King Fuchai (Fuchai)

Fuchai (夫差) succeeded his father, Helü, and vowed to avenge Wu’s defeat by Yue. He defeated Yue and forced its king, Goujian, into vassalage—but chose not to annex Yue, a decision that would prove fatal. Focused on northern campaigns and the dream of hegemony over the Central Plains, Fuchai neglected the threat at home. Goujian, after years of humiliation and preparation (“sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall”), launched a devastating counterattack. Wu was destroyed in 473 BC, and Fuchai took his own life. His reign symbolizes both the peak of Wu’s power and the dangers of overextension; the fall of Wu left the Suzhou region under Yue, and later under Chu, until the Qin unification.