King Ling of Chu
| Xiong Wei | |||||||||
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| King of Chu | |||||||||
| Reign | 540–529 BC | ||||||||
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| Full name | |
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| Posthumous name | |
| King Ling of Chu |
| King Ling of Chu | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 楚靈王 | ||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 楚灵王 | ||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Chǔ Líng Wáng |
King Ling of Chu was king of the State of Chu between 540 and 529 BC. His birth name was Xiong Wei (熊圍) and before ascending the throne he was known as Prince Wei (公子圍).
Wei was the second son of King Gong of Chu, younger brother of King Kang of Chu and uncle of Jia'ao. When Jia'ao took the throne, Wei served as prime minister and always behaved as if he was the king. By then he had married a member of the Feng clan from the State of Zheng. Taking advantage of Jia'ao's sickness, Wei murdered Jia'ao along with his two sons. He buried Jia'ao at Jia, thus making the place name the style for the late young king. Wei took the throne and changed his personal name to Xiong Qian (熊虔). In the wake of his regicide, two of his younger brothers, Bi and Heigong fled in fear for their lives.
As King Ling did not get the throne in legally, he was eager to gain a good reputation with the other lords. At that time, Qing Feng, former prime minister of Qi and one of the murderers of Duke Zhuang II of Qi, had taken refuge in the State of Wu where the king of Wu had placed him in the town of Zhufang. King Ling sacked Zhufang, captured Qing Feng and killed all the Qing family. In front of the other lords, he ordered Qing Feng to say, "Never follow the example of Qing Feng, who murdered his duke, bullied the people and threatened other ministers to get them to support him." But Qing Feng rebuffed the king, saying, "Never follow the example of Prince Wei of Chu, who murdered the king who was the son of his elder brother and threatens other lords in order to gain their support." King Ling was so upset that he immediately ordered Qing Feng executed.
In his third year after taking the throne, King Ling tried to gather the lords at Shen (in the State of Chu), but he was disappointed. In 534 BC, the State of Chen suffered internal disorder. Duke Ai of Chen favoured his second son Liu rather than his legal heir Yanshi, so he asked his younger brothers Zhao and Guo to ensure that Yanshi would pass the throne to Liu in the future. But Zhao and Guo knew that Yanshi would rather pass the throne to his own adult son, Wu. So they killed Yanshi, which also led to the death of Duke Ai, who was so upset when he heard what had happened. Zhao and Guo installed Liu as the new marquis of Chen, so Wu and Sheng, the youngest son of Duke Ai, went to King Ling for help. King Ling soon conquered Chen. Liu fled, whilst Zhao killed Guo and attributed the blame to Guo. Instead of installing Wu as the new marquis, King Ling made Chen a prefecture of Chu, destroyed its ancestral temple and took Wu back to Chu. He then appointed a general named Chuan Fengshu as Duke of Chen.
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