Speaking of Zhou Tianzi, we all know that he was the supreme ruler of the Zhou Dynasty, and in the era of the sub-feudal system, Zhou Tianzi was the co-lord of the world, and his honor was extraordinary. The one we are going to talk about today is the King of Zhou, named Ji Yan, who was also the last monarch of Eastern Zhou. Although his life was not brilliant enough, he sat on the throne for 59 years, breaking the record of the zhou royal family's 800-year ancestors, but in the last few years of his life, he was embarrassed to become an out-and-out "old lai", which made people puzzled.
Although he was ranked as the Son of Heaven, in the Warring States era when there were many powerful countries, the Zhou royal family actually controlled only a dozen counties, and the status of the co-lord of the world existed in name only. What was even more embarrassing was that the land of Wang Qi in the land of projectiles was also under the administration of the Duke of Eastern Zhou and the Duke of Western Zhou, and the Tianzi at this time was like a mascot, and could not perform anything at all.
Friends who have seen the Warring States Policy believe that they have read such a paragraph: "Eastern Zhou wants to be rice, Western Zhou does not go into the water", the two Zhou Dukes often pinch each other, they can't see that everyone is a little good, and the national strength can be imagined.
Some people may ask why such a small land of Wang Qi should be divided into two kingdoms, this is because the Zhou royal family had many infighting during the zhou kao and zhou xianwang periods, in order to avoid disputes, it successively divided the two small states of western Zhou and eastern Zhou. Since then, Zhou Tianzi has no place to stand, and the three generations of Tianzi of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty have begun to live under the fence.
At this time, the King of Zhou Zhao had no real power to speak of, and the Duke of Western Zhou was named Duke, and without the permission of the King of Zhou Zhao, he dared to openly disobey the Zhou rites and make his own son the crown prince.
The Crown Prince of Wu of Western Zhou died, and there were five sons, and they did not have to stand. Sima Qi said of the King of Chu: "It is better to blame the prince of the land for the sake of asking the prince." Zuo Chengyue: "No." Zhou did not listen, it was the public knowledge of sleepiness and neglect of Zhou Ye. It is better to ask Zhou Jun to stand up and tell Him a little, and ask Chu to take the ground. "Prince Guoli blames himself as a prince." - "History of Zhou Benji"
At the same time, the King of Zhou Zhao had no financial resources, and Wang Qi's financial income was controlled by the two Zhou Dukes, and the King of Zhou Zhao could not even sustain the basic living expenses, and sought to survive in a way that was almost family.
(Although King Zhao of Zhou held the position of the Son of Heaven, he was invaded by the princes and was no different from his family.) --Emperor Fumian of the Western Jin Dynasty, "The Century of Emperors")
In such a depressed situation, king Zhou Zhao may have tried to change the status quo, but finally gave up because of his inability to do anything. Perhaps it was his good mentality, or perhaps he was tempered by poverty, but the King of Zhou Zhao was very long-lived, and he was likely to be the longest-lived son of heaven in our Chinese history since it was recorded in literature.
According to the "Records of History" Zhou Benji and Qin Benji, King Zhao's grandfather Xianwang reigned for 48 years, his father King Zhou Shenliang reigned for 6 years, King Zhao reigned for 59 years, and the marriageable age of Tianzi of the Zhou Dynasty was generally from fifteen to twenty years old, coupled with the many factors that the Zhou Dynasty was the eldest son of the concubine, according to experts who studied the history of Zhou, king Zhao of Zhou lived at least about 120 years old.
(Ji surname, given name Yan.) Grandson of King Xian, Prince Shen liang. He ascended the throne in 315 BC. At that time, the Zhou royal family was weak, and split into Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou, and then moved to Western Zhou. In 256 BC, King Zhao of Qin attacked Western Zhou, and Western Zhou sacrificed all its land. King Zhao was killed by Qin. ——Sima Qian, "History of Zhou Benji and Justice")
This number sounds really unbelievable, but it is recorded in the "Chronicle of History". Perhaps Qin Shi Huang did not "burn books and pit Confucianism", and if the "History of Zhou" repaired by the predecessors was still there, then the estimation of the 120-year-old age of King Zhou Zhao would be more convincing.
Life under the fence lasted for a long time, and the King of Zhou Zhao was somewhat numb, until the fifty-sixth year of the King of Zhou Zhao, such a calm was finally broken, because the Qin State was even more powerful in the east, and had captured many important cities in the three kingdoms of Zhao, Wei, and Han, and the already precarious Zhou royal family instantly lost its strategic buffer zone, seeing that the remaining land of the Zhou Dynasty was about to be precarious, and whenever the King of Zhou Zhao thought about this, he was always worried and panicked. One day, the King of Chu sent someone to request the King of Zhou to unite the Six Kingdoms to attack the Qin State in the name of the Co-Lord of the World. When King Zhou Zhao learned of this, his heart was uneasy, he had been hiding for fifty or sixty years, and at the last moment of his life, he decided to gamble, so he issued an order to join forces, formed a force of more than 5,000 people, and decided to join the Six Kingdoms Alliance to fight against the ruthless Qin.
Poverty limited the imagination of this Zhou Tianzi, and because there was no money and food, the King of Zhou had no choice but to raise military funds from the rich merchants, and promised the rich merchants that the day when they returned from the Qin Dynasty, they would be filled with the spoils obtained from the Qin State and repaid them twice.
After everything was ready, King Zhao of Zhou waited for the princes' army to arrive at Mount Yiqu, and the only responders were the Yan and Chu states. At this time, the king of Zhou Zhao had little money and grain left on his expedition, and he returned to the palace without participating in the battle, and the creditors shouted and cursed outside the palace gate day and night, and the king of Zhou Zhao had to build a high platform in the palace to hide debts, which was the source of the idiom "high debt platform".
The only time king of Zhou Zhao had risen in his life was such a complete failure, but it made King Zhaoxiang of Qin very angry, and soon after he sent an army to retaliate, ordering the Qin army to directly attack the royal city of the Zhou royal family. Remembering that he was old and there was no need to toss and turn blindly, King Zhao of Zhou led his subordinates and relatives to the ancestral temple to cry bitterly and happily, and then personally took his family members and atlases to the Qin army camp to surrender. Subsequently, in the fifty-ninth year of the reign of King Zhao of Zhou, the Duke of Western Zhou sacrificed to the State of Qin the remaining 36 cities and 30,000 subjects of Eastern Zhou, and in the same year, King Zhao of Zhou died of illness in Liangcheng. At this point, the Zhou Dynasty, which lasted for eight hundred years, came to an end.
If life is not as you wish, then fight hard before the dust settles, although the King of Zhou Zhao failed and became a veritable king of the country, but the decline of the Zhou royal family is not a cold day, nor is it caused by him alone. I believe that the dying King of Zhou Zhao will not regret his impulse, although the debt is high and has become a laughing stock, he can more calmly go to see the 36 ancestor kings of the Zhou royal family!