Chapter 32: Such Is Destiny

After exterminating the Zhao clan, Duke Jing of Jin was plagued by nightmare after nightmare. He often dreamed of a fearsome ghost with long hair hanging over its face, demanding his life. The specter was tall and formidable, and it berated him in ringing tones:

“Depraved ruler, you have abandoned all morality! My Zhao clan served your house loyally for generations. To establish the supremacy of Jin, we threw ourselves into the struggle without thought for our lives, spilling our blood and laying down our bones. Yet you have shown no regard for our service and hardship. Instead, you slaughtered my innocent descendants to the last! You are worse than a beast! I have already reported your crimes to the Emperor of Heaven. Before long, you will pay with your life and atone for these evil deeds!”

With that, it would brandish claws sharp as iron spikes, smash through the outer doors and the doors of Duke Jing’s chamber, and rush inside. Terrified, Duke Jing would collapse helplessly to the floor, unable to move. Just as the ghost was about to seize him, he would suddenly awaken, only to discover that it had all been a dream. Cold sweat drenched him from head to foot.

From that time onward, he was bedridden. The nightmare tormented him day and night, and his illness grew worse with every passing day.

Duke Jing knew this was no ordinary nightmare: a fierce ghost had attached itself to him and was working mischief. He therefore sought out occult methods in the hope of escaping its grasp. At that time, a place called Sangtian was home to a spirit medium whose fame had spread far and wide, so Duke Jing summoned him to the palace.

The medium performed divinations and calculations, then recounted every detail of Duke Jing’s dream without the slightest error. Duke Jing was left speechless with astonishment. As though he had seized the last straw that might save his life, the long-tormented ruler asked anxiously, “What can be done?”

The medium shook his head and sighed. “This ghost was once a meritorious minister of the former dynasty. He possesses immense supernatural powers and fearsome might. Now, driven by fury over the unjust slaughter of his descendants, he will not rest until he has achieved his purpose. My own powers are too shallow to subdue him.”

Duke Jing stared blankly, then asked, “And is my illness auspicious or ominous?”

The medium bowed until his forehead touched the ground. “Forgive me for speaking plainly, my lord, but I fear you will not live to eat this year’s new wheat.”

Wheat ripened and was harvested in the sixth month. The medium meant that Duke Jing would not survive until June.

When word came that the state of Qin was home to a renowned physician named Huan, whose remedies cured even the strangest and most difficult ailments, Duke Jing sent envoys westward to Qin to request his services.

Before Huan arrived, Duke Jing began dreaming again. This time, however, he did not see the ghost demanding his life. Instead, he dreamed of two tiny figures chatting and laughing together.

One of them said, “Huan’s medical skill is extraordinary. He may well find us and drive us out. Where should we hide?”

The other replied with a mischievous grin, “If we hide beneath the heart-fat and above the membrane, then even if his skill were multiplied tenfold, he could do nothing but sigh in frustration.”

The “heart-fat” referred to the fatty region surrounding the heart, while the “membrane” meant the area between the heart and the diaphragm. After speaking, the two tiny figures shrank into specks and slipped through Duke Jing’s nostrils. He awoke in terror.

When Huan arrived, he examined Duke Jing and said, “The illness lies beneath the heart-fat and above the membrane. Neither acupuncture nor medicine can reach it. There is nothing I can do.”

Duke Jing sighed. “Your diagnosis is exactly the same as what I saw in my dream. It seems that Heaven has ordained this fate, and it cannot be forced otherwise.”

He bestowed generous gifts upon Huan and sent him back to Qin.

When the bingwu day of the sixth month arrived, the new wheat had begun to be harvested. After suffering from illness for so long, Duke Jing suddenly craved wheat porridge.

In truth, his feelings were complicated. He was acting out of spite against the medium who had declared that he would never live to eat the new wheat. Duke Jing summoned the medium to the palace.

A bowl of porridge made from the new wheat sat on the table before him, sending up wisps of steam. Duke Jing inhaled its fragrance, then pointed at the kneeling medium and cursed, “Did you not say that I would never eat the new wheat? Look at this!”

