Although the king of Chu Zhuang was not a natural wise monarch and a saint who never made mistakes, because of his own humble advice, and a group of courtiers who were good at using ingenious methods to advise him, the king of Chu Zhuang was very good at discovering and correcting his mistakes, and the court artist You Meng of Chu was one of them. You Meng is a native of Jingzhou, with Youling as his profession, he is eight feet long, good at debate, and often uses euphemisms to advise.

Legend has it that the king of Chuzhuang had a horse that, because he was so favored, often wore gorgeous silk satin. King Zhuang let it live in a luxurious palace and prepared a special bed for it. The horse fed on preserved dates every day, and because his life was too comfortable, he became very obese and died of illness. King Chuzhuang, who was very sad about the loss of his beloved horse, ordered the ministers of the court to mourn the horse, and planned to use a coffin to decorate the burial, and bury the horse according to the specifications of the doctor's funeral. Officials in the DPRK and China felt that this was too much and rushed to admonish them. When King Zhuang saw the ministers who were admonishing, he was very angry and ordered: "Whoever dares to come to advise about the burial of horses will be executed immediately!" ”

When Youmeng heard about this, he came to admonish him. He walked into the palace and looked up to the sky and wept. King Chuzhuang was surprised when he saw him and asked him why he was crying so much. You Meng cried and told him: "This horse is the king's most beloved thing, the state of Chu is a big country, the country is rich and the people are strong, what do you want, but the king just uses the doctor's specifications to bury his most beloved horse, and treats it too lightly." I think Your Majesty should bury it with the specifications of a king. ”

After hearing this, King Chuzhuang asked, "Then what should I do?" ”

You Meng said: "The coffin it uses should be made of beautiful jade with carved patterns, the outer coffin used is made of fine catalpa wood with fine texture, and the precious wood such as 楥, maple, Yu and Zhang is used to protect the coffin." When digging graves, thousands of soldiers should be dispatched, and both the elderly and children have to carry the earth to build the graves. When the burial was carried out, the envoys sent by the Qi and Zhao states should accompany the sacrifice in the front, and the envoys sent by the Han and Wei states should escort them in the back. After entering the earth, an ancestral temple was built for it, and when it was worshipped, it was used to worship it, and it was ordered that a city of 10,000 households should be specially responsible for worshipping it. When the princes and nations heard about this, they must have known that the king regarded men as very lowly, but he regarded horses as very valuable. ”

After hearing this, King Chu Zhuang sighed: "Oh my God, I was so wrong! In your opinion, what should I do now? ”

Yumeng told him, "Please allow me to bury it in the same way that I treat the six animals." Use a stove to make an outer coffin, a large copper pot to make a coffin, take some ginger and dates to season, and add some magnolia to it. Straw was used as an offering, and shrouds were made from the light of the fire, and it was buried in people's intestines. ”

King Zhuang agreed to Youmeng's request, sent the horse to the eunuch in charge of the meal, and told the officials in the court not to spread out his idea of burying the horse.

At that time, Sun Shuao, the prime minister of the Chu State, valued You Meng very much and knew that he was a sage. When Uncle Sun Ao was seriously ill and was about to die, he instructed his son, "If I die and you become very poor because you have lost your support, you can go to Youmeng." You just tell him that you are the son of Sun Shuao, and he will definitely help you. ”

After a few years, Sun Shuao's son really became very poor and made a living by helping others carry firewood. One day, he met Youmeng and told him, "I am the son of Sun Shuao, and my father told me before he died that if one day I lived in poverty and had a hard time, I would go and visit Youmeng." Youmeng looked at him and said to him, "You stay at home and wait for my news, don't go far away." ”

After that, Yumeng went home. He found someone to make a set of clothes and hats similar to what Sun Shuao used to wear, put them on himself, and then began to imitate Sun Shuao's speech and behavior. After practicing for more than a year, he became very similar to Sun Shuao, and even King Chuzhuang and the ministers in the court couldn't tell the difference.

