Duke Huan of Qi

Though he was now secure on the throne, the question that remained for Duke Huan was what to do with Guan Zhong who had so prominently supported his rival brother. Bao Shuya asked his newly crowned ruler to not just spare Guan Zhong, but to even employ him as chief minister due to his great talents. Duke Huan followed this advice,[1] and Guan Zhong became his most important and capable advisor. The two went on to reorganize Qi's government and society, dividing both the land as well as the people into regulated units and enforcing a meritocratic system of governance. This greatly strengthened Qi, as it allowed the state to "mobilize human and material resources more effectively than other Zhou states, which remained loosely structured." As Qi had already been a powerful polity in a favorable strategic situation before, these reforms managed to bring Qi to "an unprecedented status of leadership in the entire Zhou world".[2] Together, Duke Huan and Guan Zhong worked toward achieving dominance over the other Zhou states, and as time went on ever more of them became followers of Qi.[3]

Eventually Duke Huan invited the rulers of Lu, Song, Chen, and Zheng to a conference in 667 BC, where they elected him as their leader. After hearing of this, King Hui of Zhou appointed Duke Huan hegemon (ba) with the authority to operate militarily in the name of the royal court. Duke Huan and Guan Zhong envisioned the office of "hegemon" not just as mere position of military power, but rather as one that was supposed to "restore the authority of the Son of Heaven" or, more practically, restabilize the old realm of the Zhou dynasty under the leadership of Qi.[4]

Consequently, Duke Huan intervened in matters that concerned the interstate relationships of the Zhou polities, both on behalf of King Hui as well as to assert his own position as hegemon. Such interventions included a punitive expedition against Wey in 671 BC, because this state had defied King Hui, as well as involvement in a power struggle in Lu in order to cement Qi's power.[4] Another major concern for Duke Huan was the threat that outside powers (derogatorily called the "Four Barbarians") posed to the Zhou states, and he would launch numerous campaigns to fend off these "barbarians". Most notably, he saved the states of Yan, Xing and Wey from invasions by non-Zhou groups, and tried to stop the expansion of Chu in the south. In 656 BC he led an alliance of eight states against a satellite state of Chu, Cai, and defeated it.[5] The alliance then proceeded to invade Chu itself, and eventually a pact was concluded. Chu stopped its northward expansion[6] and agreed to take part in an compulsory interstate meeting at Shaoling. This meeting, the first of its kind, set a precedent.[5]

Over the following years, Duke Huan convened numerous interstate meetings under the auspices of the Zhou royal family. Points of discussion during these meetings ranged from military matters to economics to general orders concerning governance and laws. Overall, the ruler of Qi managed to restore some stability in the volatile and fractious Zhou realm. Historian Cho-yun Hsu summarizes that Duke Huan "used his Ba [hegemon] leadership to set up a new order for an interstate community that was to be guarded by consensus rather than authority."[7]

After almost forty years on the throne, however, Duke Huan's dominance began to gradually decline. His efforts to completely stop Chu's expansion failed, as the southern state had simply shifted its attention from the north to the east. There, along the Huai River, Chu conquered or invaded several states allied with Qi. The last major anti-Chu military alliance assembled by Duke Huan failed to stop this development, and was even defeated during the Battle of Loulin in 645 BC.[8][9][10] Guan Zhong also died in that year, depriving the ruler of Qi of his most important advisor. Having grown ill, Duke Huan was increasingly ignored by the leaders of other states, and even his authority over Qi itself declined as various political factions began to vie for power.[11][12]

These factions were formed by high officials as well as six of the duke's sons. These six, namely Zhao, Wukui, Pan, Shangren, Yuan, and Yong, were all the children of different concubines, as Duke Huan's three main wives bore him no sons. As a result, all of them felt themselves entitled to the throne. Though Qi's ruler had designated Prince Zhao as his heir and even charged Duke Xiang of Song with ensuring that he would ascend the throne, this did not stop the other five from plotting their own rise to power.[13][11][10] According to the Guanzi, the elderly duke had also to deal with four powerful officials: Tang Wu, the court sorcerer; Yiya, the chief cook; Shu Diao, the chief of the eunuchs; and Gongzi Kaifang, a leading courtier. Shortly before his death, Guan Zhong had advised that they should be sent into exile. Duke Huan did so, but he found himself missing their particular talents at the court and allowed them to return. They then conspired against him, and locked him in his room, secretly starving him to death.[14][15] Other notable sources for these events, such as the Zuo Zhuan[10] and the Records of the Grand Historian do not mention this purported assassination.[12]

Duke Huan of Qi finally died in late 643 BC, and the capital Linzi quickly descended into violence. His six sons, supported by various officials, took up arms against each other in order to size the throne, starting a war of succession.[10][16] In this chaos, Duke Huan could not be buried and his corpse was left unattended in his bedchamber for between seven days and three months. By the time he was finally encoffined, the corpse had begun to rot.[lower-alpha 1] With Duke Huan's sons fighting for the throne, Qi was severely weakened and lost its status as China's predominant state. Although Zhao, by then ruling as Duke Xiao of Qi, eventually attempted to regain his father's hegemony, he failed and Duke Wen of Jin became the next hegemon.[10][19]