Wu Zixu, originally a native of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period, was framed by the crown prince Fei Wuji, and his father and brother were killed by King Chuping. He fled from the state of Chu and defected to the state of Wu, where he was respected by the king of Wu. Under his leadership, the Wu army broke through Yingdu, and Wu Zixu personally dug up the tomb of King Chuping, and it is said that his body was whipped three hundred times. Tai Shi Gong praised him in the "Historical Records": "Abandoning the fine line, the snow is ashamed, and his name will be passed on to future generations, which is embarrassing!."Wu Zixu was stranded on the river, begging for a living, had he forgotten his hatred for Yingguo for a moment?Therefore, he endured silently, for the sake of fame, how can ordinary heroes achieve?However, the matter of whether Wu Zixu really personally dug up the grave and whipped the corpse is worth pondering.
In the battle of Song Chuhong, Song Xianggong once announced the principle of "gentlemen are not seriously injured, and they are not captured". Confucius lived in that era, advocating etiquette and music, and Wu Zixu led the invasion of the enemy and whipped the king with his own hands, which must have been a heinous act in Confucius's view. However, why didn't Confucius say a word on this matter?And according to the penmanship of the Spring and Autumn Period, the major events of the rebellion against the king should be written in a big book, but the record of the event of Wu Jun's entry into Yingying in the "Spring and Autumn Period" is quite brief, with only five words: "Gengchen, Wu into Ying." "There is no word description of Wu Zixu's whipping of the corpse.
What's more noteworthy is that Qu Yuan once praised Wu Zixu: "Wu Xin is slanderous and angry, and Zixu is worried after death." "For the loyal doctor Sanlu, who sacrificed his life for the country, how could he praise a rebel who digs up the grave and whips the corpse so much?Confucius's protégé Zigong also praised Wu Zixu's behavior: "Xu insisted on being faithful, and it was more precious to die than to live." It is particularly worth noting that "The Legend of the Ram" has this description of Wu Zixu: "The king is like the father, the righteousness of the king, the revenge of the father, and the minister is not for it." It can be seen that Wu Zixu is a person who attaches importance to the righteousness of the monarch and the minister, and it is unlikely that he will "lose the righteousness of the monarch" because of "revenge for his father".
History is in circulation, often through changes, and in the "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period" it is recorded that Wu Zixu "personally shot the palace and whipped Jingping's tomb for three hundred." However, in the "Historical Records: The Biography of Wu Zixu", it is recorded that "and Wu soldiers entered Ying, and Wu Zixu begged King Zhao." No, but to dig up the tomb of King Chuping, take out his corpse, whip three hundred, and then be. "There is a difference of more than 100 years between the two books, but one is a whip grave and the other is a whip corpse, so it is unbelievable. In the history books that are relatively close to the time when Wu Zixu lived, there is no mention of the major event of the grave digging and whipping corpse, which really makes people doubt whether Wu Zixu really exhumed the grave and whipped the corpse.
In general, "Lü's Spring and Autumn" was written by Lü Buwei, the prime minister of Qin during the Warring States Period, and was hung at the gate of Xianyang City after the book was completed, claiming that those who could change one word would be rewarded. However, Wu Zixu's deeds of exhuming the grave and whipping the corpse have not been fully confirmed in ancient history books.