One day, King Chuzhuang set up a banquet, and Youmeng put on the clothes of Sun Shuao to participate. When he stepped forward to toast King Zhuang to celebrate his birthday, King Zhuang was taken aback, thinking that Sun Shuao had been resurrected and wanted to re-crown him as prime minister. You Meng said to King Zhuang, "Please allow me to go back and discuss with my wife, and in three days, I will come back as prime minister." ”

Three days later, Youmeng came again. King Chuzhuang asked him, "What did your wife say, do you agree?" ”

You Meng replied to him: "My wife does not agree with me being the prime minister, she thinks that the prime minister of Chu is not worth becoming. Zhuang Wang said he didn't understand. You Meng told him that his wife believed that when Sun Shuao was the prime minister of the Chu State, he was loyal, honest, conscientious, conscientious, and dedicated, and made great contributions to King Zhuang becoming the overlord of one party. However, after his death, his son was so destitute that he had no place to stand on a cone, and had to make ends meet by carrying firewood for others. If you are like Sun Shuao, you might as well commit suicide now.

Then he sang: "Living in the countryside, living on the fields, living in abject poverty, it is difficult to maintain even food and clothing. If a person who goes out to be an official and is greedy by nature, he will desperately accumulate wealth for himself regardless of his integrity. After his death, although the family can become rich, he is afraid that he will make a big mistake and incur murder because of his misdeeds, corruption and perversion of the law, and when the time comes, the family will also be killed because of being implicated. It can be seen from this that corrupt officials cannot do anything. If you want to be an honest and honest and law-abiding official, you will never do anything wrong in your life. But where is it worth doing for Qing officials? Sun Shuao, the prime minister of Chu State, was upright all his life and adhered to honest ethics until his death, but now his wife and children are not still poor and struggling to survive on their backs? It can be seen that it is not worth being a clean official! ”

When King Chuzhuang heard Youmeng's words, he was very ashamed, and immediately apologized to Youmeng, and summoned Sun Shuao's son. He ordered 400 families in the dormitory to come to worship Sun Shu Ao's sacrifice, and Sun Shu Ao's wife and children were guaranteed to live, and the incense was passed down for ten generations without being broken. Sun Shuao's foresight and You Meng's wisdom can be seen from here, it is precisely because of such brilliant courtiers and people who dare and are good at pointing out the mistakes of the monarch that the state of Chu has been able to prosper day by day, and even has the ambition and strength to win the Central Plains.

In the sixteenth year of Lu Wengong (611 BC), the state of Chu suffered a rare natural disaster, and the whole country caused a famine. At this time, although King Zhuang had begun to cheer up, the national strength of Chu was relatively weak. Seeing that the state of Chu was suffering from famine, the surrounding ethnic minorities took the opportunity to come to provoke. First of all, Shanyi invaded the border of Chu, and as soon as Shanyi was driven away, Yongren led his subordinates to betray Chu, and at the same time, the Lu people led Baipu to gather in the selected place, preparing to crusade against Chu. At this time, the state of Chu can be described as internal and external troubles, and the future is very dangerous.

In such a situation, King Chuzhuang quickly concentrated his forces and began to respond. In order to avoid the attacks of the northern princes, the northern gates of the northern frontier were closed. Some ministers suggested moving the capital, but Jia felt that he could not back down at this time. He believed that as long as he resolutely resisted the Lu and Baipu who came to crusade while the famine, these people would soon retreat automatically, and he advocated a crusade against the mediocrity.

The king of Chu Zhuang accepted the suggestion of Bao Jia, and half a month later, Bai Pu retreated without a fight, so that the enemy facing the state of Chu was only Yong. King Chuzhuang soon decided to raise an army to fight Yong, which was the first time he led his troops to fight. In the first battle, the mediocrity had the upper hand, and Lu Jili was captured alive by the mediocre when he attacked the Yong's Fangcheng. Three days later, Lu Jili returned and proposed to the king of Chuzhuang to withdraw his troops. Uncle Shi, the minister of the state of Chu, objected to this, he believed that he should take advantage of the situation, and if he showed weakness to Yong, the battle would be more difficult in the future. At the same time, he proposed arrogant tactics to the king of Chuzhuang, and the king of Chuzhuang accepted his suggestion. Later, when fighting with the mediocre master, the king of Chuzhuang feinted seven times, and the mediocre man really became arrogant, felt that the Chu master was not afraid, and relaxed his vigilance. The state of Chu soon eliminated Yong in one fell swoop.

