King Huai of Chu

Also known as Xiong Huai

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.