He ordered his attendants to drag the medium away and behead him.

Believing that the medium’s prophecy had been false and that he had escaped death, Duke Jing was about to eat the porridge when a sudden, unbearable pain seized his abdomen. He hurried to the privy.

But he had been ill for so long that his body was weak and his legs could no longer support him. He lost his footing, fell into the cesspit, and drowned.

Thus did a generation’s formidable hero end his life in a manner both absurd and tragic. According to the Chronicle of Zuo, no one realized that Duke Jing had died. The following morning, one of his eunuchs dreamed that he was carrying Duke Jing step by step up into Heaven. Upon waking, he searched everywhere for his lord and only then discovered that the duke had drowned.

The eunuch carried Duke Jing’s body out of the privy and later followed him into death.

For the moment, let us set aside the situation in Jin after Duke Jing’s death and turn to the broader picture. From a wider perspective, after the Battle of Bi between Jin and Chu, King Zhuang of Chu finally pulled Jin, which had dominated the Central Plain for more than a decade, down from the throne of supremacy and took its place as hegemon, just as he had hoped.

Yet although Jin had suffered a temporary setback, its position as a great power remained unshaken. Thus, during the decades that followed, Jin and Chu—one advancing southward, the other pressing northward—engaged in a fierce struggle for mastery of the Central Plain. The upheaval brought by years of warfare left every feudal state severely weakened.

The contest between Jin and Chu placed the states of Zheng, Song, and Wey, located in the Central Plain, directly in the line of fire. Historians have calculated that during the seventy or eighty years of the middle Spring and Autumn period, more than seventy wars broke out within Zheng, while Song suffered more than forty. The smaller states were hardly spared either.

What was more, because Jin and Chu alternated in claiming supremacy over the Central Plain, the rulers of these lesser states had no choice but to submit to superior power. They shifted their allegiance according to the circumstances, offering jade and silk and waiting at the borders of both realms. They humbled themselves before each of the two great powers in turn, while at the same time enduring attacks from the other. As this continued year after year, every state was exhausted by constant mobilization, and war-weariness became widespread.

The smaller states were not alone in suffering. Jin and Chu each faced serious internal and external troubles.

In Jin, after the death of Duke Wen, the rulers who followed him lacked strength, and military and political authority gradually became concentrated in the hands of several powerful ministers and nobles. They struggled among themselves for power and profit, engaging in endless internal conflict that greatly drained Jin’s strength.

At the same time, the rise of Qin made Jin increasingly uneasy. After Duke Mu of Qin established his state’s supremacy, Qin suddenly became a major power of consequence and repeatedly came into conflict with Jin. During the reign of Duke Li of Jin, the two states did enter into an alliance, but Qin paid little heed to it. Instead, it contacted the Baidi tribes and planned an attack on Jin.

Jin’s external troubles did not end there. Relying on its dominant position, it abused the states of the Central Plain with unchecked arrogance. In the seventeenth year of Duke Jing’s reign, corresponding to 583 BCE, Jin forced Lu to hand over the fields of Wenyang to Qi in order to improve its relations with that state. Later, when Duke Cheng of Lu came to pay court in Jin, Jin detained him by force on the pretext that he had “maintained relations with Chu,” and released him only after compelling him to accept an alliance.

Such conduct naturally aroused deep resentment among the states of the Central Plain. One after another, they began to “hold a second allegiance to Jin” and cultivate friendly relations with Chu.

Although Chu occupied the position of hegemon and did not suffer from diplomatic problems as severe as those of Jin, its internal tensions were no less serious. After the death of King Zhuang, the young King Gong succeeded to the throne, and Chu’s power was no longer what it had been.

Zifan and Zizhong later came into conflict with Shěngong Wuchen over the matters of Xia Ji and the distribution of fief lands. After Shěngong Wuchen fled to Jin, Zifan and Zizhong slaughtered his family and divided his property among themselves.

When Shěngong Wuchen learned of this, he advised Jin to form an alliance with Wu, which at the time had not yet been recognized by the states of the Central Plain, and attack Chu from the flank. Shěngong Wuchen had been one of Chu’s foremost generals and knew its military methods intimately. Under his guidance, Wu learned a large body of advanced tactics and began using chariots in battle. Its military strength rose with astonishing speed.

