[Why] In the late Spring and Autumn, King Fuchai of Wu defeated Yue, forcing King Goujian to submit as Wu's vassal. Goujian, harboring the will to revive his lost state, began over twenty years of patient self-discipline. [What] After returning to Yue, Goujian slept on brushwood and tasted gall daily to remind himself of shame, personally tilled the fields, and adopted the schemes of Fan Li and Wen Zhong to send Xi Shi to seduce and weaken Wu. Seizing the moment when Fuchai marched north for hegemony, he stormed and destroyed Wu. [Who] King Goujian of Yue is the canonical Chinese figure of endurance and revival, the embodiment of bearing humiliation to recover a lost state. Fan Li and Wen Zhong were his pair of brilliant ministers, while Fuchai of Wu was ruined by pride and contempt for the enemy. [How] The reverse-victory destruction of Wu completed the most dramatic revenge of the Spring and Autumn era and briefly established Yue as hegemon. It became the eternal symbol in Chinese culture of "sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall" — patient struggle culminating in vindication.
Why
The historic event of Goujian Conquering Wu represents a key developmental peak of the Huaxia dynastic system. The Spring and Autumn epic of vengeance through endurance. By establishing this moral or administrative benchmark, it continues to shape the structural and philosophical fabric of ancient Chinese statecraft.