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Family name origins offer lessons from history
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THE period of the Eastern Zhou was an important period of Chinese history. When studying this period, people usually focus on the big kingdoms like Qi, Qin, and Chu.
However, I would like to introduce a king of the relatively small Wu Kingdom. He is not He Lu, the famous one who employed Sun Tze. I would like to introduce Shou Meng, a king who was not really well-known but laid the foundation for the Wu Kingdom’s rise.
I am interested in him because of my family name, which is also Shou (寿). This is a rare family name with a good symbolic meaning — longevity. Interested in how this family name started, I did some brief research, and one of the conclusions pointed to the king Shou Meng.
Compared with He Lu, Shou Meng did not have as many conquests or accomplishments, but the Wu Kingdom started to become one of the great powers during his reign. Located mainly in today’s Jiangsu Province, the Kingdom of Wu was distant from the developed Central Plains of the time, and was relatively less advanced in culture, the economy, and the military.
However, when Wu Chen, a high-ranking official oppressed by the internal politics of the much more powerful Chu Kingdom, escaped to the Jin Kingdom, Shou Meng seized the chance to develop his kingdom.
By accepting an alliance with Jin, he invited Wu Chen to his country and appointed him prime minister. Wu Chen brought with him the agricultural techniques, military tactics, and culture of the Central Plains. Thus, the Wu Kingdom managed to merge itself into the larger community.
With his modernized military, Shou Meng launched many successful conquests. Wu won widespread recognition among the kingdoms and became one of the major powers equivalent to Chu or Qi.
Shou Meng’s success happened 2,000 years ago but I believe the reasons for his success can also apply to people and nations today.
Wu was able to empower itself first because it successfully integrated itself into the socio-economic and military background of the time learning from the stronger nations in the Central Plains. Then the alliance with Jin was also vital.
What this implies to me is that nobody and no nation can be strong without being open to the world. China was a completely different country 30 years ago.
Born in the 1990s, I could not imagine that metropolitan Pudong was a cluster of villages 30 years ago.
It is the reform and opening up that has transformed Pudong, as well as China, into a modernized dynamo.
Today’s China still has problems such as overpopulation and pollution. However, I believe as long as China continues to face the world with an open attitude, there are few problems concerning us that cannot be solved.
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