Wherever there are people, there is struggle? No matter what the relationship between the two parties is, whether they are strangers, friends, brothers, or even father and son, conflicts will occur between them. These conflicts may be daily The triviality of the matter may also be related to the control of authority. Although the Zhou Dynasty ruled the land of China for hundreds of years, for a long period of time in the later period, it was in a display state. The decline of the Zhou Dynasty has intensified, and the drawbacks of the feudal system have also been magnified. Therefore, the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period appeared in the late Zhou Dynasty, and during the transition from slave society to feudal society, the Seven Hegemons of the Warring States Period also gradually emerged.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, due to the influence of the feudal system and the patriarchal system, large and small vassal states coexisted in the land of the Zhou Dynasty. They took advantage of the fact that the emperor of Zhou was out of reach and dying, and annexed other countries at will to expand their own strength. In order to stand out among these many countries and become the overlord of this land. Therefore, during the Spring and Autumn Period, because the Zhou Dynasty was still there, the idea of ??"great unification" had not been formed in people's minds. The only thing these princes and overlords thought about was to establish prestige among the many princes and establish hegemony. , thus becoming the leader and "big brother" among the princes.

King Cheng of Chu: Killing his brother to seize power and pursue hegemony

At that time, the Chu State was not as powerful as it was during the Warring States Period. Everything in it was still developing. In order to realize his ambitions and realize his ideals, King Cheng swung the butcher knife at his brother Chu Duao, thereby seizing the power of the Chu State and becoming a new generation of Chu King. After he seized the throne, his first step was to extend his kindness at home and abroad to hide and wash away his bad image of killing his brother and seizing power; he also restored normal diplomatic relations with some vassal states, thereby providing His own development provided better and more time, which more beneficially improved the bad influence of other countries on Chu. In addition, even though the various vassal states had ignored the Emperor of Zhou, they still actively paid tribute to the Emperor of Zhou and paid tribute on time and on time every year, making the Emperor of Zhou mistakenly think that he was a "good minister of the country", thus He was given the responsibility of quelling the turmoil of the Yiyue tribes and protecting all Chinese countries. King Chu Cheng was extremely happy after receiving it.

Many people are very puzzled as to why King Chu Cheng worked so hard just for the words of the Emperor of Zhou: To quell the unrest among the Yiyue tribes and defend the rest of China?

In fact, this was the great wisdom of King Chu Cheng, because these words of Emperor Zhou gave the Chu State the legitimacy to conquer other countries at will. This was great for the Chu State to expand its strength and establish its prestige. Play a better and greater role. It was precisely with this sentence that during his reign, King Chu Cheng suppressed the Yiyue tribes and vigorously expanded the territory. The successive annihilations of Xian, Huang, Ying, Kui and other countries provided him with abundant capital to pursue the dominance of Chu State.

King Mu of Chu: Killing his father to seize power and expand his territory

It must be said that King Mu of Chu is very similar to his father, because they not only have the same ambitions and strategies, but also both He gained power by killing his relatives. I think the reason why King Chu Mu was so at ease with his coup was because his father made a bad start. This is equivalent to the fact that when the throne was passed on, the ancestors clearly said that it was the "eldest son", but none of the emperors who succeeded later were "the eldest son". This made it possible for other princes who were not the eldest son but had ambitions to seize power. Provide reasons and talking points.

During the Zhou Dynasty, all countries attached great importance to traditional filial piety. It does not mean that a son will be fine after killing his father. He will receive a series of moral condemnations. If it is serious, the son of the father-killer will be punished. The status is likely to be unstable. But because King Chu Cheng's position came from an "incorrect" way, through the murder of his brother, this gave King Chu Mu many reasons to kill his father, and without the pressure of public opinion after killing his father, he finally started. It was his father who had done this. To put it bluntly, King Chu Mu could have whitewashed this parricide coup as "a righteous act of killing relatives to avenge his uncle Chu Du'ao".

After King Mu of Chu seized power, he, like his father, actively contributed to the development of the Chu State. While covering up his atrocities of patricide, he tried his best to improve the Chu State. A series of shortcomings caused after the Battle of Chengpu; while actively reconciling internal and external politics, it also continued to develop its own economy, which laid the foundation for its subsequent destruction of Jiang Kingdom, Six Kingdoms, Liao Kingdom and other countries, and further control and expansion of its rule in the Jianghuai region. .

The coup of King Chu Mu and the request of King Chu Cheng

When King Chu Cheng was in his prime, he established King Mu as the crown prince despite everyone's opposition. However, in the forty-sixth year of King Chu Cheng, That is to say, in 626 BC, he wanted to abolish King Mu's status as prince and replace him with someone else. Although he had this idea, King Chu Cheng was always hesitant. Despite this, the matter of abolishing the crown prince still reached the ears of King Mu of Chu. Although there was no evidence for this statement, King Mu of Chu was very afraid that his position would be shaken, so he asked his teacher, who devised a trick for him. King Cheng's sister Jiang Mi said, "Ah! You bitch! No wonder the king wants to kill you and install a prince as the crown prince!?".

It was precisely because of these words that King Chu Mu raised his troops to launch a coup. He forced his father to death.

What’s interesting is that when King Chu Mu led a mighty army to surround King Chu Cheng, the father and son were in a tense confrontation with each other in order to prevent the night from becoming too long. He wanted to let King Cheng hang himself, but King Cheng made a request to eat a "bear paw" before he died, and insisted on forcing him to death.

There are many meanings about bear paws:

The first is the common "procrastination theory". After all, bear paws are extremely precious ingredients, and they are extremely difficult to cook. This is consistent with the backward cooking technology in ancient times. Related, so this kind of "not easy" will help King Chu Cheng delay time to realize his "counter-kill".

But King Chu Mu knew his father's intention, so he did it. Later, he refused King Cheng's request and forced him to death.

The second step was to raise his hand and say: "Bear's paw" has the word "bear" in it, and the surname of King Shangchen of Chu Mu is "." Xiong?, so according to my inference, in addition to wanting to delay time, King Chu Cheng was also telling King Chu Mu in hidden words, thereby asking him to indirectly "show his favor" and let him go. However, due to his status, it was difficult to ask for mercy, so he The word "bear paw" was used instead.

What I have to say is that King Chu Cheng and King Mu really did anything for power, even if it was their family members who hindered them, but they did not hesitate. Both of them made great contributions to the Chu State. I don't know whether it is a blessing or a tragedy.