Chapter 26: "Lady Peach Blossom"

King Wen of Chu, whose given name was Xiong Ci, was, like his father, a remarkably capable ruler who played a decisive role in the robust development of the Chu state. At the outset of his reign, buoyed by a prosperous country, a strong populace, formidable military power, and the support of loyal ministers and generals, King Wen faced relatively little pressure in governance. Moreover, having ascended the throne in middle age after years of careful preparation, he initially did not exert himself zealously in statecraft but indulged in pleasures and comfort. For instance, he once went on a hunting expedition to Yunmeng Marsh with his dogs and bows and tarried there for three whole months without returning. On another occasion, he amassed numerous beauties from Danyang to fill his harem, immersing himself in sensual delights and neglecting the affairs of state, allowing national governance to fall into ruin.

This prompted the venerable grand tutor Shen He and the great general Yu Quan to enter the palace and remonstrate with King Wen. Citing the late king’s edicts, they demanded that King Wen be punished with flogging as a form of admonition. King Wen, claiming that he had been granted noble rank as a prince from birth and now, as ruler of a kingdom, could not suffer the humiliation of physical punishment, pleaded for clemency and an alternative form of chastisement. Shen He, however, insisted. Reluctantly, King Wen prostrated himself upon his pillow to receive the punishment. Shen He did not strike harshly; wielding a bundle of brambles as a whip, he raised it high and let it fall lightly a few times before stopping.

King Wen felt uneasy under the watchful gaze of the late king’s spirit, perceiving this nominal flogging as an insult to his dignity. He declared that if he must be punished in name, he might as well endure a thorough beating and find relief in it. Shen He replied that for a petty person, physical pain is necessary, but for a nobleman, internal shame and humiliation are the true punishment; otherwise, the suffering of the flesh is meaningless. If King Wen remained unrepentant, Shen He lamented that he would be unworthy of the late king’s trust and would have to atone with his life. He then offered himself for death, even intending to throw himself into the river. King Wen hastily stopped him and was deeply awakened. He immediately killed his dogs, broke his bows, dismissed the beauties, and devoted himself to repairing the government and consolidating the welfare of the people, fulfilling the late king’s aspirations. This episode became a celebrated tale of a ruler accepting admonition through punishment.

Upon his accession, King Wen made a strategic decision to relocate the capital from Danyang to Ying. This move represented a continuation of Chu’s external expansionist policy. Having become unrivaled in the southern regions during King Wu’s era, Chu sought to challenge the Central Plains, marking a new phase in its development. With the strategic focus now tilting northward, it was necessary to find a new stronghold while maintaining control over the traditional southern territories. Thus, relocating the capital was a crucial decision aligned with the new realities and developmental needs of Chu.

Ying was ideally situated: to the south lay the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, to the west was the Ba-Shu region, eastward lay Wu and Kuaiji, and to the north, the Central Plains. It was well connected by land and water routes, offering strategic advantages for both advancing into the Central Plains and defending the rear. Its elevated terrain ensured ample water supply without the threat of flooding, making it an excellent site for economic development and maintaining stability at home. King Wen’s decision to move the capital to Ying ensured nearly four centuries of prosperity for Chu. The exact location of Ying has been debated, with some placing it south of Jiangling in Hubei, others to the west of Yicheng, or even suggesting that both sites bore the name Ying. Personally, I lean toward the capital being south of Jiangling, though this remains a subjective view.

King Wen continued the legacy of external conquest set by his predecessors by launching a campaign against the state of Shen. Shen, bearing the Zhou surname, was a fief granted by the Zhou king and served as a strategic checkpoint for the Zhou dynasty to restrain Chu in the south. After a protracted and arduous campaign, King Wen finally conquered Shen. Deng lay between Chu and Shen and was a vital passage for King Wen’s army. Moreover, King Wen’s mother, Queen Deng Man, was a native of Deng. On his victorious return through Deng, the Deng ruler hosted King Wen with a banquet. The Deng nobles urged their ruler to seize the opportunity to eliminate King Wen, but he refused, deeming such an act unjust, thereby releasing a tiger to roam free. Shortly after, King Wen launched another campaign and annihilated Deng.

