Wu's successive battles finally earned itself a reputation among the princes, and Wu's repeated defeats of Qi, which dominated the east, frightened the princes of the Central Plains. With its strong military strength as the backing, Wu wanted to become one of the princes of the Central Plains. Rank up, and then dominate the princes and command the world. However, Wu's attempt was only partially realized in the Huangchi Alliance he called for, but the price Wu paid for this was painful.
In the thirteenth year of Duke Ai of Lu (482 BC), King Wu Fucha once again defeated Qi. He was so confident that he decided to issue an order to the princes of the Central Plains and hold an alliance meeting in Huangchi. The purpose of this alliance is obvious, that is, Wu will strive to become the hegemon among the princes of the Central Plains, and in the name of calling on the princes of all countries to support the Zhou royal family, it will add weight to itself and make the princes of all countries sincerely submit.
According to the record in "Gongyang Zhuan", "If Wu is here, no prince in the world will dare not to come." From here we can see how powerful Wu was at that time, and the princes from all over the world were afraid of Wu's use of troops. However, when the "Zuo Zhuan" recorded the participants of the Huangchi League, it said this: "In the Xia Dynasty, Duke Shan Ping, Duke Ding of Jin, and Wu Fucha were in Huangchi." According to the records in "Zuo Zhuan" Look, except for Shan Pinggong, the representative of the Zhou royal family, the only princes participating in this alliance were Lu Ai Gong and Jin Dinggong. It was not the unprecedented grand occasion at all. In the "Spring and Autumn Classic", the record of the princes who participated in this alliance is simply one sentence, "The princes of Jin and the princes of Wu gathered in Huangchi", and this is the same as "No prince in the world dares not to come" in "Gongyang Zhuan" ” description is conflicting.
So why does this conflict of records appear in the history books? Du Yu of the Jin Dynasty provided people with such an explanation in his "Anthology of the Spring and Autumn Classics". He said: "If the alliance is not written, the princes will be ashamed, so they will not record it." The meaning of this sentence is that the reason why The Huangchi alliance was not recorded in detail because the princes of all countries were ashamed of it and therefore did not record it. Through Du Yu's explanation, a new question arises here, that is, why are the princes of various countries ashamed of the Huangchi Alliance?
There is a passage in the "Gu Liang Zhuan", a Confucian classic that also records the history of the Spring and Autumn Period: "Wu Zi advanced at the Huangchi meeting! Sui Zi is here. Wu is also the country of Yi and Di. I wish you to have a tattoo because you want to use Lu's etiquette. Because of the power of the Jin Dynasty, they asked for crowns and crowns and borrowed them from the Zhou Dynasty to respect the king of heaven. Wu has entered! Wu, a big country in the east, has gradually brought small countries to join the princes and conform to China. Wu can do it, then Don't you want to submit? Wu Jin is here! 'Wang' is an honorific title. 'Zi' is a humble title. Reject the honorific title and use the humble title in order to meet the princes and respect the king of heaven. King Wu Fucha said: 'Here comes the good crown!' Confucius said : 'That's great! Fu Chai couldn't say that he was the best, but he wanted to be the best.'"
From this passage in "The Biography of Gu Liang", it seems that we can find clues to what Du Yu in the Jin Dynasty said was "the princes are ashamed". The Huangchi Meeting is seen here as an opportunity for Wu to get closer to the culture of the Central Plains, but it is not considered at all to be an alliance for Wu to dominate the Central Plains. For a long time, the Kingdom of Wu has been regarded as a country of barbarians and Di by the vassal states in the Central Plains. This alliance shows that the Kingdom of Wu has begun to approach the Central Plains states in terms of culture and etiquette, and understands the distinction between high and low. Although the State of Wu is a large country in the East, it now calls itself a humble small country and meets the princes. This is in line with the culture of various countries in the Central Plains. King Wu Fu Chai said: "Bring me a good hat!" Confucius said: "Fu Chai wants to wear a hat without even distinguishing the grade of the hat. What an arrogance!"
As a representative of China's Confucian tradition, Confucius' words truly illustrate the situation of Wu State being not recognized by the Central Plains culture. What Wu State has always strived for to gain control of the Central Plains is to gain recognition from the Central Plains culture. Although in the late Spring and Autumn Period, the relationship between Wu State and other countries in the Central Plains strengthened, and their cultures gradually converged, the Central Plains countries that considered themselves to be orthodox were wary of Wu's rising military power, but they still had deep cultural differences with Wu. Deep contempt. Confucius's words clearly show the true meaning of this, and the Huangchi Alliance where Wu State dominates is not what Wu State intended.
