A Study Of The Internal And Foreign Affairs Of Chu State During The Reign Of King Ling Of Chu

In the middle and later period of the reign of King Zhuang of Chu,under the guidance of the principle of "choosing people close to one's blood",the princes of the royal family began to be entrusted with heavy responsibilities to share the political power in the hands of the small clans.Both Ling Yin and Si Ma in the period of King Gong of Chu were assumed by the prince,and the central core power was firmly in the hands of the princes.As the prince has the right of succession to the throne,the prince in power has a major threat to the throne,forcing the King Kang of Chu to gradually transfer the power of Si Ma and Ling Yin to the small clan forces without the right of succession to the throne,and gradually squeeze the prince group out of the central political core.After the death of King Kang of Chu,King Jia`ao ascended the throne and appointed the Prince Wei as Ling Yin.Seizing the opportunity of Jiaao's youth,Prince Wei,who was in power,cleared the way of usurping the throne by attacking the hostile forces in the small clans and the prince group.After usurping the throne,King Ling of Chu was wary of the possibility of usurping the throne by the prince group.He handed over the central core positions such as Ling Yin and Tai Zai to the members of the small clan.In fact,he inherited the ruling strategy that King Kang of Chu supported the small clan and pushed the prince group out of the central political core.In addition,compared with the period of King Gong and Kang,the ruling basis of King Ling was more diversified.Besides the members of the small clan,there were also non-small clan members in his trusted subjects.In order to strengthen the royal power,King Ling of Chu also absorbed the fugitives into his own private property.King Ling of Chu always regarded attacking Wu as the most important goal of Chu's foreign development strategy.To this end,King Ling first devoted himself to maintaining peaceful relations with Jin,Zheng,song and other countries,creating a favorable external environment for concentrating his forces on the war against Wu.From the third year(538 BC)to the fifth year(536 BC)of King Ling of Chu,the state of Chu successively carried out four battles with the state of Wu,which failed to effectively attack the state of Wu.From the 7th year(534 BC)to the 10 th year(531 BC)of King Ling,the state of Chu wiped out the state,migrated people,set up counties and built walls in the Ru and Ying River Basins in the north of Huaihe River.It was committed to strengthening the direct control of the area,cutting off the traffic between Jin and Wu,establishing a new attack and defense system,and preparing for the next surrender of Xu and the completion of the strategic encirclement of Wu.However,the rebellion broke out in the 12 th year of King Ling(529 BC),which made King Ling of Chu lose the possibility of accomplishing the strategic goal forever.During the reign of King Ling of Chu,various measures were taken to reduce the living space of the people of the state of Wu,which made the state of Wu passively form the situation of "submit to the state of Chu" in the objective situation.After the death of King Ling of Chu,Chu's strategic advantage to Wu disappeared quickly.