King Gong of Chu

In 597 BC his father King Zhuang defeated Chu's archrival Jin in the Battle of Bi and was recognized as the Hegemon by other states.

However, King Gong's reign was marked by Chu's decisive defeat by the resurgent Jin in the 575 BC Battle of Yanling.

[3] The two forces met at Yanling, and Jin defeated Chu by attacking its weaker flanks manned by the poorly trained Zheng and Dongyi soldiers.

[3][4][5] While Chu was preoccupied with its rivalry with Jin, the formerly insignificant state of Wu began to rise to its east.

In 598 BC, during King Zhuang's reign, Chu minister Wuchen (Duke of Shen) defected to Jin after a personal dispute with general Zifan.

[7] In 560 BC, when King Gong was dying from illness, he summoned his ministers and requested to be given the pejorative posthumous title of Ling (靈) or Li (厲), expressing shame for losing the Battle of Yanling and causing disgrace to the nation.

The ministers agreed at his insistence, but after his death they instead gave him the title Gong, meaning "humbly reverent".

[2] In 529 BC when King Ling was on an expedition against the State of Xu, his three younger brothers staged a coup d'etat and killed his son Crown Prince Lu.