Chu’s military success owed not only to its strength and abundant resources but also to strict discipline. A telling story illustrates this: during the campaign against Deng, King Wen sent his two princes, Ge and Ling, to scout. In the wilderness, they encountered an elderly beggar whom they robbed and mistreated. Upon learning this, King Wen ordered their execution. The nobles pleaded for leniency, arguing that such a severe punishment for a minor offense was excessive. Yet, the beggar outside the camp shouted that although Chu was waging war against the cruelty of Deng, its princes abused the weak and elderly, revealing Chu’s own lawlessness. King Wen reflected that an army fighting for justice must not itself be cruel; to oppress the weak was to lose moral authority; to indulge one’s children at the expense of public order was to fail in governance; protecting one’s family while harming the state was utterly unacceptable. Thus, King Wen executed his sons to uphold military law.

By conquering Shen, Deng, and Lü, Chu cleared its borders and paved the way to assert dominance in the Central Plains. At this time, the political landscape of the Central Plains was becoming clearer: Qi, under Guan Zhong’s reforms, had greatly enhanced its productivity and military strength, forming alliances with states like Song, Chen, and Zheng to create a formidable coalition. Chu, aspiring to dominate the Central Plains, could not overlook Qi and its allies. To confront such powers, Chu needed to eliminate all unfavorable factors. Although the surrounding small states were not strong enough to threaten Chu directly, the state was not yet so powerful as to disregard them. Subjugating these minor states would both secure its rear and bolster its strength, as well as seize their geographic advantages. Hence, Chu’s campaigns to conquer them were necessary.

King Wen annexed all lands east of the Han River and exploited the discord between the states of Xi and Cai to conquer them. This episode transcended mere historical fact to enter the cultural realm, as the tragic fate of Lady Xi evoked deep sympathy and poetic lament in later generations.

With these conquests, Chu was finally poised to face the Central Plains directly. King Wen chose Zheng as the first target, reasoning that Duke Li of Zheng had restored his rule and “delayed informing Chu,” thus signaling defiance to the Central Plains lords led by Qi. Chu’s attack on Zheng marked the first direct clash between this southern power and the Central Plains states, officially opening the era of Qi-Chu rivalry for supremacy.

In the tenth year of Duke Zhuang of Lu’s reign (684 BCE), as Chu prepared for its northern campaign, a chance event unfolded. Friction arose between Xi, located near the Huai River, and Cai, near the Ru River. Both states’ rulers had married daughters of the Chen ruler: Cai’s monarch married the elder daughter, while Xi’s ruler was about to wed the younger daughter, Lady Xi. When Lady Xi passed through Cai en route to her new home, the Cai ruler, considering her the younger sister of his own wife, neglected to accord her the proper honors and behaved dismissively, enraging the Xi ruler.

Seeking revenge, the Xi ruler sent envoys to King Wen, requesting Chu’s assistance in attacking Xi, with the plan that Xi would then appeal to Cai for help, thus providing Chu with a pretext to subdue Cai. This suited King Wen’s ambitions perfectly, and he readily agreed.

Chu’s forces advanced and, in September of that year, decisively defeated Cai’s army at Xin and captured the Cai ruler, who was made to perform a humiliating dance. For King Wen, this victory was not only a military triumph but a political declaration of Chu’s resolve and capability to march into the Central Plains. Confucius, in compiling the *Spring and Autumn Annals*, regarded this event as a watershed moment in Chu’s rise to power and began recording Chu’s history from this year, stating: “Chu, once a barbarian land, henceforth entered the ranks of the great states.”

The humiliated Cai ruler, knowing that the root cause lay with Lady Xi and bitterly resenting her, schemed for revenge. Learning of King Wen’s fondness for beauty, he extolled Lady Xi’s unparalleled beauty, stirring King Wen’s desire even without meeting her.

Seizing the opportunity, the Cai ruler further incited King Wen to act. King Wen feigned a hunting expedition and led his army “casually” through Xi. The Xi ruler, unaware of the trap, warmly hosted the king, who met Lady Xi during the banquet and was captivated by her charm. The next day, under the pretense of gratitude, King Wen lured the Xi ruler out of the palace, ambushed and killed him, then invaded the palace and forcibly took Lady Xi back to Chu.

