In 628 BC, a generation of Spring and Autumn overlord Jin Wengong passed away due to illness.
As the news of Jin Wengong's death spread, the whole world suddenly began to become undercurrent. Because just 16 years ago, after the death of the first generation overlord Duke Huan of Qi , there was a big mess.
At that time, within Qi State , a civil war broke out first around the issue of the monarch's inheritance. Then, due to the civil war in Qi, the national power of Qi plummeted, and it could no longer secure its position as the hegemon. Several other powerful countries began to raise troops to fight for the throne of the hegemony.
This situation was temporarily stopped until Jin Wengong defeated Chu State and confirmed the status of the new overlord. And now, the second recognized overlord, Duke Wen of Jin, has also passed away. So everyone is wondering whether the same mistakes as when Duke Huan of Qi passed away will happen again.
No one knows the answer.
Moreover, compared with the situation in Qi State, the situation in Jin State was different at this time. When Qi Huangong dominated , he was the overlord for a long time. But Jin Wengong was different. Jin Wengong's dominance could only start from the day when the soil alliance was held in 632 BC. From the Jiantu Alliance to the death of Duke Wen of Jin, only four years actually passed.
In other words, Duke Huan of Qi had been the overlord for more than 20 years, and after his death, chaos quickly broke out. So Jin Wengong only served as the overlord for four years. After his death, how will the world situation develop?
Almost everyone feels that after the death of Duke Wen of Jin, Jin will definitely lose its hegemony quickly like Qi did back then, and then all countries will start fighting again in order to become the new hegemon.
But to everyone's surprise, after the death of Duke Wen of Jin, there was no chaos on the Jin side. Duke Wen of Jin's son Duke Xiang of Jin took over smoothly and completed the transition of power smoothly. In the following years, there was no chaos in Jin State. During this period, Qin State and Chu State both tried to challenge the hegemonic authority of Jin State, but in the end they all ended in failure.
So, a few years later, everyone understood a new truth.
It turns out that after the death of an old overlord, this country will definitely lose its position as overlord. For example, in the Kingdom of Jin, although Duke Wen of Jin passed away, Duke Xiang of Jin who succeeded him was also a ruthless man! This Duke Xianggang of Jin can definitely be called the third overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period!
Duke Xianggang of Jin in history was actually a very talented king. In the history of the Spring and Autumn Period, there has always been a saying that "Jin Wen dominates, and Xiang Ling continues to dominate." Xiang here refers to Duke Xiang of Jin, and Ling refers to his son Duke Lin of Jin . As the successor of Duke Wen of Jin, Duke Xianggang of Jin may not be as famous in history as his father. However, during his reign, the power of the Jin State was actually stronger than that during the reign of Duke Wen of Jin.
So, why did the Jin State not have civil strife like the Qi State did after the death of Duke Wen of Jin? What did Jin Xianggong do after he came to the throne? Why can we firmly occupy the position of overlord without wavering? Later, how did Qin and Chu challenge the hegemonic authority of Jin, and how did Jin Xianggong defeat their challenge?
We have to start talking about these stories from the time when Duke Wen of Jin dominated.
In 632 BC, as the Jin State defeated the Chu State, Jin Wengong took advantage of the situation to win over several countries and successfully held a alliance. Jin's dominance was completely confirmed.
However, although the Jin State had determined its dominance at that time, this position was not very stable.
On the one hand, the Jin State was able to repel the Chu State in the past, largely because of the internal problems of the Chu State. The Chu army that was against Jin before was actually just a partial force of Chu. King Chu Cheng, who was in power at that time, had already withdrawn from Chu with most of his main force. Therefore, in the battle of Chengpu , what Jin Wengong defeated was actually only a part of the Chu army led by Ziyu , the general of Chu state.
Therefore, if Chu State really fights with all its strength, whether Jin State can defeat Chu State is actually still unknown.
On the other hand, Jin was able to defeat Chu because the powerful Qi and Qin at that time were both on Jin's side. The reason why Qin State helped Jin State was that Qin State wanted to go eastward, and Jin State was trying to deceive Qin State. After defeating Chu State, Qin State could be allowed to go eastward from Chu State. As for the State of Qi, it was in order to get rid of the influence of the State of Chu and regain the power of the Duke Huan era of Qi, so it had to stand against the State of Chu.
In addition, during the previous war between Jin and Chu, Qi and Qin two countries stood on the side of Jin. There is another very important reason, and that is that Jin took Song 's land and bribed the two countries. Therefore, they were willing to help Jin temporarily.
