Wu Zixu

Presentation of Wu Zixu in the Wu Zixu Temple in Suzhou

Map of China at the time of Wu Zixu with the state of Wu in the southeast of the Chinese plain

Wu Zixu ( Chinese  伍子胥 , Pinyin Wǔ Zǐxū , d. 484 BC ) was a Chinese minister, military leader and strategist who lived and worked at the end of the spring and autumn annals . He came from Chu State , but fled to Wu State , where he served King Helü and his heir to the throne Fuchai for more than 30 years . He was considered to be an exceptionally capable and versatile chancellor who, together with Sun Wu, played a significant role in the economic and military rise of Wu, which under Fuchai briefly ruled the area then populated by Chinese as a hegemon .

Wu Zixu (actual name Wu Yun in Chinese  伍 員 , Pinyin Wǔ Yún , Zixu was his courtesy name) came from Jiaoyi in Chu State, today's Jiaopi Township in Funan County, Anhui Province . Wu Zixu's grandfather Wu Ju had held a high position at the court of King Zhuang and acted successfully in the interests of the king, so that the Wu clan had gained a certain prominence. In 522 BC King Ping had doubts about Prince Jian's loyalty. Under a pretext, he had Wu Zexu's father Wu She, the prince's personal teacher, and Wu Zexu's brother Wu Shang come to the Chu capital, Ying , where he had them murdered. Wu Zixu, on the other hand, fled with Prince Jian first to Qi , then to Zheng . There, Jian arranged a plot against Zheng with officials from Jin State . Wu Zixu advised the prince against it - after all, Zheng had given them refuge. Jian was killed after the prince's plan was exposed. Wu therefore fled to Wu State. It is said that Wu Zixu mistrusted a fisherman so much when crossing the river border between Zheng and Wu that he drowned himself in the river. According to other legends, Wu aged so quickly from fear in a hiding place in Zhaoguan that his persecutors no longer recognized him.

Upon arriving in Wu, Wu Zixu helped Prince Guang take the throne of his uncle King Liao . He hired Zhuan Zhu , who entered the king's palace with a knife hidden in a fish and stabbed him there. Prince Guang ascended the throne as King Helü , Wu Zixu became his chancellor and close adviser. Together they took steps to nurture capable people, boost agriculture and trade, and strengthen the armed forces. He recommended the military strategist Sun Wu as a general, had him recruit and train soldiers, so that Wu got the most powerful military in the southeast of the then Chinese-populated region.

One of the greatest achievements of Wu Zixu is the establishment of the city of Suzhou . According to the chronicles, the first advice Helü received from Wu after he ascended the throne was to build a large city. Helü commissioned Wu Zixu with this project. Wu ordered the construction of an outer city wall 47 Li (about 24 kilometers) in circumference and an inner city wall 10 Li (about 5 kilometers) in circumference. The resulting city is considered to be the forerunner of today's Suzhou, the old town of which is largely identical in terms of size and geographical location to the facility planned by Wu Zixu at the time - a very rare condition in China given the city's 2,500-year history.

Two measures by Wu Zixu are considered to be groundbreaking for the relief of flood disasters on the lower reaches of the Yangtze . In what is now West Jiangsu , he had a canal dug between Gaochun and Lake Tai and dikes built so that the flood waves from the south of what is now Anhui could flow into the lake without causing flooding. This canal also enabled irrigation projects and could be used as a traffic route, which is why the people called it Xu-Bach (胥 溪 Xūxī). After Fuchai ascended the throne, Wu Zixu had another canal built, which leads from Lake Tai to the East China Sea . It was called the Xu River (胥浦 Xūpǔ).

