Chudu site is 5 kilometers north of Jingzhou ancient city, Hubei province. Because it is located in the south of Jishan Mountain, it is also called Ying Ji and Jinan City.
According to historical records, it took more than 400 years from Xiongzi, the king of Chu (689 BC), to the twenty-first year of King Xiang of Chu (278 BC), when General Qin took office, and the twentieth generation of King * * of Chu established his capital here. Many important events in Chu took place here. For example, the gold coin "Yingcheng", which was first used in China, and the important law "tax revision according to the amount", which was confirmed by the emerging landlord class, were all promulgated and implemented here. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, most celebrities from three religions and nine streams came to Chu. Confucius, Zhuangzi and Mozi went in and out of Jinan City, and Qu Yuan was the "left disciple" of Chu State. It can be said that Jinan City is a historical witness of Chu's rise to Jianghan and its domination of the south, and it is also a symbol of splendid Chu culture.
medieval
After more than 2000 years, Jinan City is in ruins. Du Fu, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote the poem "The most important thing is the disappearance of Chu Palace, and the fishermen pointed out today are not sure". However, through archaeological excavations, the layout of the ruins of the ancient city has been basically clear, and the pavilions and some ancient architectural sites of the King of Chu can be clearly found, and the original magnificent picture scroll can still be seen.
The ruins of Jinan city are large, and the earthen city walls still exist today, which is very strong and firm. The city site is nearly square, 4.5 kilometers long from east to west, 3.5 kilometers wide from north to south, generally 3 to 5 meters high, and 6 to 7 meters high in some areas, with a total area of about 16 square kilometers. Seven gates were found around the city wall, one in the east wall, two in the west wall, two in the south gate and two in the north gate, one in the south gate and one in the north gate. Nanyuan Watergate consists of four rows of wooden stakes and three openings, with ten columns in each row. The doorway is about 1 1 m long and 3.5 m wide, which can accommodate ships. It is the earliest wooden water gate found in the world so far, which is very valuable for studying the urban water supply system in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
84 rammed earth mounds from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were found in this city. After the excavation of abutment 30, experts concluded that it may be the base of a large palace complex, dating from the late Spring and Autumn Period to the mid-Warring States Period. There are kiln sites for firing ceramic tiles and pottery, tin furnaces and tin slag in metal smelting workshops. There are many wells around the workshop, and more than 250 earth wells, pottery wells, bamboo wells, wooden wells and brick wells have been found. Many daily-use pottery, ironware and farm tools were unearthed in the well. Three sections of ancient rivers, spring and autumn cemeteries, Qin tombs and Han tombs buried underground and connected with each other were also discovered.
As the capital city at that time, Jinan City was the political, cultural and economic center of Chu State and the most prosperous metropolis in the south at that time. Huan Tan in the Han Dynasty recorded in "New Theory": "The capital of Chu, the car hangs on the hub, the people rub their shoulders, and the city and the road intersect, and the number is the dressing gown and the evening dress." It vividly showed the bustling scene at that time.
Chu history is boundless.
It is generally believed that the ancestor of Chu was the Yellow Emperor, one of the five emperors in ancient China. Huangdi gave birth to Changyi, Changyi gave birth to Levin, Zhuan Xu and Levin gave birth to Zhang, who were called Zhang and Zhang gave birth to Li. When Li Zhong was in Di Ku, he served as an official of Chaozheng. He is very active and can melt the world. The name of Di Ku is Zhu Rong. After the chaos at work, Li was ordered to put an end to it. Because it was useless to quell the chaos, Di Ku killed it and set his brother Ng Wui as a fire, still named Zhu Rong.
Wu Huisheng, a native of Lu, was born in Lu's life and had eight sons. He was called "Zhu Rong's eight surnames" in history and lived in the Central Plains. Lu Zhong's sixth son is named Ji Lian, who is attached to Ju Sheng and a cave bear. Under the threat of Shang Dynasty, the descendants of Dong Xiong gradually moved southward to the south of Huaihe River, Hanshui River basin and Jingshan area, and merged with local indigenous peoples to form a new nation, namely "Jingchu", "Man Jing" and "Chu Man" as mentioned in Shang and Zhou documents.
