Duke Zhuang of Zheng - Early Life and Rise To Power

Early Life and Rise To Power

Born as the first of two sons and groomed for the throne, Zheng's mother nevertheless preferred her second son, the reason being that she suffered through an extraordinarily painful time when giving birth to Zheng. When Duke Zheng ascended to the dukedom over the violent objections of his mother, she began plotting to get Gongshu Duan into power. First she asked Zheng to give Gongshu Duan the city of Duan as a fiefdom. Duan, at that time, was the second largest city in Zheng, and was a very important fortress indeed. Zheng was extremely reluctant to give away that piece of land, and indeed his courtiers begged him to reject the proposal, but out of courtesy for his mother he agreed.

Seeing that her plan was going well, Zheng's mother urged Duan to build walls, stockpile arms and recruit mercenaries to the rebel cause. Soon news of all this began to reach the capital, and it was clear to everybody what was going to happen. Zheng's ministers urgently reported the news to Zheng, urging him to retake Duan from Gongshu before it was too late. However, Zheng dismissed these proposals, stating that he found no fault in Gongshu Duan, and besides, it could not be proved that he was plotting a coup, instead of just merely reinforcing the border. Besides, he said that Gongshu Duan was his brother, and he could not take up arms against him.

Soon King Zheng had left the dukedom to Luoyang for some diplomatic matters; his mother soon wrote a letter to Duan, ordering him to revolt now and she would open the gates of the capital for him. So Gongshu Duan revolted against Duke Zheng, and not long after he was under the capital walls. It seemed as if Zheng was finished.