#春秋战国 #
Each of the seven warring states once had a distinct flag.
The brutality and cunning of the State of Qin, the wealth and arrogance of the State of Qi, the generosity and tragedy of the State of Yan, the violent and willful nature of the State of Zhao, and so on.
Speaking of the Chu state, the first entry that can be thought of is the land of barbarians. It can also be said that Chu Guo has always been a wild child chasing self-esteem.
In this article, we use just two or three thousand words to restore the complete history of the Chu state and the distinctive personality characteristics of the Chu people.
The ancestors of the Chu people did not have the orthodox bloodline of the Zhou Dynasty.
During the reign of King Wen of Zhou, the ancestor of the Chu people, Huan Xiong, was only the bodyguard of King Wen, and after three generations, Xiong Xuan, the great-grandson of Huan Xiong, was also the bodyguard of King Zhou Cheng. After that, King Cheng of Zhou gave Xiong Xuan the fifty miles of land in southern Manchuria and made him a viscount, and from then on he had the foundation of the Chu state's political power.
At the beginning of the founding of the Chu state, it was quite poor, and at the time of sacrifice, because of the lack of sacrifices, it was necessary to sacrifice stolen cattle to the heavens. In order to pay tribute, it is also necessary to gather the strength of the whole country and wade through the mountains and rivers. Despite this, the Chu people were unable to gain the respect of the Zhou Dynasty.
Lowliness and poverty became the root of the Central Plains princes' contempt for the Chu state. For hundreds of years after that, the princes of the Central Plains regarded the Chu state as a land of barbarians.
In 741 BC, during the reign of King Wu of Chu, in order to pursue the orthodox name. It was even necessary to let the weak but pure-blooded Suiguo ask the King of Zhou for a title on behalf of the Chu State.
However, during the Spring and Autumn Period, although the Zhou royal family was in decline, it still looked down on the Chu state in the southern barbarian land. Therefore, the King of Zhou refused this request.
The dignity of King Wu of Chu was greatly damaged, so he established himself as king and began a road of self-improvement. At the same time, it also laid the foundation for the Chu people's long-cherished wish for orthodox pursuit.
This concept of dignity was hidden in the blood of the Chu people in the centuries after that, and passed down from generation to generation.
Because of this, the later nobles of the Chu State attached great importance to dignity. The more inferior it was, the more it loved to express, and it also laid the foundation for the Chu state to emulate the Zhou Dynasty and move towards the road of self-government.
However, the inferior Chu people did not see a lesson in the zhou dynasty's demise precisely because of the sub-feudal system. Even the Later Han Dynasty still could not escape the same fate.
On the road of no return of the Chu state towards the system of division and feudalism, the national strength that was not very rich in materials was greatly weakened. At the same time, the State of Wei, which had completed the reform, became increasingly powerful and began to encroach on the territory of the State of Chu. However, the nobles of the Chu State, who had covered their respective interests tightly, were still unable to gather their strength to resist the aggression of foreign powers.
Until the appearance of a talented figure, the Chu State broke through the bottleneck for the first time and went to the road of self-improvement that it had always longed for but was difficult to achieve.
Who is this person?
Wu Qi, a famous military figure in the early Warring States period.
Wu Qi's reputation is slightly inferior to that of famous courtiers in other great powers, but his position in the history of the Warring States cannot be underestimated. The only military man who could stand alongside him was The Soldier Saint Sun Wu.
Even the god of war in the Qin state was white, and it would be ranked after Wu Qi.
Speaking of his achievements in politics, there is only one person in the Warring States who is comparable to him.
It is to use one's own strength to build the Qin state that survives in the wilderness into an invincible chariot of Gongsun Martingale.
Gongsun Martingale and Wu Qi had a very similar fate.
When the State of Qin faced bullying from outside, Gongsun Martingale was highly valued by Qin Xiaogong and began the famous Shang Martingale Transformation Method in history. This change of law can be said to be unprecedented in the history of the Warring States, and it is also the most thorough change of law.
Gongsun Martin, under the support of Duke Xiaogong of Qin, drove the aristocratic class that blocked the chariot of the Qin state from rolling forward to a dark corner and trembled, so that they could not compete with the monarchy. Unfortunately, shortly after the death of Duke Xiaogong of Qin, Gongsun Martin was framed for rebellion, and after his death, he was still tortured by the humiliating car splitter.
The timing of Wu Qi's appearance is very similar to that of Gongsun Martingale.
In 386 BC, when the Chu state was humiliated by the bullying of the Wei state, the nobles of the Chu state were cowardly and cowardly for their own selfish interests. In times of crisis, the King of Chu mourned the people's opinions and used Wu Qi as Ling Yin, one person below, above ten thousand people.
Wu Qi's variation method is also very similar to that of Shang Martingale. First of all, the aristocratic class was cut, and the means used were the same as those of Gongsun Martingale, fierce and fierce, fierce and cruel.
Compared with the fear of Gongsun Martingale by the Qin people, the nobles of the Chu State had only infinite hatred for Wu Qi's emotions.