The Book of Songs Shang Song Yan Wu wrote: "Jingchu, the daughter of Wei, lives in the south of the country." Jingchu paid tribute to the Shang Dynasty since he became the first king of the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Gaozong of Yin sent troops to crusade against Jingchu and captured a large number of prisoners. When attacking Zhou, the Chu people took part in the battle of Zhou Jun. After the enfeoffment of Zhou Chengwang, merchants were all in Danyang (now near Zigui County, Hubei Province, Nanzhang County), and Xiong Yi was made a viscount because of his grandfather Xiong Huan's contribution to Zhou Wenwang.
"Historical Records Confucius Family" records that Yin Zixi, the seasonal commander of King Zhao of Chu, said: "The ancestor of Chu was sealed in Zhou, and the country name was Li. "Truman was living in such a narrow and wild area and was discriminated against. The princes united, and Chu Jun was sent to see the fire dedicated to the gods. Chu people constantly clashed with Zhou people. In the bronze inscriptions in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhou attacked Jingchu in many places.
In the twelfth year of Zuo Zhuan in Zhao Gong, You Yin Zige said, "My late king Xiong Yi was founded in Jingshan. The road is blue and bumpy. Wading through the mountains to serve the emperor. " After a long period of hard struggle, the strength of the Chu people gradually increased, so they began to expand to the south and the east.
The vast territory newly developed by Chu is mostly in the central and eastern parts of Hubei Province. In order to control the newly annexed area, Xiong Ruoyi, the son of Chu Wuwang, ascended the throne, that is, in 689, he moved the capital from Danyang to Ying Ji, 5 kilometers north of Jiangling in the center of Jianghan Plain.
After Du Ying, the State of Chu began its hegemony for a century. From King Wen, King Wang, King Mu to King Zhuang, four generations of grandparents and grandchildren, backed by their vast territory and powerful strength, actively participated in the hegemony of great powers in the Central Plains and became the hegemon of political situation for many times. King Chu Cheng first competed with Qi, the overlord of the Central Plains, and destroyed several small countries, then sent troops to attack Zheng. Before 656, Qi Huangong led the four armies of Qi, Lu, Song, Chen and Wei to meet the Chu army in Zhaoling (now Yancheng East, Henan Province). Seeing that the Qi army was menacing, the King of Chu sent a doctor to make peace with the State of Qi, and made a covenant of Qi and Chu. After the death of Qi Huangong, the power of Qi declined, and the king of Chu became the overlord. Later, Jin Wengong in the north rose up and defeated Wang Cheng of Chu in Chengpu (now Juancheng, Shandong Province) in 632, and seized the world.
After Jin Wengong's death, Chu Zhuangwang became the overlord again. Chu Zhuangwang bear donkey (? -59 1) At the beginning of his succession, he did not give orders for three years, having fun day and night, and announced that "those who dare to remonstrate will die without forgiveness", but he secretly investigated the loyalty of ministers. In the third year, Wu Ju and Su Cong's suggestion was adopted, and a virtuous minister was appointed to organize state affairs, thus destroying the country. In the sixth year of King Zhuang (608 BC), he led the Chu army to conquer the Song Dynasty and captured a large number of trophies. Therefore, there is a saying that "if you don't fly for three years, you will fly into the sky; If you don't sing for three years, the song will be amazing.
In the eighth year of King Zhuang (606 BC), he conquered the army of Lu (north of Songxian County, Henan Province), then led the army to the north, boasted within the jurisdiction of Zhou, and sent messengers to inquire about the weight of Jiuding, a symbol of kingship, and greatly replaced it. After that, Jin Chu continued to compete for hegemony. In 597, in order to compete for the control of Zheng and other countries, the two sides fought a decisive battle in Zhai (northeast of Xingyang, Henan Province), and the Jin Army was defeated. Two years later, the State of Chu besieged the State of Song, and Song was forced to submit to the State of Chu. The State of Jin was overwhelmed and had to watch the small countries in the Central Plains attached to Chu one by one, and Chu Zhuangwang became the boss of the Central Plains for a while. In order to appease the frightened princes, Zhuang Wang built a clay platform in the northeast corner of Jinan City to join the princes. This platform still exists today, 6 meters high, 30 meters long from east to west and 20 meters wide from north to south. After the stage was completed, King Zhuang invited the generals to meet here, drink on the stage and hold the lanterns in person. His words are very modest, and everyone is willing to accept them and make him a leader. Therefore, "those who are far away come to the DPRK, and those who are near come to visit", and Zhuang looks forward to the sun, making the country rich and strong. Therefore, people call this platform a fishing platform, which means "a platform for fishing princes." In the twenty-third year of Chu Zhuangwang, Chu became a great power in the south.