Lady Xi’s beauty, like a peach blossom in full bloom, enchanted King Wen, who honored her as “Lady Peach Blossom.” She lived in his palace for three years, bearing him two sons: Xiong Jian and Xiong Yun, the latter becoming King Cheng of Chu.

Despite bearing children, Lady Xi was not happy, haunted by her identity as the former wife of Xi’s ruler and the tragedy of her state’s fall. For three years, she did not utter a word to King Wen. When he inquired, she replied that as a woman, she could neither serve one husband in life nor follow one master in death—there was nothing more to say. King Wen understood her inner resentment and sought solace in conquering Cai. In the fourteenth year of Duke Zhuang of Lu (680 BCE), Chu launched a campaign that made Cai a vassal state.

The story of “Lady Peach Blossom” is long and poignant, inspiring varied reflections on her fate. The Tang poet Wang Wei, in his poem *Lady Xi*, wrote: “Do not think the current favor can erase past affection; tears fill my eyes as I gaze at flowers, yet I speak not with the King of Chu.” To Wang Wei, King Wen’s lust-driven injustice destroyed families, and his belief that present glory could make Lady Xi forget the past was both immoral and foolish. Lady Xi, despite her captivity, remained faithful in spirit—a paragon of loyalty and courage amid despair. In fact, after Chu conquered Cai and avenged Xi’s ruler, she took her own life to follow her husband in death.

Conversely, another Tang poet, Du Mu, offered a different view: “The slender-waisted palace reveals new peaches, silent through many springs. After all, what caused Xi’s demise? Pity the one who fell from the Golden Valley.” Du Mu implied that Lady Xi’s beauty was a calamity that brought ruin and that her failure to die immediately was pathetic and blameworthy.

Yet, whether Wang Wei or Du Mu, both overlook the fundamental cause of Chu’s conquest of Xi and Cai. King Wen’s ambition lay in the Central Plains, and these two states occupied key regions along the Ru and Huai Rivers—crucial gateways for Chu’s northward and eastward expansion. Controlling these territories was essential. After their conquest, Chu appointed officials to govern them directly and elevated their status to central administrative units, underscoring their strategic importance.

Therefore, regardless of the pretext, Xi and Cai were destined to become part of Chu’s domain. Lady Peach Blossom was merely an incidental gain from King Wen’s strategic decisions, a minor footnote forcibly brought to prominence, which itself constitutes another layer of tragedy in her story.

King Wen’s final military campaign did not end in triumph. During King Wu’s time, Chu had conquered Quan and installed administrators, but the Quan people rebelled. After quelling the uprising, King Wu relocated them and appointed Yan Ao to govern. Later, when Chu and Ba allied against Shen, Yan Ao quarreled with Ba’s commanders. Ba’s forces attacked Quan’s settlements under Yan Ao’s control, forcing him to flee. King Wen executed Yan Ao, after which his clan allied with Ba against Chu, even attacking near Chu’s capital.

In the eighteenth year of Duke Zhuang of Lu’s reign (676 BCE), Chu dispatched troops to suppress the turmoil but suffered a heavy defeat, forcing King Wen to retreat hastily. The city’s defender, Yu Quan, deemed the king’s disgrace too great and refused to open the gates, compelling the king to attack Huang and secure victory before returning. On the journey home, King Wen fell ill and died. After his body was returned, Yu Quan buried him in the royal tomb and then took his own life, following his lord in death and embodying the loyalty of a lifelong minister.

King Wen reigned for fourteen years, largely fulfilling King Wu’s ambition to observe and influence the politics of the Central Plains. He annihilated the states of Xi, Cai, Shen, and Deng, clearing the way for Chu’s path to the Central Plains. His decision to move the capital laid a strong foundation for centuries of prosperity and enabled Chu to seize the initiative in future contests for supremacy. The Qing scholar Gu Ligao summarized: “Chu’s dominance of the south began with the move from Danyang to Ying, establishing its base in Jingzhou. King Wu’s conquests of Luo and Ruo and the securing of Yan and Ying fixed Xiangyang as the gateway. After destroying Shen, Chu turned north to confront the Central Plains.” This accurately encapsulates Chu’s developmental trajectory under King Wen, whose lifetime of dedicated governance and relentless striving left a lasting legacy.