日期: 2021-10-05
Let's talk about another old Chinese saying: “take out the relative for a better good.” In Chinese, it is 大義滅親. This is the story about a father having his son killed in the aftermath of the killing of a duke by his younger brother who believed he had deserved nothing but the best.
The “Way State” was the place where all had begun. The Way State had a long history to have been there from the beginning of the Chou Dynasty in 1100 BC until 254 BC for a total of 907 years, with about the same territorial size as that of the Zheng State in the south which we had talked about in our second episode.
The rulers of the Way State had been granted the Count title in the West Chou Dynasty but later promoted to the Duke title in the East Chou Dynasty due to their continuous supports to bring the Chou Dynasty back on its feet after the Rong nomads’ invasion in 751 BC when the Chou Dynasty was forced to relocate its capital to Loyi from Haogin.
From 753 to 735 BC, the ruler of the Way State was the Way Chung Duke who had three sons: Gi Wan the eldest, Gi Gin, the second, and then Gi Zhou Shoo, the youngest. Gi Wan was the First Prince and the sole heir to the throne, while Gi Zhou Shoo was the beloved son born to a mistress whom the father had enjoyed company dearly. After Way Chung Duke had passed away, the dukeship went to Gi Wan as the First Prince to become the Way Huan Duke, while Gi Zhou Shoo, his youngest half-brother, thought that he should have been the one to inherit throne from his father.
Gi Zhou Shoo was a spoiled and wild youngster enjoying swordsmanship and martial art practices, a terrible combination when it comes to power struggle in the royal court, to which Shih Choi, the father’s top advisor, had long warned against over and over again, but the Way Chung Duke, the father, had ignored him thinking that it was his family business which outsides should always stay away. Knowing what bad thing might happen after the father was gone, Shih Choi had quit his job and retired to his home ever since. But there was one problem, Shih Choi’s son, Shih Ho, who had been a close friend to Gi Zhou Shoo and they hanged out together day in and day out until one day Shih Ho moved out of his own house and began staying at Gi Zhou Shoo’s.
One day in 719 BC, the older brother, after 16 years in his rein, was preparing his trip to pay homage to the Chou emperor as mandated by the then Chou Dynasty’s etiquette rule when Gi Zhou Shoo invited his older brother to join his farewell party he had thrown. But the trip never happened because Gi Zhou Shoo assassinated his older brother by stabbing him in the waist from behind while the duke was trying to pick up the wine cup dropped by Gi Zhou Shoo on the ground deliberately. It was said that Shih Ho had been behind everything to have made him an accessory both before and after the fact.
The coup was a success, at least for the next six months, and Gi Zhou Shoo became the de facto ruler of the Way State by force and intimidation, but not by trust, and that was a problem he had to fix. Gi Zhou Shoo had tried to bring back Shih Choi to back him up – hoping that would help stabilize the government because most people had respect for Shih Choi.
But Shih Choi was too smart for that and pleaded with the new duke for forgiveness for his not being able to come due to old age. However, he had suggested that the new duke title be officially granted by the Chou emperor, as the common ruler for the whole China during that time. But Gi Zhou Shoo knew that the emperor didn’t even know him, let along bothered to grant him the title. To this problem, Shih Choi suggested visiting the Chen Huan Duke of the neighboring Chen State first before continuing un route to Loyi, the capital city of the Chou Dynasty because the Chou emperor knew the Chen Huan Duke well so that he could help by saying nice things about Gi Zhou Shoo if he wanted to.
Gi Zhou Shoo and Shih Ho liked the idea and started making their travel plans first to the State Chen, then to the Chou Dynasty. Little did they know, Shih Choi, in his letter to the Chen Huan Duke at about the same time, had requested to have both of them arrested on sight in the Chen State, which the Chen Huan Duke willingly obliged later on when he saw them in the Chen State waiting to be warmly welcomed by their hosts.
Before Gi Zhou Shoo and Shih Ho knew what had happened, one government official from the Way State came in to declare that Gi Zhou Shoo was to be executed by him in the Chen State. Gi Zhou Shoo was heard to have protested being executed by a government official of inferior nobility ranking which contradicted Chou’s etiquette rule prohibiting higher class from being offended by the lower class, but only to be retorted by the executioner cynically to say: You should have thought about this when you had your older brother killed.”
Gi Zhou Shoo died only six months after he took the life of his older brother.
What later on happened to Shih Ho was even more melodramatic in that the Chen Huan Duke actually asked the father how he would want his son to be dealt with, to which he rejected any idea of an amnesty claiming that things would not have come to this tragic end had it not been for Shih Ho’s evil endeavors to abet and incite behind the scenes. So that Shih Choi sent one of his own house employees to do the job in the Chen State, killing his own son who had it coming.
One commentator once said this historical event had opened the Pandora Box for high-ranking masters to be offended by the lower class, which put an end to the Chou etiquette rule as the prevailing conduct protocols for all nobility and general public. However, the real reason most likely could have been that the father wouldn’t want to take the blame for his son as Gi Zhou Shoo’s inner circle No.1 hitman.
貼文者：Mariia