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, King Chu Ling and King Heping were in power, and their national strength declined greatly. In the 10th year of King Zhao of Chu (506 BC), the King of Wu, led by Wu Zixu, Minister of Chu, launched a massive attack on Chu, winning five out of five wars and destroying the capital of Ying. Wang Zhao ran into Sui (now Suixian County, Hubei Province). Chu Shen went to Qin for advice, and with the help of Qin, the Chu people expelled Wu Jun from Chu. This failure deprived Chu of its hegemony.
402 years ago, Chu Shengwang was killed for tyranny. After his son Xiong Yi, the king of Chu, was suspected to be in the throne, he was attacked by emerging countries such as Wei, Zhao and South Korea and lost a large area of land. In order to reverse the decline of Chu, he appointed the great strategist Wu Qi, who came to Chu because of being rejected by Wei. Its main contents are: first, "abolishing the alienation of citizens" and weakening the old aristocratic forces politically and economically; Second, streamline official positions and reduce salaries to save money for Qiang Bing; Third, the "judicial review order" and the rectification of official administration. The reform of Wuqi dealt a heavy blow to the old nobles of Chu, and the national strength was rapid and powerful. 38 1 years ago, Chu sent troops to attack Wei to save Zhao, and defeated Wei Jun, which shocked the vassal states.
However, in the year of victory in the war against Wei, the king of Chu died of illness. The old nobles of Chu took the opportunity to make an insurrection and besieged Wuqi, who hid beside the body of the king of Chu. The nobles shot Wuqi with random arrows and at the same time shot the dead body of the king. After Chu mourned the accession to the throne of Su Wang, the son of the king of Chu, the crime of adding soldiers to the king's corpse spread to the three clans, which effectively dealt a blow to the arrogance of the old forces and kept the reform achievements. In the next hundred years, Chu galloped across the Central Plains and became the most powerful country among the "Seven Heroes" in the Warring States Period. Sima Qian's Biography of Historical Records of Su Qin says that Chu is "a land of 5,000 miles, with millions of armour, thousands of chariots and horses, and ten years of millet", ranking first among countries in terms of territory, population, wealth and armour.
After the mid-Warring States period, when Xiong Huai and Heng, Chu declined rapidly. Corrupt and fatuous, he rejected the active proposition that Qu Yuan, a left disciple, and Qi State jointly fought against Qin, but instead listened to Zhang Yi's lies and broke up with Qi State. As a result, not only did he not get the 600 Li of Qin land promised by Zhang Yi, but he was insulted. After the Chu army attacked the State of Qin, it was defeated in Danyang, and 80,000 soldiers died. Chu Huaiwang was tricked into the state of Qin and died there. In the first 278 years, General Qin took Ying capital in vain, and Xiang Wang moved the capital to Chen (Huaiyang, Henan). After the Qin Dynasty, Chu moved its capital to Shouchun (Shouxian County, Anhui Province). In the first 223 years, Wang Jian, a general of the State of Qin, led 600,000 troops into Shouchun, and the State of Chu perished.
Since the founding of Chu, it has lasted more than 400 years, and nearly 50 small countries have been unified successively. From a distant small country, it has developed into a powerful country in the south. In its heyday, its territory reached the Yellow River in the north, the seashore in the east, Yunnan in the west and Hunan in the south, including the important areas of the Yangtze River, Hanshui River and Huaihe River Basin, leaving a glorious page in the ancient history of China.