However, the effect of Wu Qi's transformation is obvious. In the following years, under the leadership of Wu Qi, the Chu people vigorously resisted Wei and regained the lost territory. At one point, the territory of the Chu state was expanded to a peak.
Unfortunately, King Chu died too early, and Wu Qi was unable to completely abolish the martial arts of the aristocratic class like Gongsun Martingale. At the funeral of the King of Chu, Wu Qi was assassinated by the nobles of the Chu State who rose up, and the changes that had just begun came to an abrupt end.
Since then, the Chu people have been unable to eradicate the poison of the sub-feudal system, and there has been no further improvement in strength, and from beginning to end, they have maintained a state of external strength and middle cadre.
It is not so much that the Chu people have a strong sense of self-esteem, but rather a manifestation of inferiority from the heart.
Excessive emphasis on dignity allows them to go further and further down the path of self-weakening.
After the death of King Chu Mourning, the Chu state never had a decent monarch again.
Only the later King Huai of Chu was barely a Ming Emperor. Unfortunately, he also failed to let go of his pedantic self-esteem, and in the Warring States period, he still maintained the morality of the Spring and Autumn Period.
At that time, the only thing that the Chu state could rely on to compete with the Qin state was the covenant with the state of Qi. The State of Qin sent Zhang Yi, falsely claiming that as long as King Huai of Chu broke off diplomatic relations with the State of Qi, he would also return the land he had previously occupied.
It is reasonable to say that in the chaotic Warring States era, the covenant behind the ground was worthless. But the simple but highly self-respecting King Huai of Chu actually believed it.
In order to recover his ancestral land, he actually broke off relations with the State of Qi. The results thereafter were not difficult to predict, the State of Qin destroyed the alliance between the State of Chu and the State of Qi, and broke through the last line of defense of the State of Chu. However, they simply ignored the previous transaction and refused to return the land they had previously promised.
King Huai of Chu was furious and sent an army to attack Qin, but was defeated twice by the state of Qin, which had long been defensive. King Huai of Chu could only send the prince to the Qin state as a hostage in humiliation and unwillingness.
However, this was only the first deception of the Qin state, and there was a second, more cruel lesson, which not only buried the king of Chu Huai himself, but also buried the future of the Chu state.
Xiong Heng, the crown prince who was a hostage in the Qin state, killed the doctor of the Qin state and fled back to China in a hurry. The unforgiving State of Qin asked King Huai of Chu to give an account.
In 299 BC, King Huai of Chu once again made a stupid decision to go to the Qin state for moral righteousness, but unfortunately he never returned to China.
The selfishness of the nobles of the Chu people was once again exposed, and they quickly forgot about the king of Chu Huai, and in the depressed national situation, they hid their dignity deeply in the song of daily sheng.
Only Qu Yuan, who was loyal to King Huai of Chu, was exiled to other places and finally threw himself into the river for dignity and died.
Since then, the Chu state has been crumbling, and in the face of the wolf-like Qin state, it seems that it will no longer see the future of self-improvement.
The unification of the Qin state was unstoppable, and after sweeping away Han, Zhao, and Wei, the Chu state became a stumbling block for the Qin state to advance south. With the continuous attack, the dignity of the Chu people was trampled again and again. Until the Chu people were forced to a dead end, exposing the iron bone side.
The people of the Chu state did not go crazy and played, and taught the indispensable Qin state a lesson. Under the leadership of the famous general Xiang Yan, he crushed the 200,000 troops of the Qin State as never before.
After that, the famous general Wang Qi of the Qin State, before going out to attack the Chu State, asked Qin Shi Huang for an army of 600,000 troops, and none of them were willing to go out. It is precisely because of the fear of the madness of the Chu people when they are dying.
In the end, the Qin army attacked Shouchun and captured the last generation of Chu kings. However, the dignity of the Chu people was not completely cut off, and they never gave up the struggle against Qin.
Before dying, some Chu people shouted out: "Although Chu has three households, qin will die in Chu."
In a word.
Xiang Yan's descendant, Xiang Yu, the King of Western Chu, rose up after the death of Qin Shi Huang. After being a famous general, the last nobles of the Chu state also represented the last dignity of the Chu people.
Father Jiangdong burned humiliation into the iron bones of Zhengzheng, and blossomed the flower of life of blood and fire. This is also the fundamental reason why Xiang Yu can respond to everything in Jiangdong.
If history can be repeated, Xiang Yu, the king of Chu, can briefly lay down the dignity of the Chu people, and cross the Jiangdong river, he will inevitably be able to gather people again, which is bound to pose a powerful threat to Liu Bang's Han Dynasty.
Unfortunately, the Chu people founded their country in a humble state, grew up in inferiority, and have regarded dignity as a creed heavier than life. If Xiang Yu could let go of his dignity, there would be no Western Chu Overlord in history.
This may be an insoluble cycle, Xiang Yu tragically contains the purest 'Chu ren' bloodline. It can be said that he led the people of the Chu state to repeat the same mistakes, which also has historical inevitability.