But this kind of help is destined to be unreliable, and it cannot last long.
After the war ended, Qin and Qi immediately began to show a strange attitude. Although they did not immediately leave the Jin camp, they also began to secretly create obstacles for Jin. All these things put Jin's hard-earned hegemonic status in jeopardy.
However, in the face of these hidden crises, Jin Wengong did not refuse anyone who came. In the next four years, Jin Wengong has been trying his best to win over various allies, stabilize the relationship with Qin and Qi, and try his best to prevent the two countries from leaving their own camps. At the same time, the Jin State also vigorously united those small countries and weakened the small countries that were dependent on the Chu State.
During this period, Jin State vigorously conquered Zheng State, because Zheng State was attached to Chu State at that time. Although there was no major fight later, Zheng was still able to be subjugated. At the same time, it served as a deterrent to other countries and strengthened the existence of the Jin Alliance.
In short, in the three or four years after Jin Wengong became the overlord, he has been consolidating Jin's position as the overlord. After Jin Wengong's efforts, Jin's position was temporarily stabilized. Within the Jin Kingdom, long before Jin Wengong came to dominate, Jin Wengong had already reorganized the country's top officials and designed the so-called "Jin State Six Ministers System" to maximize the appointment of virtuous people, unite the power of the country's big families, and unite the Jin State.
It can be said that in the past few years, Jin Wengong has really not wasted a day, and he has indeed done a lot of effective work.
Just like that, four years later, in 628 BC, Duke Wen of Jin, the overlord of the generation, finally became seriously ill. Although it only lasted four years from hegemony to serious illness, which seemed a bit short, one cannot blame Duke Wen of Jin for this. After all, he was already 62 years old when he ascended the throne, and now he has reached the age of 70. It is normal that he cannot hold on any longer.
After the fall of Duke Wen of Jin, his son Ji Huan successfully inherited the throne of the king. This is Duke Xianggang of Jin. When Jin Xianggong ascended to the throne, although he had several other brothers, there was no such thing as the brotherly fighting in Qi State.
This is actually thanks to a decree left by Jin Wengong before his death.
When Jin Wengong was still alive, he actually thought that after his death, the Jin Kingdom might be in chaos again. Duke Wen of Jin knew very well that once he died and Jin fell into chaos, Jin's situation would only be worse than Qi's because he had not been the overlord for as long as Duke Huan of Qi. Moreover, what is even more terrible is that similar cases like this have happened in the history of Jin Dynasty.
In the early Spring and Autumn Period, the old king of Jin died. After the old king's son took over, the old king's younger brother rebelled. Later, the younger brother of the old monarch spent nearly seventy years in civil war and three generations before completing the task of usurping the throne.
And the one who finally succeeded in usurping the throne was actually the grandfather of Duke Wen of Jin. In the year when his grandfather successfully ascended the throne, Duke Wen of Jin happened to be twenty years old at the time, so he was particularly impressed by this incident.
Later, when Jin Wengong's father came to power, in order to prevent such things from happening, his father simply waved the butcher knife directly against his own family. During his reign, he almost killed his own family, in order to prevent similar things from happening in the future.
With such terrible lessons learned from the past, after Duke Wen of Jin came to the throne, he would naturally be on guard against this kind of fratricide. But at the same time, Duke Wen of Jin was not the kind of person who was bloodthirsty. If he was asked to attack his own son, he really couldn't do it.
Therefore, after Jin Wengong thought about it, he proposed a new system: from now on, all the princes in the Jin Kingdom would leave only one in the country and be cultivated as an heir. The other young masters, when they get a little older, will all be sent to other countries as hostages. Moreover, unless the country recalls me, I will never be allowed to return home privately.
It is for this reason that when Jin Wen Gong passed away, although he had more than one son, those sons really could not threaten Jin Xianggong's status, let alone the situation like that of Qi State.
Due to the special system of Jin State, During the process of Jin Xiangong's accession to the throne, there were no accidents. And after he ascended the throne, what he did shocked many people.
He did nothing.
After Jin Xianggong ascended the throne, everything remained as usual. There was neither messing around nor making large-scale personnel changes, but chose to completely inherit everything from the Jin Wengong era. This attitude of governing by doing nothing is also an important reason for the smooth transition of the Jin Dynasty.
With Jin Xianping's stable accession to the throne, those external forces that originally hoped for internal chaos in Jin were completely disappointed. However, they still have options. Everyone can see that the new Duke Xianggang of Jin is far less prestigious than his father. Duke Wen of Jin could convene an alliance before, but Duke Xiang of Jin did not have this reputation.
