Is “In his later years, Duke Huan of Qi favored petty men such as Yi Ya and Shu Diao, and was eventually imprisoned and starved to death, with maggots breeding in his corpse.” true?
attested in history
Both the Records of the Grand Historian, Hereditary House of Qi, and the Guanzi record that after Duke Huan's death, 'the five sons fought each other... Duke Huan's corpse lay on the bed for sixty-seven days, flesh and skin rotted and stank, maggots crawled out of the door.' The novel's depiction of the tragic end of the once-overlord is a cruel true record of official history.
Duke Huan of Qi
The tragic end of Duke Huan of Qi in his later years
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