In order to dominate the Huangchi Alliance, Wu brought tens of thousands of elite soldiers to participate in the alliance. The intention of King Wu Fu Chai is obvious, that is, he must dominate Huangchi. King Wu Fucha should have also anticipated the cultural contempt that the Central Plains princes had for Wu, so he had to use strong military power as a backing to eliminate the criticism of the princes. However, Wu State had to face the challenge of Jin State, the oldest powerful country in the Spring and Autumn Period. Although the Jin State at this time is not as good as before, and the situation of the three Jin Dynasties is a foregone conclusion, the Jin State, which has not yet been divided, is still the leader among the princes in terms of economic and military strength. At the same time, the Jin State still inherits the orthodox culture of the Central Plains. It is not easy to shake the status of Jin State.
In the Huangchi Alliance, Jin was Wu's main competitor for hegemony. The Wu State first compared their family backgrounds with the Jin State. "Zuo Zhuan" records: "In autumn, in the seventh month of the Xin Chou Alliance, Wu and Jin competed for the lead. The Wu people said: 'I am the eldest in the Zhou family.' The Jin people said :'Yu Ji's surname is my uncle.'" The ancestor of the Wu people was Taibo, the eldest son of King Zhou, so the Wu people said: "We are the eldest among the Zhou family." However, the people of Jin were not to be outdone. Relying on Jin's long-standing status as a great power and its inheritance of the orthodox culture of the Central Plains with the surname Ji, the people of Jin said: "Among the countries with the surname Ji, I am the eldest brother!" As a result, there was a quarrel between Wu and Jin.
King Wu Fucha then heard the unfortunate news that the State of Yue suddenly attacked the State of Wu, killed Fucha's son and set fire to the city of Gusu. In order to block the news, King Wu Fucha killed all his cronies who knew about it. In order to complete the Huangchi Alliance as soon as possible, King Wu Fucha accepted Wang Sunluo's suggestion and once again used force to intimidate the Jin state. The Jin State was afraid that the Wu State would use force to fight, so it almost acquiesced in the Wu State's hegemonic behavior, and let Wu King Fu Chai take the lead when it came to bloodshed. King Wu Fucha finally won the overlord status in the alliance with the princes of the Central Plains. However, since then, the state of Wu also took a sharp turn and was soon destroyed by the state of Yue.
Although Wu State was dominant in Huangchi, the Central Plains countries still had cultural prejudices against Wu State, which is why history books only downplayed this alliance in a few strokes. It can be seen that the Huangchi Meeting was not only an act of Wu's dominance, but also a collision and fusion of cultures.
Before the Yue Kingdom raided the Wu Kingdom, one person had already discovered the clues.
After Wu King Fu Chai defeated Yue King Gou Jian, Wu began to actively seek to dominate the Central Plains and gradually neglected its defense against Yue. At this time, only one person in the Wu Kingdom was clearly aware of the dangerous position of the Yue Kingdom, and he always advised King Wu Fu Chai to be careful.
When the Yue Kingdom asked for surrender, Wu Zixu used the story of the young man's restoration of the country to persuade King Wu Fucha not to accept it, but to take this opportunity to destroy the Yue Kingdom. However, the King of Wu did not listen to Wu Zixu's advice. When King Wu Fu Chai was preparing to raise an army to conquer Qi, Wu Zixu remonstrated and said: "I heard that Gou Jian now lives a frugal and simple life. He works in the fields himself and only eats meat dishes. Moreover, he mourns the dead, cares for the sick and injured, and shares the joys and sorrows with the people. . If such people are not eliminated, they will definitely be a hidden danger to Wu State in the future. Now Yue State is a confidant trouble to Wu State; and Qi State is just a scabies disease to Wu State. If the king ignores Yue State, which is a confidant concern, and It will be very dangerous for Wu to attack Qi." King Wu Fu Cha refused to listen and led his army to fight Qi in Ailing and defeated the Qi army.
After King Wu returned from victory, King Gou Jian of Yue led his ministers to congratulate King Wu and presented him with many gifts. King Wu Fu Chai was very happy, but Wu Zixu said to the King of Wu very worriedly: "The State of Yue is the most dangerous enemy around us. Now the king has been deceived by their rhetoric and only focuses on fighting the distant State of Qi. For the State of Wu, even if Defeating the state of Qi is of no use! "Shangshu Pan Geng" has long said: "If there are those who are subversive and disrespectful, they will be destroyed so that there will be no inheritance and no Yiyi will be planted in the city." This is the business Only then can the dynasty prosper. Please pay more attention to Yue and don't focus on conquering Qi, otherwise you will regret it in the future." However, the current King of Wu could not listen to Wu Zixu's words at all and still did his own thing.