Therefore, in the same year that Jin Wengong died, Qin, an ally, first started to launch an attack.
The first is Qin. In the year when Duke Wen of Jin died, Qin first sent a large army to quietly cross the territory of Jin and Zhou royal families to attack Zheng from a distance. After Jin learned about this, Duke Xian of Jin made a decisive decision and ordered an ambush in the Xiaoshan area. When the Qin army retreated, he attacked directly and annihilated the entire Qin army.
This war is equivalent to the Jin State being the first to tear itself apart from the Qin State. It seems that the Jin State is not very loyal to the Qin State. But in fact, from the perspective of national interests, the relationship between Qin and Jin at that time was likely to break down at any time. Qin may also launch an attack on Jin at any time and open a way out to the east. Moreover, after the death of Duke Wen of Jin, Duke Mu of Qin became the most prestigious among the kings of the countries, and could become the new overlord at any time.
In this case, Jin took the lead to take action to eliminate Qin's main army and cut off Qin's hope of marching eastward. In terms of national strategy, there was nothing wrong with this choice.
Because of Jin's thunderous attack, Qin's eastward plan was interrupted again. And then, after the two countries broke up, Jin Xianggong tried his best to firmly guard the Weihan Passage, blocking the Qin State and preventing the Qin State from leaving eastward.
At the same time that Qin took action, Chu in the south did not miss this opportunity. At the same time as the Qin State launched its attack, the Chu State began to send its army northward to attack the vassal states of the Jin State, Chen State and Cai State .
After receiving the news, Duke Xianggang of Jin decisively sent out his elite troops to rescue Cai Guo, and the two sides met in the Sishui area. As a result, after the two sides encountered each other, the battle turned out to be extremely bizarre. The commander of the Jin State, Yang Chufu, , first discussed with the Chu State and requested that the Chu army retreat a little first and allow the Jin army to cross the river before the two armies fought again.
As a result, the Chu army retreated slightly with the purpose of letting the Jin army cross the river and then taking advantage of the opportunity of the Jin army to cross the river to attack. However, after the Chu army retreated, the Jin army did not attack. Instead, they threatened that the Chu army had fled. As a result, at the end of the battle, the two sides did not fight. On the contrary, the Chu State coach was killed by the King of Chu for collaborating with the enemy after he returned!
Therefore, the Jin State repelled the Chu State's attack without any bloodshed.
In addition to the provocations from both Qin and Chu, Jin also attacked Bai Zhai on a large scale this year, and even directly captured the king of Bai Zhai.This tough battle greatly increased the power of Jin.
In this way, in the first year of Jin Xianggong's accession to the throne, the Jin State went to war against the three major forces of Qin, Chu, and Bai Zhai at the same time, and all of them achieved brilliant victories. After these three battles were fought, all the vassal states understood one thing: it turned out that the newly ascended king of Jin was really not easy to mess with at all, and he was fully capable of inheriting his father's mantle!
As for the Qi State in the east, it was time to add insult to injury. However, Qi State also had many internal problems at that time. Just a few years ago, it happened that after the death of his elder brother, his younger brother killed his eldest nephew and then established himself as king. Therefore, at this time, Qi State was internally unstable, and it was unable to cause trouble to Jin State for the time being.
This was probably the only good news for Duke Xiang of Jin at that time.
After repelling Qin Chu and pacifying Bai Zhai, in the second year, Jin Xianggong finally began to take the initiative.
This year, Jin Xianggong focused his attention on those small countries. Before Jin Wengong died, Weiguo, a small country, was jumping up and down. Therefore, at this time, Duke Xianggang of Jin planned to attack Weiguo first to establish his majesty as an overlord.
Next, Jin Xianggong personally led the army to attack Weiguo. However, after arriving at the front, Duke Xianggang of Jin did not lead his troops to the battlefield. He went to the Zhou royal family himself and met with the emperor of Zhou , which was regarded as fulfilling the obligations of an overlord. At the same time, Duke Xianggong of Jin sent his generals to lead the troops to conquer Weiguo, and finally won a complete victory.
At the same time, after the Qin State in the west learned about this, it felt that Jin State had all its elites, so maybe it could try to attack Jin State again. So this year, Qin once again attacked Jin on a large scale. But to everyone's surprise, even though the Jin State's elite troops had been dispatched, the Qin State still failed to defeat the Jin State, and was defeated miserably in the end.