After the surrounding area was pacified, the king of Chuzhuang began to raise troops to the north. At this time, the Jin State was the leader of the Central Plains Alliance. In the first year of Lu Xuan (608 BC), the state of Chu attacked the state of Chen, and the state of Jin sent Zhao Dun to rescue Chen. Instead of confronting the Jin state, the state of Chu turned its head and attacked the state of Song, and the state of Jin followed to save the Song. The Chu division broke the siege and left, but still did not fight with the Jin. Later, the Jin State attacked the pro-Chu Zheng State, and the King of Chu Zhuang sent Bao Jia to rescue Zheng, and the Jin and Chu troops were exchanged, and the Chu division captured the Jin general Xie Yang alive, and the Jin State suffered a defeat.

The Jin State raised troops to attack Qin, hoping to force Qin to sue for peace, so as to use Qin's strength to confront Chu. However, this plan did not succeed, and Qin still refused to make friends with Jin. In the Jin and Chu hegemony, the state of Chu has always had the upper hand. In the spring of the second year of Lu Xuangong (607 BC), the king of Chuzhuang ordered the prince of Zheng Guo to return to life to crusade against the Song State, and the Song State was defeated. In order to shame the Song State, the Jin State, which was the leader of the alliance at that time, united with Chen, Wei, Song and other countries to crusade against Zheng State. The king of Chuzhuang sent his son Yuejiao to rescue Zheng, and before the two sides could fight, the Jin army retreated.

In the third year of Lu Xuangong (606 BC), the state of Chu was already very strong. King Chuzhuang led his army to attack Lu Hunzhirong, and in order to show off his strength to the Zhou royal family, he deliberately drove his army to Luoyi, the capital of the Zhou Dynasty. At that time, King Ding of Zhou had just ascended the throne, and when he saw the menacing Chu army, King Ding hurriedly sent his doctor Wang Sun Man to comfort him. As soon as they met, King Chuzhuang began to ask Zhou Jiuding about his importance. In the face of King Chuzhuang's obvious ambition, Wang Sunman said dissatisfiedly: "The achievement of hegemony is mainly based on talent and virtue, not Jiuding." King Chu Zhuang threatened him: "Don't stop me from watching Jiuding, it's nothing unusual, our Chu soldiers folded the beaks on the hook, and it was enough to cast Jiuding." ”

In the face of the threat of King Chuzhuang, Wang Sunman was not afraid at all, and he reprimanded: "Have you forgotten the origin of Jiuding? When the Xia Dynasty was prosperous, the princes from afar came to surrender, and Jiuding was cast with the copper they contributed. The mountains and rivers of Kyushu are painted on the Jiuding, which symbolizes the world. Later, Xia Wei was mediocre, and Ding moved to the Shang Dynasty. After another 600 years, the Shang Dynasty was desolate and tyrannical, and Ding moved to the Zhou Dynasty. The political virtue is clear, although the tripod is small, it cannot be moved; The monarch has no way, and no matter how big the tripod is, it is difficult to preserve it for a long time. The Zhou Dynasty fixed the Central Plains, which was the will of God. Now, although the morality of the Zhou Dynasty is declining, the Mandate of Heaven has not changed, how dare you win the title? ”

Wang Sunman took out the mandate of heaven and refuted the king of Chuzhuang, temporarily dispelling the king of Chuzhuang's covetousness for Ding. However, the Zhou royal family used a doctor's words to eliminate the arrogance of the Chu State, although it could seek temporary stability, but due to the decline of its own morality, although the Mandate of Heaven has not changed, there is no authority in the eyes of the powerful Chu State. Although King Chuzhuang did not directly use force against the Zhou royal family, he no longer took it seriously.