After that, King Gou Jian of Yue presented two beauties to King Wu Fu Chai, one of whom was Xi Shi. After King Wu Fu Chai saw Xi Shi, he was immediately fascinated by her beauty and was very happy. Wu Zixu still advised the King of Wu not to accept the donation from the King of Yue, but how could the King of Wu, who was already fascinated, listen to Wu Zixu's words? He gladly accepted the donation from the King of Yue and praised the King of Yue for his loyalty.
At this time, the Wu State was competing in the Central Plains to demonstrate its national power. At the same time, the domestic political situation was becoming increasingly corrupt, and the external power was strong but the internal power was ineffective. Wen Zhong, an official of the Yue State, said to Gou Jian, the King of Yue: "The power of the State of Wu is gradually declining, and the King of Wu is becoming more and more arrogant and extravagant. We might as well borrow grain from the State of Wu to test Wu's attitude." So Gou Jian sent someone to go there. Wu State borrowed grain. Although Wu Zixu tried his best to dissuade him, King Wu Fucha readily agreed to lend grain to Yue State, and he became increasingly dissatisfied with Wu Zixu's always opposing his opinions.
After this incident, Wu Zixu said sadly: "Your Majesty, if you don't listen to my good advice, I'm afraid that the state of Wu will be razed to the ground by the state of Yue in three years." The sycophantic minister Bo Pei, who accepted bribes from the state of Yue, heard what Wu Zixu said. After speaking, he took the opportunity to speak ill of Wu Zixu to King Wu Fu Chai: "Your Majesty, don't look at Wu Zixu's superficial loyalty. In fact, he is a ruthless and ruthless person. When he fled for his own life in the Chu Kingdom, he ignored the lives of his father and brother. How can I think about you, my king, now?"
"When you were planning to attack Qi, he tried to dissuade you. However, the king still defeated Qi and returned home in triumph. Wu Zixu actually became resentful of you because you did not adopt his strategy but won the victory. Now the king wants to attack Qi again. Wu Zixu is domineering and stubborn, trying his best to dissuade you and hindering your great cause. In fact, he just hopes to prove his wisdom with the defeat of Wu State. Now the king wants to personally lead the army of the country to attack Qi State, Wu Zixu because you did not listen to his advice But if I can’t tell you that I’m sick, I’m afraid I’m already harboring alien intentions, so please be more careful, Your Majesty.”
At first, King Wu Fu Chai did not believe that Wu Zixu would cause rebellion, so the King of Wu sent Wu Zixu as an envoy to Qi to find out. Because Wu Zixu foresaw that the Kingdom of Wu would be destroyed, he brought his son to the Kingdom of Qi and said to his son: "I have repeatedly advised the king, but none of them were accepted. Now that the end of the Kingdom of Wu is coming, you can stay here." Qi, don't perish together with Wu." So Wu Zixu entrusted his son to the Bao family of Qi, and then returned to Wu alone to report the situation of Qi to the king of Wu.
When King Wu Fu Chai found out about this, he was very angry. Bo Pu took the opportunity to slander again: "Wu Zixu left his son behind on a mission to Qi. This is a very dangerous signal. As a minister of the king, he sought refuge with foreign forces without being reused at home, and he committed suicide. I think Wu Zixu will cause trouble in the future because he thinks he is an adviser to the late king and complains that the king does not reuse him. I hope the king will be on guard in advance." King Wu Fu Chai also said angrily: "If you hadn't said this, I would have doubted him." So. He sent someone to give Wu Zixu a carved sword and ordered him to commit suicide.
After Wu Zixu received the sword from the King of Wu, he looked up to the sky and sighed: "Alas! It is obviously a villain like Bo Pu who is slandering and harming the virtuous ministers behind his back, but now the King of Wu wants to take my life! When your father was in power, he was I helped the State of Wu and captured the capital of Chu State, Ying, and dominated it for a while. When the crown prince's position was undecided and the princes were fighting to the death, it was I who fought hard in front of the late king, and the late king made you the crown prince. You become the crown prince. In the future, he said that he would give me half of the Kingdom of Wu as a reward for my merits, but I never dared to have such extravagant hopes. Who would have thought that now you would kill your elders after listening to the slanderous words of the treacherous ministers. If I die, you will be alone. You can’t save the country!”
After that, Wu Zixu told the disciples: "Plant the catalpa tree used to make coffins on my grave, dig out my eyes and put them on the east gate of Wu's capital. I want to watch with my own eyes the Yue Kingdom from Wu. We will invade the east gate of the capital and destroy Wu." After saying this, he committed suicide.
When King Wu Fu Chai later heard what Wu Zixu said, he was furious and ordered his people to put Wu Zixu's body into a leather bag and throw it into the river, where he was buried in the belly of a fish. Such a loyal minister of the State of Wu was framed and died by the villain Bo Pi. No one around the King of Wu could warn him anymore, and the politics of the State of Wu became even more corrupt and dark.
Therefore, the defeat of Wu State is inevitable.