With Wei Guo being dealt with, Qin State was repelled again, and Jin Xianggong's hegemony and majesty was completely established. In addition, he went to see the Zhou royal family and was recognized by the Emperor of Zhou. Therefore, from this point on, Duke Xianggang of Jin actually completely inherited the mantle of Duke Wen of Jin and became another recognized overlord.
Of course, there are many endings to Jin Xianggong’s dominance.
Qin, who had been defeated twice in a row, was naturally furious. In the next two years, Qin State worked hard to raise food and grass and prepare to launch a revenge war against Jin State again. Two years later, in 624 BC, Duke Mu of Qin ordered another attack on Jin. This time, the Qin State was quite well prepared and the attack was fierce.
Faced with such a Qin state, it was rare that Jin Xianggong did not choose to stand firm, but chose to avoid the edge temporarily and hold on. So in the end, Qin Mugong captured a small piece of Jin's territory and showed off his power on Jin's territory for a month, but overall he did not hurt Jin, and he did not complete his goal of marching eastward.
But at least, this victory allowed Qin to regain its face, and it also gave Qin a chance for revenge and allowed Qin to vent its anger.
But at the same time, from the perspective of the Qin State, Qin Mugong knew very well that the Qin State did not actually defeat the Jin State, and it did not obtain the passage to the east. Therefore, from then on, throughout the middle and late Spring and Autumn Period, until the split of Jin, almost every generation of Qin kings, as long as they were a little capable, would try to fight Jin to see if there was a chance to go east. But unfortunately, in the nearly three hundred years since then, until the Jin State split into the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao, and Wei, the Qin State did not find such an opportunity.
In order to achieve this goal, Qin also began to change its national policy. Originally, Qin teamed up with Jin to bully Chu. But since then, the state of Qin began to form a team with the state of Chu to jointly fight against the state of Jin. As for Qi in the east, because Qin and Chu joined forces, Qi was forced to side with Jin, or stayed outside the Jin alliance.
It is precisely because of this historical reason that the situation in the Central Plains where Qin and Chu joined forces to fight against Jin and Qi was initially formed. In the following decades, until the rise of Wu and Yue, the Central Plains region maintained this situation. As for those small countries, most of them can only choose sides between the two camps.
Therefore, if the Jin Dynasty’s hegemony was created by Jin Wengong, then it was actually Jin Xianggong who truly established the Jin Dynasty as the hegemonic country.
As Duke Xianggang of Jin firmly established himself as the hegemon, Duke Xianggang of Jin also began to reflect on whether there were really problems with many of Jin's previous policies. Therefore, in the next ten years or so, the Jin State began to gradually improve its relations with other Central Plains vassal states and win the support of other vassal states. Because the Jin State was originally a vassal state with the surname Ji, its relationship with those Central Plains vassal states was much closer than that of the Chu State. Therefore, when the Jin State showed enough goodwill, everyone was more willing to choose to side with the Jin State.
This is the whole process of Jin Xiangong taking over the hegemony of Jin Kingdom.
Looking back at the process of Jin Xianggong's continued hegemony, it is not difficult for us to find: In fact, the reason why Jin Xianggong was able to continue Jin's hegemony was mainly because Jin did three things right. First, Jin made no mistakes on the issue of successors. After the death of Duke Wen of Jin, the state of Jin achieved a smooth transition. Unlike the state of Qi, the country immediately started a civil war after the death of Duke Huan of Qi.
Secondly, after Jin Xianggong came to the throne, he did not choose to carry out drastic reforms immediately, but chose to make a smooth transition and smoothly take over everything his father left behind. This is crucial to the smooth inheritance of Jin's hegemony, because it further ensures the internal stability of Jin.
Third, and most importantly, Duke Xianggang of Jin is indeed very capable.
In contrast, the successors of Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Xiao of Qi were much less capable. When Qi Xiaogong came to the throne, he failed to respond to the provocations of other countries in time, nor did he win over his younger brother's country in time, and he also failed to solve the problem of domestic civil war, which led to the rapid decline of Qi.
On the other hand, Duke Xianggang of Jin, as a successor, can not only stabilize the country, but also find the most suitable opportunity to fight back in time when other major powers provoke provocations. This strategic vision and ability are far beyond what Qi Xiaogong can match.
It is probably for this reason that Jin Xianggong was able to successfully accept Jin Wengong's hegemony and did not let Jin's hegemony decline rapidly.
If Duke Huan of Qi could have such an heir. Perhaps Qi's hegemony can also be inherited. If that were the case, maybe nothing would happen to the Jin Kingdom later.
