Why did Wu Qi pounce on the corpse of King Chu Mourning who reused himself when he was killed?
In the twenty-first year of King Zhou An (381 BC), King Chu mourned and ordered Wu to change the law. The nobles of the Chu State, who opposed Wu Qi's reform, took the opportunity to organize a rebellion and wanted to kill Wu Qi; Wu Qi needed help, so he rushed to the mourning hall and attacked the body of King Chu Mourning. Why did Wu Qi do this?
Wu Qi was a famous politician and military strategist in the late Spring and Autumn Period and early Warring States Period, and lived in the three kingdoms of Shilu, Wei and Chu, and finally ended his life in Chu, mainly because Wu Qi implemented law changes in Chu.
Wu Qi, who left Wei for Chu, was soon reused by the King of Chu Mourning, and a year later he was promoted to the secretary of the Criminal Department and led the reform of the Chu State. Since the Warring States period, with the advent of iron farming tools and the gradual popularization of cattle ploughing, the fertile land system has gradually collapsed, and the productivity has been continuously improved, but the emergence of a new class of warlords, landlords and scholars, has made it"Shiqing Shilu"The patriarchal system is no longer suitable for the development of society.
Due to the collapse of the Liangtian system and the system of the Emperor's Doctor's Fortune, the reform content of this period was mainly focused on land reform and bureaucratic reform. Wu Qi's reform policies, such as reforming aristocratic titles and regulations, dismissal and reduction of salaries, etc., were mainly aimed at the nobility of the Chu State. Although Wu Qi's reforms made the state of Chu strong again, the nobles hated him for the encroachment of his personal interests, which undoubtedly laid the foundation for his downfall.
According to the "Lü's Spring and Autumn - Kaichunlun - Gui Zu" records that King Zhou An died in the twenty-first year of King Chu (381 BC), and King Chu Mourning entrusted Wu Qi to change the law. After the death of King Mourning of Chu, who was entrusted by Wu Qi to change the law, the nobles of Chu immediately gathered their troops and prepared to take the opportunity to kill Wu Qi; The nobles shot at Wu Qi with bows and arrows, and Wu Qi saw that there was no way to escape, so he took out the arrows on his body, fled to the resting place of the king of Chu Mourning, stuck the arrows in the corpse, and squatted on the body of the king of Chu Mourning. "The ministers rebelled against my king. "He screamed.
So, why did Wu Qi treat the grieving King of Chu like this when he respected him so much? Personally, I think there are only two reasons:
1.Use the new king of Chu, King Chu Su, to get rid of political enemies. Lü's Spring and Autumn - Kaichunlun - Gui Zu" contains:"The law of Jing State, Li Bing's sword on the king's corpse, is the crime of robbing the three clans"。In other words, in the state of Chu, daring to put a sword on the body of the monarch is the crime of taking the three clans. In fact, after King Chu Su ascended the throne, he ordered people to find the owner of the arrow, and then executed all the nobles who destroyed the body of King Yasi of Chu, including more than seventy families.
Secondly, this is an opportunity to eradicate the nobles of the Chu State and protect the fruits of the law amendment. It is not uncommon in history for people to die as a result of changing the law. At that time, the nobles of the Chu State had the most fierce opposition to the change of the law of the Chu State. Wu Qi also attacked the nobles of Chu by eliminating the enemy, so that the nobles who opposed the revision of the law lost their power. In this way, even if the state of Chu continues to implement the reform of the law and maintain the existing political achievements, the voice of opposition will be much smaller, which is also Wu Qi's last contribution to the reform of the law of the state of Chu.
Judging from the final results, it is clear that Wu Qi's actions have achieved their goals. Unfortunately, the successive deaths of King Yalts and Wu Qi led to the eventual failure of the revision of the Treaty of Chu. Although Chu's national strength has been strengthened to a certain extent, the unfinished treaty revision cannot enable Chu to fully embark on the road to becoming a strong country.