Editing Spring and Autumn period (section)

===Hegemony of Song (643–637)===
{{Main|Duke Xiang of Song}}
[[Duke Xiang of Song]] attempted to claim the hegemony in the wake of Qi's decline, perhaps driven by a desire to restore the [[Shang dynasty]] from which Song had descended. He hosted peace conferences in the same style as Qi had done, and conducted aggressive military campaigns against his rivals. Duke Xiang's ambitions met their end when, against the advice of his staff, he attacked the much larger state of Chu. The Song forces were defeated at the battle of Hong ([[:zh:泓水之戰|泓]]) in 638, and the duke himself died in the following year from an injury sustained in the battle. After Xiang's death his successors adopted a more modest foreign policy, better suited to the country's small size.<ref>{{ cite book | title= Zuozhuan | title-link= Zuozhuan| chapter = [[:zh:s:春秋左氏傳/僖公#僖公二十八年|Lord Xi years 18–23]] |language=zh }}</ref>

As Duke Xiang was never officially recognized as hegemon by the King of Zhou, not all sources list him as one of the Five Hegemons.