Bu Ke Jiu Yao

When the Western Zhou Dynasty approached its end， the regime run by slavers became more and more corrupt. They were more cruel in exploiting slaves and ordinary people and continuously staged war against neighboring countries， making life much worse for people.

When Emperor Li succeeded the crown， he was even crueler than his predecessors. Being greedy and powerthirsty， he monopolized the forest， mountains， rivers， lakes and so on， forbidding ordinary people to go hunting， firewood chopping and fishing. He also sent a lot of spies to detect peoples words and actions and executed anyone who spoke ill of him.

The people could not tolerate his evil rule at all. Unrests happened everywhere in his country， which shattered the foundation of the reign of Western Zhou Dynasty.

Seeing the coming collapse of their beloved country， some loyal ministers felt distressed and grieved. Among them， the old minister Fan Bo， who had served several kings， put great efforts in trying to talk Emperor Li into giving up the cruel reign and turning to the wisdom and benevolence to save the country. However， Emperor Li rejected his advices and laughed at Bo Fan with a group of bootlicking ministers， calling him an old， incapable， silly and outdated man.

Bo Fan was very angry and wrote a poem to show his pains and distress， meaning： “the emperor is abusing his power. Do not be too blindly optimistic to ignore my hearty warnings. Young men are so arrogant and self-satisfied that they consider my warnings as silly words. Thats not true， because what I offer is accurate. But you laugh at me. Your arrogance is like the flame that cannot be quenched， and the ill that cannot be cured”.

Fan Bo sent his poem to the emperor and then left， still hoping that his letter could reveal the truth to the king. He wanted him to be aware of the hidden trouble and take any actions against the unrest. However， the emperor still refused to change his style.

In 824 BC， there broke out a great unrest. Citizens and slaves took their weapons and rushed to the palace， forcing Emperor Li to flee in panic. The Western Zhou Dynasty fell apart from then on and the empire gradually fell into the hands of several mighty dukes.