Wu Zixu was a military master of the State of Wu in the late Spring and Autumn Period, and a close friend of Sun Wu, who recommended his grandson to King Wu.
Wu Zixu's father, Wu Hao, was the Prince of Chuping, and was killed by King Chuping along with his eldest son Wu Shang because he was slandered by Fei Wuji.
Wu Zixu fled from the State of Chu to the State of Wu and became a major vassal of the King of Wu(hé) Lu (lǘ).
In 506 BC, Wu Zixu and Sun Wu led troops to attack the capital of Chu, and Wu Zixu excavated the tomb of King ChuPing and whipped three hundred corpses to avenge his father and brother.
Wu Zixu repeatedly advised Wu Wangfu to kill and kill Gou Jian, but Fu Cha did not listen; Fu Cha was anxious to enter the Central Plains and led a large army to attack Qi, and Wu Zixu once again advised Fu Cha not to attack Qi for the time being, and should first destroy the Yue state, but was rejected.
Fu Cha listened to the rumors of Dazai Bo (pǐ), saying that Wu Zixu was conspiring to rely on the State of Qi against Wu and send someone to send a sword to Wu Zixu and cause him to commit suicide.
Before committing suicide, Wu Zixu said to the doorman: Please gouge out my eyes and put them above the East Gate, I will watch the destruction of the Wu Kingdom.
Nine years after Wu Zixu's death, the state of Wu was destroyed by the state of Yue.
Here's a look at the life of the military man:
1. Escape from the Chu Kingdom
Wu Zixu's father, Wu Hao, was the Prince of Chu and was responsible for teaching Prince Jian, who was framed by Fei Wujie, and Wu Hao was also implicated.
Fei Wuji said to King Chu Ping: Wu Hao has two sons, both of whom are talented, and not killing them will become a scourge for the Chu state; their fathers can be summoned as hostages, otherwise they will become a scourge to the Chu state.
Later, Wu Shang was killed along with his father, and Wu Zixu fled the Chu state.
2. Exhumation of graves and whipping corpses
Wu Zixu and Shen Baoxu (xū) were close friends, and when Wu Zixu escaped, he said to Shen Baoxu: I must destroy the Chu state.
Shen Baoxu said: I must save it.
When Wu Bing attacked the capital of Ying (yǐng), Wu Zixu searched for the king of Zhao (zhāo), but when he did not find it, he dug up the tomb of King Chuping, dug out the body, and whipped three hundred whips before stopping.
Shen Baoxu fled to the mountain and asked him to say to Zixu: Your means of revenge are too excessive; I have heard that many people can defeat heaven, and heaven can also destroy people; you were once a courtier of King Ping, personally surrendered your hand to serve him, and today you have insulted the dead, is this not against heaven's principles to the extreme?
Wu Zixu said to the visitor: Thank you Shen Baoxu for me, saying that I am like the sun is about to set, but the road is still far away, so I will do the opposite.
It can be seen that Wu Zixu, in order to avenge his father's revenge, has a lot of hatred in his heart; of course, he is also a courtier abandoned by the Chu State, which is naturally different from Shen Baoxu's concept.
Su Shi: The Father is not condemned, the Son is revenge, and the ceremony is also; the life is beheaded, and the dead are whipped, and the pain is severe, and there is no choice.
3. Wu Zixu committed suicide
In 484 BC, Bo Yao framed Wu Zixu for plotting against him, and Wu Wangfu sent Wu Zixu to death, giving him a sword to kill him.
Wu Zixu looked up at the heavens and sighed: The traitorous minister Bo Yao rebelled, and the great king killed me; I made your father dominate the princes, and before you were made crown prince, several princes all competed to be crown princes, and I risked death with the previous king; now you have listened to the rumors of the traitors and killed the elders.
In his anger, Wu Zixu left a last word, asking his family to gouge out his eyes after his death and hang them on the East City Gate, watching the Yue army destroy the State of Wu.
Wu Wangfu was extremely angry, and on the fifth day of the first month of May, he wrapped Wu Zixu's body in chī (鸱) yi leather and abandoned it in the Qiantang River, and the Wu people took pity on him and built a shrine (cí) on the river, named Xu (xū) Mountain.
Zhuge Liang: Zi Xu is good at plotting enemies and cannot seek personal gain.
Later, the state of Wu was indeed destroyed by the Yue King, and Fu Cha was ashamed to see Wu Zixu in the underworld, and covered his eyes with a white cloth before he raised his sword and committed suicide.
Also bestowing on himself was the Yue King's gouge of the strategists around him:
The king of Yue gave the sword to the seed: The son taught the widow to cut down the nine techniques of Wu, and the widow defeated Wu with three of them, and the sixth was in the son, and the son tried it for me from the previous king. Seed committed suicide.
You taught me nine ways to fight against Wu Guo, and I only used three of them to defeat Wu Guo; there are six methods that are useless, you try it for me. Wen Zhong had to commit suicide.
Therefore, it is never a good thing to accompany a king like a companion tiger, and to be too close to the king.
In Wu Zixu's life, he experienced his father and brother being killed by rumors, and then took revenge and hatred, and eventually he was killed by rumors; despite his resourcefulness, after all, people are not as good as heaven.
It also responded to the sentence in Cao Xueqin's "Dream of the Red Chamber": The organ calculated too cleverly and mistook Qingqing's life.