Wu and Sun emerged victorious from various campaigns against their neighboring states. They alayed the strengths and weaknesses of their neighbors and first attacked Chu, recognizing the greatest threat to Wu. Wu knew that Chu's government was at odds. Taking advantage of this fact, he divided the Wu army into three parts, which he alternately launched attacks on Chu at different locations. Each time Chu mobilized his forces against the invading Wu troops, which each time quickly withdrew. After a few years, Chu was exhausted from these tactics. In order to prepare the major attack on Chu, Wu Zixu formed an alliance with the much smaller Cai and Tang , who were north of Chu. When Chai and Tang began their attack on Chu, Wu Zixu had his troops attack Wu's southern neighbor, Yue . Chu assumed that Wu could not wage war in the west at the same time and pulled his troops together in the north. The main Wu army now advanced west along the Huai River and defeated in 506 BC. The army of Chu in the battle of Boju . Then they advanced to the Chu capital Ying (30 kilometers south of today's Jingzhou ). Wu Zixu wanted to avenge the death of his father and brother here. However, Chu King Ping had already passed away. Wu had his grave opened and lashed King Ping's body 300 times. Wu did not ultimately conquer Chu, but Chu was significantly weakened. Through the Chinese winged word鞭尸 三百, this act is also widely known in today's China.

After Sun Wu left Wu State, Wu Zixu commanded the Wu forces alone. After Chu was no longer in danger, Wu went into the field against Yue. In 494 BC BC Wu was able to win the battle on Lake Tai. The Wu troops pursued the Yue warriors and besieged the capital of Yue called Kuaiji . The state of Yue only escaped ruin when King Fuchai - contrary to Wu Zixu's advice - accepted a peace offer from Yue King Goujian . After Wu's victory over Yue, Fuchai led an extravagant life and set himself the goal of being recognized as a hegemon by other states . Although Wu Zixu advised him to subdue Yue first, he went into the field against his northern neighbors. At the same time, Wu lost influence at Fuchai's court in favor of the minister (太宰) Bo Pi , who, however, was corrupt and slandered Wu before Fuchai. Foreseeing the disaster, Wu Zixu brought his son to safety in Qi in 484 . Fuchai used this as an excuse to accuse Wu of treason and to ask him to commit suicide. Before he cut his own throat, he asked Fuchai to hang his head on the city gate so that he could watch the invasion of Yue's army under Goujian. Yue attacked Wu in 482 BC. And in the year 476 BC Chr. At the end of the second war, which was to last three years, Fuchai was captured and killed himself.

Fuchai had Wu's body thrown into the river in a leather sack, but the people buried him on a hill near the river. A little later a temple was built in honor of Wu Zixu, it is now located in the southwest of the old town of Suzhou near the Pan Gate and the Ruiguang Pagoda . A Wu Zixu Memorial Park has been set up outside the Xu Gate. According to Wu Zixu, the city gate is named Xu Gate , the Xu River outside this gate, a mountain called Xu Mountain and the place where the Xu River flows into Lake Tai ( Xukou ).

Web links

Commons : Wu Zixu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

• Sima Qian : Wu Zi Xu. In: Gregor Kneussel (transl.): From the records of the chronicler ( Shiji ). Beijing: Publishing House for Foreign Language Literature, 2015, ISBN 978-7-119-09676-6 , Vol. 2, pp. 291-315.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The character 員 is in fact read here as yún
2. ↑ ^{a b c} 周金林 (editor-in-chief): 吴 地 文化 名人 . In: 吴 风 书 韵 . Library of the Wuxi Vocational College of Science and Technology, Wuxi September 1, 2015, p. 22–24 (Chinese, wxstc.cn [PDF]).
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} 袁学汉, 龚建毅: 苏州 园林 名胜 . 2nd Edition. 内蒙古 人民出版社, 2005, ISBN 7-204-05094-0 , p. 145 ff .
4. ^ Paul A. Cohen: Speaking to History, the Story of King Goujian in Twentieth-Century China . University of California Press, Berkeley 2009, ISBN 978-0-520-25579-1 , pp. 20-24 .
5. ↑ 周金林 (Editor-in-Chief): 吴 地 文化 名人 . In: 吴 风 书 韵 . Library of the Wuxi Vocational College of Science and Technology, Wuxi December 1, 2015, p. 16-19 (Chinese, wxstc.cn ).