Royals › Monarch / Emperor
King Huai of Chu
King of Chu who broke with Qi on Zhang Yi's false promise of land, lost Hanzhong to Qin, and died a captive in Qin after the meeting at Wu Pass
In a side chamber of a palace, a yellow ceremonial robe embroidered with a dragon hangs on a wooden stand, its hem worked with waves and rocks, before a carved folding screen, while a black lacquer chest sits on a low table by a lattice window and no person is in view.
Also known as Xiong Huai
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
King Huai of Chu, personal name Xiong Huai, son of King Wei, came to the throne in 328 BCE. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, the six eastern states made him leader of their alliance against Qin in 318 BCE. In 313 BCE the Qin chancellor Zhang Yi offered him six hundred li of land if he broke with Qi; he did, was cheated, attacked Qin and was crushed at Danyang the next year, losing his general Qu Gai and the Hanzhong commandery. The biography of Qu Yuan says the poet served him until slander turned the king against him. In 299 BCE he went to meet King Zhao of Qin at Wu Pass, was seized and taken to Xianyang, and refused to cede the Wu and Qianzhong commanderies. He died in Qin in 296 BCE, and Chu mourned when his coffin came home. At the end of the Qin, Xiang Liang set up his grandson Xiong Xin as king under the same title.
Life and times
- UnknownBorn
Zhou - 334 BCEAlliances of Warring States
Vertical and horizontal alliances of Su Qin and Zhang Yi, shaping the grand diplomacy of the Warring States.- Zhang Yi Breaks the Qi-Chu Alliance313 BCEStrategist Zhang Yi championed the Horizontal Alliance, tricking King Huai of Chu with illusory territorial promises to shatter the anti-Qin coalition.
- Battles of Danyang and Lantian312 BCEDeceived by Zhang Yi, King Huai of Chu attacked Qin, lost Hanzhong at Danyang and was beaten again at Lantian.
- Zhang Yi Breaks the Qi-Chu Alliance
- 296 BCEDiedr. 328–299 BCE
- 278 BCEQu Yuan's Sacrifice
PrecursorAfter Qin captured Ying, Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River; works such as Li Sao became central to the Chu Ci tradition.
Family tree
- Direct kin
