Li decided to use witchcraft to get rid of it, so he ordered the woman to shout at it naked. As a result, the saliva suddenly turned into a black lizard and disappeared into a seven-year-old virgin. The virgin was unmarried and pregnant, and she gave birth to a baby girl, and her parents were so frightened that they abandoned the baby girl they gave birth to.
In the last year of King Xuan's reign, there was a singing ballad saying: "The arc of the song is obeyed, and the Zhou Kingdom is destroyed." This means that those who sell bows and arrows will die in the Zhou Kingdom. When King Xuan heard this prophecy, he was disgusted and ordered all those who sold bows and arrows to be arrested and executed immediately, regardless of whether they were serious or serious. Coincidentally, a couple from the countryside went into the city to sell bows and arrows, and they committed a crime without knowing it, and they fled for their lives. On the way to escape, I suddenly heard a child crying, found that it was an abandoned girl, and took this girl with her to escape. Later, this girl grew up in the country of Praise, so it was called "Praise", her appearance was very beautiful, famous far and wide, and was considered by the people of the country to be the color of the country, and the country of Praise dedicated her to the King of Zhou.
In the forty-sixth year of King Xuan's reign (782 BC), King Xuan died of illness and was enthroned as King You. The Jurchens paid tribute to the palace, and at that time, the wives and concubines of the Queen You's palace were numerous, and they had not noticed her. Three years after the King of You, the King of You found her by chance in the harem, and when he saw her, he could not let go of it, so he became a special favorite. When She gave birth to a son, Bofu, the King of You deposed Empress Shen and Crown Prince Yiusu for her sake, with Xiao Ji as the queen and Bofu as the crown prince. When Tai Shi Boyang heard this, he sighed and said, "There is nothing wrong with it!" ”
Compliments
Although she was beautiful, she never smiled. The Ghost King wanted to laugh and was very depressed. At that time, the country had a system, and if a foreign enemy invaded Wang Qi and the King of Zhou raised a beacon, the princes had to come to the rescue. On this day, King Zhou You, with his wife, was playing in Lishan Mountain, and in order to win a smile from the beauties, he actually lit a beacon fire without incident, and the surrounding princes saw it and quickly brought soldiers to rescue him. It turned out that there were no enemies, and the princes cursed back in disgust, praising the situation, laughing happily, and the king of you was also very happy. From then on, the beacon system existed in name only, and even if the princes saw the beacon and thought that the King of Zhou was teasing them, they would not bother to come to the rescue.
At that time, the King of You, with Father Yu Shi as his secretary, was an adulterous and sinister man who acted in a misdeed, and the people of the country were dissatisfied and complained. Father Yu Shi was a clever man and greedy for money and profits, but he was good at flattery, so the King of You trusted him very much. The King of You, after listening to Yu Shi's father's advice, decided to abolish the original Shen and depose The Crown Prince Yiusu and hunt him down.
Hearing the cries of his daughter and grandson, Shen Hou's father, Shen Hou, was furious and joined forces with Xiyi and Inuyasha to besiege King You, seeking justice for his daughter. The Youwang was horrified, so he hurriedly raised a beacon to recruit soldiers for help, but none of the princes and soldiers rushed to the rescue. The Inuyasha army killed King You at the foot of Mount Li, took away the concubines, and also ravaged Wang Qi, taking all the treasures and materials of the Zhou royal family.
At this point, all the achievements of "Xuanwang Zhongxing" were all dissipated, and although The Crown Prince Yiusus was able to take the throne, he could not gain a foothold in the old land of Fenghao, so he had to move east to Luoyang. As a result, Western Zhou perished and moved to Eastern Zhou. alack! The faintness of this defeated son, King You, was much worse than that of his grandfather Li Wang, and not only did he lose his father King Xuan's career, but even the five-hundred-year inheritance created by the ancestors of the ancestors such as Zu Shangguang, Wu, Cheng, and Kang was also destroyed!
Looking at the actions of the three generations of Li, Xuan, and You, father and son, people are infinitely emotional. The main reason why King Xuan was able to achieve something was because he had endured hardships since he was a child and had been correctly educated and guided by Mu Gong. And King Li and King You, who were born in the deep palace since childhood, grew up in the hands of women, were spoiled and habitual when they were young, grew up to be arrogant and extravagant, that is, after becoming the son of heaven, they acted recklessly, and did not listen to advice, which eventually led to the destruction of the country, what a painful historical lesson!