High Level Overview of Chinese History: Zhou Dynasty IX
Late Spring and Autumn Period II
The next two parts of the Late Spring and Autumn Period were Hegemonies, the first being 10 years under King Helü of Wu (506-496) and the next 31 under King Goujian of Yue.
By 怪怪～鱼 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84882350
King Helü of Wu was born Prince Guang, son of King Yumei and nephew to King Liao, befriended an exile from Chu, Wu Zixu, who then introduced him to Zhuan Zhu, who was a butcher, at a time when he was wanting to overthrow his uncle. Zhuan succeeded at this in 515 BCE, elevating Guang to King Helü of Wu. He set about building a 'great city', which 'forms the basis of Suzhou's present old town'. With the assistance of Sun Tzu, who wrote The Art of War, and Wu Zixu, he turned his attention to defeating the state of Chu. They managed to reach the capital Ying, though while sacking the capital, Helü 'attempted to sexually assault the Dowager Queen, but she fought him off with a knife and remonstrated with him, leading to Helü leaving in shame'. Chu received assistance from Qin and Qin was able to defeat Wu's troops. Helü's brother Fugai, was so unhappy with the defeat that he led a rebellion that Helü put down. After this, Helü then was forced to leave Chu while Fugai settled in Chu. In 496, after hearing that Yunchang of Yue was dead, Helü decided to invade Yue, but was mortally wounded while doing so. He asked his son Fuchai to continue on and avenge him, which he did three years later, annexing Yue. In 482, King Fuchai of Wu sought to have an interstate conference to shore up his power base. This failed when Yue captured the Wu capital and Fuchai had to rush back. He was besieged and killed himself in 473 BCE as the capital fell.
During the Hegemony of Wu, in 499 BCE, Confucius was appointed prime minister of Lu. According to tradition, he wrote the Spring and Autumn annals. After two years of being prime minister, he 'was forced to resign and spent many years wandering between different states before returning to Lu', though he never returned to politics. He spent the rest of his life teaching and writing.
By http://jdqx21cn.nease.net/fengyuyuewangguojianjian/index1.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22901619
Yue was ruled by King Goujian beginning in 496 BCE. The supposed root of the issue between Wu and Yue was that a 'Yue princess, who was married to one of the princes of the neighboring state of Wu, left her husband and fled back to the State of Yue…causing a feud between the two states'. Goujian spent time as a captive under Fuchai after Fuchai's conquest of Yue. When he returned to his rule, he set about weakening Wu by bribery and diplomatic intrigue. During this time, he 'never relished kingly riches, but instead ate food suited for peasants, as well as forcing himself to taste bile, in order to remember his humiliations while serving under the State of Wu', which led to the chenguy 臥薪嚐膽 wòxīn-chángdǎn which means 'sleeping on sticks and tasting gall', or 'to nurse vengeance' or 'to endure hardships to accomplish some ambition'. It took 10 years before Yue reached a point where they could challenge Wu, Yue launched the expedition that led to Fuchai's death. He killed all of Fuchai's scholars, and forced Wen Zhong to commit suicide. His advisor left him because he knew 'that Goujian was a man with whom one can share woe but not wealth together'. He continued to reign until 465 BCE.
