The Troubled Hero - An Idol in the Spring and Autumn Period in China
The Wu kingdom had been rivalry with the Yue kingdom so they'd waged wars against each other by taking turns of advance and retreating on each side. King Helu of the Wu kingdom died from the aggravation of his injury from a soldier's attacking arrow from the Yue kingdom.
Wu Zixu helped Puchai, the son of King Helu to ascend the throne and won the battle against the Yue kingdom in succession. Nonetheless, King Puchai made a truce with King Goujian of the Yue kingdom despite Wu Zixu's advice that they had to destroy the Yue kingdom completely and kill Goujian because Goujian and the Yue kingdom would become the distress and misfortune for the Wu kingdom later on. Wu Zixu compared the Goujian and his kingdom to the fatal disease growing both inside the mind and body that eventually would kill that person; it is a story from which the ancient idiom, 心腹之患 derived. Wu Zixu already knew the competency of King Goujian who would well become a formidable threat to the Wu kingdom if he was allowed to survive. It is why Wu Zixu continuously gave King Puchai the honest advice to kill Goujian.
But King Puchai rather than listened to Wu Zixu, got ill-advised by Bo Pi, bribed by the Yue court to appease Puchai to let Gojian and his kingdom survive. Bo Pi told Puchai that Wu Zixu would become the distress to the Wu kingdom to defame Wu Zixu. Eventually, Puchai ordered Wu Zixu to kill himself with the sword 'Chok Rru' endowed by King himself. While ordered to kill himself, Wu Zixu reflected on Sun Tzu's words while he was leaving his court service. 'When the subject accomplished what his country needed, he has to know when he should retreat from his office. When things up, there is also a time when things get down. It is why I withdraw from my service now.' Sun Tzu who retired, notwithstanding Wu Zixu's dissuasion, wrote the book 'The Art of War' that became famous for all ages and countries, leaving his indelible name in history.
The book, 'The Art of War'
'Puchai started to get suspicion but then it is not against Goujian or Bo Pi but against me.' told Wu Zixu. 'When I died, plant wide-walnut trees around my grave and with that tree, make a coffin for Puchai. Then gouge the eyes out from my body to hang them at the castle gate of the Wu state and they will witness the marching army of the Yue kingdom, conquering the Wu kingdom.' Infuriated Puchai, without holding a funeral for Wu Zixu, wrapped the body in the leather sack and threw it into the river. People felt sorry for how Wu Zixu's death was treated, took the body back, and buried it; the shrine for Wu Zixu was built and Wu Zixu has been commemorated by people since then.
As foretold by Wu Zixu, in years, the Wu kingdom was destroyed by the army led by Goujian, the king of the Yue kingdom; Goujian had tasted the gallbladder, which reminded him of the bitter shame and humiliation of the defeat - it is an event that formed the ancient idiom '臥薪嘗膽', literally meaning that one sleeps on cut woods and licks a gallbladder. Defeated Puchai committed suicide, shrouding his face with a cloth, thinking he couldn't face Wu Zixu in the afterlife.
It is a way more dramatic story than a soap opera. What screenwriter could write a script as deeply touching as this way? This historical period was a string of time, dotted with heroic figures such as Wu Zixu whose story I couldn't help but empathize with in laugh and cry, although in his time, he was confronted and criticized due to his strong will and determination, Sun Tzu, endowed with heavenly genius, was wise enough to withdraw in his prime from the sought-after position but to leave his grandiose legacy to the later generation, King Helu who had a magnanimous mind even to embrace his subject's grudge in the face of his kingdom's survival, lady Xi Shi who was one of the three most beautiful women in Chinese history, even though she wasn't recounted here, was with these heroes and Goujian who overcame his shame and insult to finally conquer the kingdom which once led his kingdom to a sour defeat. It was an epic drama unfolding in the background of history.
Out of all, the reason why I couldn't take my eyes off Wu Zixu is he was a character that one would be possessed with when the reader follows the bumpy ride of his life with the tragic beginning that he should live his life all the way with a painful desire for vengeance, finally retaliating to King Ping to make his swear come true with diamond-hard determination, complete devotion of his life to the kingdom he chose for its prosperity and power and losing his life in exchange for being truly loyal to the kingdom he served like his father and brother.
Whether I got it or not, mom several times said that Wu Zixu was a man of greatness, seeming that she didn't have any other expression to describe him. She added he was a man of strong will with a righteous mind and his mind didn't have even a speck of greed, which couldn't be topped by any other phrase. Along with his political career, numerous lives got stripped not by an inevitable condition but by his willing political maneuver. But why I still agreed with mom's highest compliment for him was because he hadn't done anything shameful willingly against his righteously built ideal, even though it cost his life.
Mom's yearning for Wu Zixu must be her paying homage to the purity of the person's mind that hardly exist in the world, considering she has experienced the world and people with its and their naked earthliness through the long years of her life.
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