King Zhuang of Chu (), personal name Xiong Lü, was a

monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

of the Chu state. He was one of the "

Five Hegemons The Five Hegemons (), also referred to as the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period (), refers to several especially powerful rulers of Chinese states of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history (770–476 BCE), sometimes alternat ...

" who attempted to wrest control of China during the

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period () was a period in History of China, Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou (256 BCE), characterized by the gradual erosion of royal power as local lords nominally subject t ...

Life

The son of King Mu, King Zhuang ascended the throne in 613 BC. According to a legend in the ''

Records of the Grand Historian The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...

'', for the first three years of his reign King Zhuang wasted time in pleasure-seeking, but, when challenged by two courtiers, reformed his ways. The king made Sunshu Ao his

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

. Sunshu Ao began a series of major dam-works and an enormous planned reservoir in modern-day northern

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

. After some military successes, King Zhuang attempted to usurp

King Ding of Zhou King Ding of Zhou (), personal name Ji Yu, was a king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ) was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from until 256 BC, the longest span of any dynasty in Chinese history. Durin ...

. According to a well-known story, probably an invention of the

Warring States period The Warring States period in history of China, Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and ...

, he asked a messenger from Zhou about the weight of the legendary

Nine Tripod Cauldrons The Nine Tripod Cauldrons () were a collection of ding (vessel), ding in ancient China that were viewed as symbols of the authority given to the ruler by the Mandate of Heaven. According to the legend, they were cast by Yu the Great of the Xia dyn ...

which Zhou possessed, a euphemism for seeking ultimate power in China, but was rebuffed. This incident gave rise to the

chengyu ''Chengyu'' ( zh, t=, s=, first=t, p=chéngyǔ, tr=set phrase) are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expressions, most of which consist of four Chinese characters. ''Chengyu'' were widely used in Literary Chinese and are still common in ...

"to enquire about ding in the central plains", i.e. to have great ambitions (). In the Battle of Bi, his army defeated the state of Jin. His progress from lazy regent to hegemon gave rise to the Chinese chengyu "amaze others with one cry" ().

References

590s BC deaths Chinese kings Monarchs of Chu (state) 6th-century BC Chinese monarchs 7th-century BC Chinese monarchs Year of birth unknown {{China-royal-stub