Rule
However word then came that Duan had fallen to the forces of Zheng, much to everyone's surprise. Duke Zheng already knew that a revolt was imminent, so he set up a trap; which both his mother and brother fell into. Seeing his demoralized forces melt away and with nowhere to run, Gongshu Duan committed suicide. Upon hearing this, Zheng rushed to see his brother's corpse; weeping greatly, he said to him, "Gongshu Duan, you knew that your older brother would always forgive you; why has it come to this?"
Of course, in real life Zheng was nowhere near as compassionate: he only did it for show. The next act he did after pacifying the rebellion was putting his mother under strict confinement, telling her that "We will meet again under the ground!". But when public opinion began to turn against him as a result of this, he soon dug a tunnel linking his and his mother's palaces, and there they met, burying the hatchet altogether.
He was appointed Left Advisor by King Ping of Zhou. After King Ping's death, the following king, King Huan, removed him from office. In return for this slight, Duke Zhuang refused to go to the capital to meet with King Huan. King Huan then led a coalition in 707 BC against Duke Zhuang. Duke Zhuang's army humiliated the king, defeating the king's army and inflicting an arrow wound on King Huan's shoulder. After his death, his two sons fought a protracted civil war over the leadership of Zheng.
Read more about this topic: Duke Zhuang Of Zheng
Famous quotes containing the word rule:
“Until the Women’s Movement, it was commonplace to be told by an editor that he’d like to publish more of my poems, but he’d already published one by a woman that month ... this attitude was the rule rather than the exception, until the mid-sixties. Highest compliment was to be told, “You write like a man.””
—Maxine Kumin (b. 1925)
“Where women are concerned, the rule is never to go out with anyone better dressed than you.”
—John Malkovich (b. 1953)
“The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master.”
—Diogenes of Sinope (c. 410–c. 320 B.C.)