Chu: A Visual History

Chu was a state of the Zhou period based on the middle Yangtze, first recorded around 1030 BC as a minor fief and by the seventh century BC a kingdom whose rulers called themselves king in defiance of Zhou. In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods it absorbed dozens of smaller states, at its height around 300 BC ruling a third of China. Its distinct culture produced lacquerware, silk, shamanistic religion and the poetry of Qu Yuan. Qin took its capital Ying in 278 BC and destroyed it in 223 BC, but the Qin's destroyers, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, were both Chu men.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Chu (state). The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Chu territory

Timeline of the Chu (state)

1. 1,030 BC
   Chu enfeoffed under the ZhouTraditional date.
2. 704 BC
   Chu ruler takes the title king
3. 597 BC
   Battle of BiKing Zhuang defeats Jin.
4. 381 BC
   Wu Qi killedReforms reversed.
5. 334 BC
   Yue conquered
6. 299 BC
   King Huai captured by Qin
7. 278 BC
   Ying fallsQu Yuan drowns himself.
8. 223 BC
   Chu conquered

The barbarian south

The Zhou court regarded Chu as semi-barbarian; its rulers took the royal title around 704 BC and King Zhuang (613-591) famously asked the weight of the Zhou tripods, the symbols of the mandate. Chu conquered the states of the Han and Huai valleys, defeated Jin at Bi in 597 and became one of the hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period.

Warring States giant

Chu destroyed Yue in 334 BC and Lu in 256, extending its rule to the sea. It was the largest and most populous of the seven Warring States, but its aristocratic clans resisted Legalist reform; the minister Wu Qi's reforms were undone when the nobles killed him in 381. King Huai was tricked into a meeting with Qin in 299 and died in captivity. The tombs of Chu nobles have yielded lacquer, silk, bronze bells and the earliest known Chinese star chart.

Fall and revenge

The Qin general Bai Qi took Ying in 278 BC; the poet Qu Yuan drowned himself in despair. Chu retreated east to Chen and Shouchun. In 224 BC Qin sent Wang Jian with 600,000 men; Chu's last king was captured in 223. Yet 'though Chu has but three clans, it is Chu that will destroy Qin' proved true: Chen Sheng's rebellion, Xiang Yu the hegemon-king of Western Chu, and Liu Bang, a Chu peasant, brought Qin down and founded the Han.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Zhou dynasty (Western Zhou) (1,046 BC to 256 BC)
• Eastern Zhou (771 BC to 256 BC)
• Qin dynasty (221 BC to 206 BC)
• Western Han dynasty (202 BC to 9)
• Shang dynasty (1,600 BC to 1,046 BC)
• Xiongnu Empire (209 BC to 93)

Wars of the same era and region

• Warring States period and Qin's wars of unification (475 BC to 221 BC)

8 surprising things about the Chu (state)

1. The Dragon Boat Festival commemorates Qu Yuan's suicide in the Miluo river; people throw rice dumplings to feed the fish so they will not eat his body.
2. The Songs of Chu (Chuci) with Qu Yuan's Li Sao are the second oldest anthology of Chinese poetry.
3. The tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, a Chu vassal, contained a set of 65 bronze bells still perfectly in tune after 2,400 years.
4. Chu tombs preserved silk manuscripts, lacquered coffins and the world's oldest surviving painting on silk.
5. The Chu king who 'asked about the tripods' gave Chinese the phrase for coveting the throne.
6. Xiang Yu, the Chu general who destroyed Qin, was called the Hegemon-King of Western Chu.
7. Both Confucius and Laozi are said to have had dealings with Chu; Laozi may have been from Chu.
8. The Chu practised shamanistic rites and their art is full of dragons, phoenixes and antlered spirit guardians.

Sources

• Chu (ancient state, China) Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Chu (state) Wikipedia
• Chu (state) World History Encyclopedia
• Constance Cook and John Major (eds), Defining Chu: Image and Reality in Ancient China (1999) University of Hawaii Press

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