In 638 BC, King Cheng of Chu defeated Xianggong of Song, and the state of Chu has since dominated the Central Plains. In 306 BC, the state of Chu destroyed the state of Yue. In 224 BC, the famous Qin general Wang Jian (jiǎn) led 600,000 Qin troops south to attack the state of Chu, which was defeated. In 223 BC, the state of Chu was destroyed by the state of Qin.

The Jianghan area where the Chu people settled, the indigenous population was quite complex, and before and after King Wu of Chu, in a not too long historical period, the Chu State completed the annexation and occupation of the Jianghan region. The Chu people are aggressive, constantly winning the Central Plains, and constantly annexing the Central Plains countries, which is inseparable from the martial spirit of the Chu people. The Chu people are brave and good at fighting, regard death as home, and have a strong spirit of sacrifice for the country. Qu Yuan made a vivid praise for this in "The Death of the Nation": Honesty is both brave and martial, and in the end it is strong and invincible. The body is dead, the spirit is the spirit, and the soul is resolute.

The Chu people were particularly superstitious about ghosts and gods and divination, and since the Spring and Autumn Period, the superstitions of the Chu people were well known, and their superstition was far greater than that of other vassal states. The princes of the north even put them together with the barbarians and called them Chu Man. After moving south, the Chu people followed the customs and habits of the barbarians, so the later Huaxia people regarded the Chu people as Jing barbarians.

Under normal circumstances, the Chu people were required to divinate before each war, and the Chu people who believed in witchcraft would have accompanied the army with sorcerers, who sometimes held the position of advisers. The army of the Chu people was divided into five parts: front, center, rear, left, and right. Each army would have scouts in advance, some on foot and some on horseback, with thatch in their hands. Thatch is not only a special product of the Chu State, but also an important plant used by the Chu people in the sacrificial divination, and the scouts hold the thatch as a signal, which has both military and strong religious significance. Among their five armies, the former army held the most thatch, so according to this principle, the position of the five army formations of the Chu army can be determined.

There is such a sentence in "Zuo Biography": When Sun Shuao was Lingyin, he chose to implement the good legal code of the Chu State, when the army was dispatched, the right army followed the main general's chariot, the left army beat grass as a preparation for rest, the former army opened the road with Mao Jing to prevent accidents, the Chinese army was responsible for careful planning, and the rear army pressed the formation with elite soldiers. Through this sentence, the deployment of the Chu ** array is well reflected: the left and right armies are the response, the front army is the outpost, the middle army is the command center, and the reserve forces are concentrated in the rear army.

"Wu Qi Art of War" wrote: The people of Chu are weak, the territory is vast, the government orders are disorderly, and the people are tired, so although the formation is strict, they cannot fight a protracted war, and the method of fighting it is to attack its station, first dampen its morale, and then suddenly attack, suddenly retreat, so that it is tired to deal with, do not fight with it, so that its army can be defeated. The few words of Wu Qi, a famous general of the Warring States Period, revealed all the shortcomings of the Chu army.

In fact, the state of Chu has always had the custom of martial arts since the Spring and Autumn Period, and its successive monarchs also had many personal experiences of fighting on the battlefield, and even they had the saying that "if they don't fight for three years, they will be ashamed in their hearts", and the frequent conquests have expanded the territory of the state of Chu and consumed its national strength. In the middle and late Warring States period, the state of Chu was busy with the governance of ethnic minorities in its territory and had no time to look north, and the heyday of the state of Chu had passed.

The military technology of the Chu State was relatively developed, and the soldiers used armor made of water rhinoceros and elephant skin on a large scale, and even shields were made of this material in large quantities. The large number of soldiers in the state of Chu and the killing of rhinos and elephants in large numbers also became an important reason for the disappearance of these animals in the Yangtze River basin. In addition to this, the Chu people also invented the two-handed sword, but the large number of two-handed swords was equipped in the state of Wu.

There are many celebrities in the Chu State, and the more prominent ones are Xiong Yi, Qu Yuan, Lao Tzu, Xiang Yu, Liu Bang, Chen Sheng, Chun Shenjun, Sun Shuao and so on.

Xiong Yi and his descendants are the earliest developers in the Jianghan Valley, and it is recorded in the "Zuo Biography" that in the past, our ancestor Xiong Yi lived in a remote place in Jingshan, took a firewood cart and wore torn clothes to open up the overgrown weeds, and trekked through mountains and rivers to serve the Son of Heaven, and could only use peach wood bows and jujube wood arrows as tribute. Jingshan, in the western part of present-day Hubei Province, is located on the west bank of the Han River. From the records of "Zuo Biography", we can see that the state of Chu lived a poor life of hard struggle for a long time after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The monarch led his subjects to trek through the mountains and forests, open up territory, and share weal and woe. In the face of the threats of the surrounding countries, especially in the face of the southern invasion of the northern Zhou Dynasty army again and again, the Chu people lifted their morale, practiced martial arts, remained vigilant, and waited for the day. The king of Chu had a strong sense of adversity, especially focusing on the traditional education of his subjects based on the deeds of the previous king's entrepreneurship, so as to unite people's hearts, boost morale, and seek internal stability and external development.

Qu Yuan was a descendant of Qu Fang, the son of Xiong Tong, the king of Chu Wu, and although he was loyal to King Huai of Chu, he was repeatedly ostracized by the nobles of Chu. After the death of King Huai, King Xiang of Chu listened to the rumors and exiled Qu Yuan, who eventually died by throwing himself into the Miluo River. Qu Yuan is one of the greatest romantic poets in China, and he is also the earliest famous poet known in China, a world cultural celebrity, who founded the genre of Chu Ci.

Qu Yuan was exiled and wandered along the Yuan River, along which he sang and haggard and emaciated. The fisherman saw Qu Yuan and asked him: Aren't you a doctor in Sanlu, why did you end up in this field? Qu Yuan replied: The world is all turbid, only I am clear and transparent, different streams and filth, the world is drunk, only I am sober, so I was banished. After hearing this, the fisherman said: The saint never treats things rigidly, but can change with the world; People in the world are dirty, why not muddy the muddy water together and raise turbid waves; Everyone is drunk, so why not eat the lees and drink the wine at the same time? Why think too deeply and pretentiously, so that you let yourself end up in exile?

Qu Yuan said: I heard that you must play your hat when you have just washed your hair, and you must shake your clothes after you have just taken a bath, how can you let your innocent body come into contact with the pollution of worldly dust? How can you let the crystal clear purity be covered with the dust of the world? I'd rather jump into the Xiangjiang River and die in the belly of a river fish. When the fisherman heard this, he smiled slightly, shook the oars and left, and the fisherman sang: The water of the waves is clear and clear, and can be used to wash my hat; The water of the waves is turbid and turbid, and it can be used to wash my feet. The fisherman was gone away and stopped talking to Qu Yuan.

The dialogue between Qu Yuan and the fisherman is one of the "Chu Ci", called "The Fisherman". Through the dialogue between Qu Yuan and the fisherman, we can see two different philosophies of life. In 278 BC, the state of Qin attacked the capital of the state of Chu, Yingdu. On May 5 of that year, Qu Yuan died in despair and grief by throwing a big stone into the Miluo River, and the Dragon Boat Festival also came.