Wu soon attacked the Chu territories of Chao and Xu, winning victory after victory and creating a grave threat to Chu.

Under these circumstances, temporary peace became the only possible choice. Both Jin and Chu therefore sent envoys to establish contact, hoping to seek peace through an alliance conference.

In the eighteenth year of Duke Jing’s reign, corresponding to 582 BCE, Duke Jing was inspecting his army when he encountered Zhong Yi, a man of Chu who had been captured by Zheng and presented to Jin. Zhong Yi was an upright man and an accomplished player of the qin. Fan Wenzi seized the opportunity to advise Duke Jing to release him and return him to Chu, thereby easing relations between the two states.

Chu responded positively to this gesture. That winter, it sent Prince Chen to visit Jin. Jin promptly dispatched the minister Di Fu to return the visit. For a time, diplomatic activity between the two states became remarkably close, and the smoke of war seemed to be drifting away.

The sensitive rulers of the Central Plain soon detected the thaw in relations between Jin and Chu. For the sake of their own interests, they naturally did everything they could to promote peace between the two great powers.

The Song minister Hua Yuan held no particularly exalted rank, but he enjoyed close personal relationships with the men who wielded power in both Jin and Chu. He was intimate with Luan Shu, Jin’s chief minister, and also on friendly terms with Zizhong, Chu’s chief minister. This fortunate circumstance enabled Hua Yuan to mediate between the two states.

In the first year of Duke Li of Jin, corresponding to 580 BCE, Hua Yuan visited Chu and Jin in succession, laying the groundwork for a meeting between them. The following year, Jin sent Shi Xie, while Chu sent Prince Ba and Xu Yan. They met outside the western gate of Song’s capital.

Under Hua Yuan’s direction, the two sides concluded a truce. Its terms were as follows:

“Let Jin and Chu never again raise arms against one another. Let them share one another’s likes and dislikes, sympathize with one another in disaster and danger, and stand ready to rescue one another from calamity. If anyone harms Chu, Jin shall attack him; if anyone harms Jin, Chu shall do likewise. Let gifts pass back and forth between them, and let the roads remain open. Let them seek out those who fail to maintain harmony and punish those who refuse to attend court. Should anyone violate this alliance, may the bright spirits strike him down, cause his army to perish, and deny his state the power to continue offering sacrifices.”

This diplomatic event later became known to historians as Hua Yuan’s Peace Initiative.

To consolidate the gains of Hua Yuan’s peace, Jin and Chu carried out a series of subsequent diplomatic exchanges. The rulers of Lu, Wey, Zheng, and other states that had previously cultivated ties with Chu once again went to Jin to pay court to Duke Li, thereby reaffirming their subordinate relationship. Jin and Chu also continued sending envoys to one another, and Duke Li personally met with Prince Ba, strengthening the peace alliance.

Even so, the decades of hostility between Jin and Chu could not be dissolved overnight. Immediately after the peace conference ended, Jin sent Xi Zhi as an envoy to Chu, which prepared a full array of ritual music to welcome him.

According to the rites of the Zhou, such honors were reserved for meetings between the rulers of two states. Xi Zhi therefore declared that he was unworthy of such treatment and asked, “If the rulers of our two states should meet another day, what scale of ritual and music will be used to receive them?”

Unexpectedly, Zifan replied, “When the rulers of our two states meet, all they need do is send one another an arrow. There will be no need for music.”

Zifan’s words clearly implied that the two states would soon meet in battle. Shi Xie, too, foresaw that Chu would certainly break the agreement.

He was right. Not long after Hua Yuan’s peace initiative, it collapsed with the outbreak of the Battle of Yanling between Jin and Chu.

Hua Yuan’s peace was less a far-sighted, long-term policy jointly pursued by Jin and Chu than a temporary expedient forced upon both sides by increasingly difficult circumstances. A closer examination reveals that very few states took part in the conference and that the wording of the treaty was deliberately vague.

Its failure, therefore, was only to be expected.