What historical allusion does "the king of Chu has a thin waist and starved to death in his palace" refer to?

The King of Chu here is the King of Chu Ling, who was the monarch of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period. However, his position is not right, he is incompetent in governing the country, and he likes to listen to slanders. He is so beautiful. Therefore, he was forced to flee to the west after only 12 years in office and eventually hanged himself.

And "The King of Chu has a thin waist, and many people starve to death in his palace" is an ugly story that describes how incompetent he is as a monarch in governing the country and how his courtiers flatter him. There are many records and quotations about this allusion. Here, we use a representative article in the Warring States Policy, which belongs to the record of Chu State: The King of Wei asked Mo Aozihua

. It is recorded that Mo Aozihua answered Chu Weiwang's words about how to attract talents: the former monarch made the king very small, and the Chu people made an appointment to eat, but he was able to stand up, and he could afford to eat. Endure but not enter; If death is abhorrent, just avoid it. Zhang Wen-zhi, whose monarch is good at making money, has picked up his ministers. Whether the king is straight or not, if the king is sincere and virtuous, all these five ministers can get it.

Translated into modern Chinese, it is probably: In the past, King Chu Ling, the first emperor, liked slender waist. Scholars in Chu all went on a diet, even eating only one meal a day. Finally, they were so hungry that they could not stand up. When they sat down, they had to hold the wall to barely stand up. Everyone has a desire for food, but for the sake of slender waist (pleasing the king of Chu), everyone refrains from eating, and would rather starve to death. I've also heard that if the king likes archery, all his officials will wear finger wrenches and armbands. Your Majesty, you have never had any special hobbies. If your Majesty sincerely hopes that there will be many sages in Chu, as long as you really like sages, then there will naturally be five outstanding talents in Chu as before.

After that, when it comes to the subordinate's pandering, catering to the boss's preference or satirizing the fatuous incompetence of the monarch and the flattery of the courtiers, the sentence "The king of Chu is so thin-waisted that his palace is starved to death" is often quoted.

Finally, I'd like to add an absurd story that happened during the reign of Queen Victoria. The Queen was so thin that everyone was strangled.

In order to cater to the aesthetic preference of the upper class, women wear steel corsets one after another.

Medical research has found that excessive corsets may cause visceral displacement to women.