father predecessor death_date successor title issue spouse article_title name reign
king mu of chu king mu 591 bc king gong king of chu king gong of chu lady fan king zhuang of chu
 xiong lü 熊旅 613 -- 591 bc
king zhuang of chu

king zhuang of chu -lrb- , died 591 bc -rrb- was a monarch of the zhou dynasty state of chu during the spring and autumn period of ancient chinese .
his personal name was xiong lü , ancestral name mi -lrb- 芈 -rrb- , and king zhuang was his posthumous title .
he became one of the five hegemons and attempted to wrest control of china from the king of zhou .
king zhuang ascended the throne in 613 bc at a time when the kingdom of chu was in disarray .
for the first three years of his reign , zhuang wasted time on excessive hunting and lavish partying .
several courtiers were anxious about the king but none dared speak up as he had given orders that anyone who challenged his authority would be killed .
when a particularly senior minister challenged him through a riddle , the king responded that he had been waiting for three years for someone from his court to show some nationalistic pride .
the king made sunshu ao chancellor and began a series of reforms .
chu 's agricultural output improved significantly during his reign , aided by sunshu ao 's comprehensive dam-works and an enormous planned reservoir created in modern-day northern anhui province .
in 611 bc he annexed the state of yong -lrb- 庸国 -rrb- , a move which made chu much stronger .
after some overwhelming victories at the head of his army , king zhuang attempted to take the place of king ding of zhou .
he asked a messenger from zhou about the weight of the nine tripod cauldrons which zhou possessed , a euphemism for seeking ultimate power in china at the time but was rebuffed .
in the battle of bi , his army defeated the state of jin , another strong state at that time .
later he achieved hegemony amongst some other states .
his progress from lazy regent to a hegemon of his time gave rise to the chinese four-character idiom of `` yī mǐng jīng rén '' -lrb- -rrb- .
