Wu dynasty
The (Eastern) Wu Dynasty ( Chinese 東吳 / 东吴 , Pinyin Dōng Wú ), also known as Sun-Wu ( 孫吳 / 孙吴 , Sūn Wú ) was founded in 221 by Sun Quan in the southeast of the Empire of China . It originated at the time of the Three Kingdoms , when the Wu Dynasty, the Wei Dynasty and the Shu Dynasty vied for supremacy in China after the fall of the Han Dynasty .
Due to its independence from the central government in the north, southern China, which was previously seen as backward, developed into one of the most important economic, cultural and political centers in the country. Within the next five hundred years (during the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms ) the south even outperformed the north. The achievements from this time establish the cultural and political division in north and south China , which is still noticeable in modern China today. The term South China here is exclusive to Guangdong and other provinces in the extreme south, as these only came to China during the Tang Dynasty and remained economically and culturally far behind other parts of the country until the 19th century.
There is evidence that envoys from the eastern Wu dynasty made contact with the local population on the island of "Yizhou". Whether it was Taiwan or the Ryukyu Islands is controversial. The Wu dynasty, though the longest-lived of the empires, was finally conquered in 280 by the first Jin emperor, Sima Yan .
Emergence
The Wu headquarters in the south of the Yangtze River , in the vicinity of today's Nanjing , was in the hands of the general and warlord Sun Ce from 196 , who also conquered the Lujiang and Danyang commanderships and joined the Han imperial court under the Chancellor Cao Cao was looking. After his death (200) his brother Sun Quan became warlord of the region and conquered many neighboring territories. In the year 208 he was able to defeat the warlord Huang Zu and in the same year, together with the general Liu Bei , fend off an invasion of Cao Cao in the battle of Chibi (December). Subsequently, Sun Quan tried to gain a foothold on the north bank of the Yangtze, while his general Zhou Yu and Liu Bei conquered the western Jing Province. Liu Bei was already forging plans for an empire of his own and broke his alliance with Sun Quan after Zhou Yu's death in 210. He then conquered the land of Ba Shu west of the Jing Province held by his general Guan Yu .
In 219, Sun Quan's generals Lü Meng and Lu Xun were able to defeat Guan Yu and conquer Jing Province. Cao Cao died the next year, and his son Cao Pi succeeded him as Chancellor and Duke of Wei. In the same year he deposed Emperor Xian and declared himself Emperor of the Wei Dynasty. In order to get Sun Quan's allegiance, he made him Duke of Wu in 221 . In 221, in opposition to Cao Pi, Liu Bei assumed the title of Emperor of Han and prepared an attack on Sun Quan. However , he lost the Battle of Xiaoting in 222, and Sun Quan subsequently declared himself king of Wu , regardless of the Wei dynasty. He fended off the attacks of Cao Pi and (from 226) his successor Cao Rui and declared himself emperor of the Wu dynasty in 229.
Imperial Administration
Sun Quan had set up a government as early as 221 after assuming the title of duke. It was organized in a similar way to the Han administration, and was headed by a chancellor. This post was held first by a certain Sun Shao, after his death (225) the Minister Gu Yong . Only the names and titles of the lower ranks of court officials have survived, while nothing is known about their working methods. Sun Quan appears to have installed only six of the nine ministries that existed under the Han Dynasty. Apparently, not all offices were filled at all times, and they were rather awards for politically relevant people.
The administration of the empire was largely the responsibility of the governors and generals, of whom Lu Xun held the highest command. He was commissioned by Sun Quan in September 229 with the supervision of Jing Province and the region around Yuzhang, the western half of the empire. Wu's troops accumulated in Jing Province: In addition to Lu Xun, Generals Bu Zhi, Zhu Ran and Pan Zhang were stationed here with their armies. Zhuge Jin camped in Jiangling. The east of the empire was controlled by Sun Quan's forces in Jianye and those in Danyang, Kuaiji, Wu and Ruxu Fortress. The north bank of the Yangtze was guarded by Zhu Huan, who had taken Zhou Tai's command. He died in 228 and was replaced by the veteran Lü Fan. Sun Quan later oversaw the north bank of the Yangtze River directly from the capital, Jianye. All in all, his state was not a bureaucratic construct like the Han Empire, but an established warlord domination. The rival neighboring states of Shu Han and Wei were structured similarly, and the three empires had to prove themselves time and again in war.
Social and Economic Development
Sun Quan's Wu dynasty ruled a feudal state. The Sun family is historically considered to be little more than the leadership of a group of noble families with common interests. At least Sun Jian managed to get capable officers to his side by sheer authority, not family ties. Sun Ce was not looking for nobles for his campaigns, but for fearless, skillful warriors. Even in Sun Quan's time, the representatives of the North and South were not selected according to their ancestry or family affiliation, but according to their abilities. While Sun Ce and Sun Quan had steadily expanded their rule in southern China with their expansion since the 190s, expansion had stagnated since the 220s. There were enough countries to be conquered in the south, but Wu's resources were only sufficient to maintain independence and defend against rival states. However, Sun Quan's system of government became more rigid over time, mainly because the post of a deceased was passed on to his son (as was the case with Sun Jian and his successors). His followers consisted of both natives from the area south of the Yangtze estuary (Danyang, Kuaiji, Wu) and emigrants from the north. In the early years of his rule the most important positions in the empire were occupied by representatives of both strata, towards the end of his rule those officials and generals whose families had been settled in the south long before the end of the Han dynasty became increasingly dominant. The last representatives of the north disappeared in the 250s: the minister and regent Zhuge Ke , son of Zhuge Jin, was murdered in 253, the Supreme Minister Teng Yin was killed in 258. The four families Gu, Lu, Yu and Wei were particularly successful in the provinces. The power of the state was impaired by the increasing regionalization of the economy in the interests of local noble families.
The Han Dynasty currency fell victim to severe inflation during the 2nd century , and a half-hearted reform by Chancellor Dong Zhuo finished it off. In the whole empire people had therefore switched to bartering. Cao Pi had introduced grain and rice as the official currency in the north in 221, and bartering played a decisive role in the north of the empire even after the reintroduction of copper money, especially in rural areas. In 236, Sun Quan tried to introduce a coin currency with a state monopoly on copper and the prohibition of private coinage by noble families, but was unsuccessful and gave up the project in 246. The government could not benefit from domestic trade and lost an important source of income.
The advantage of this economic situation was that the countries south of the Yangtze no longer had to pay taxes to the government in the central plane and thus developed their own prosperity that had never been seen before in the south. The wealth of the south eventually surpassed that of the north in the decades and centuries that followed. Nonetheless, the underdeveloped south of the empire was opened up by its military commanders in chief, who were primarily concerned with their personal profit, through ruthless colonization at the expense of the indigenous people of the Han Chinese population.
Sources
The events of the Three Kingdoms Period were recorded in the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou . In the early 5th century, Pei Songzhi added other sources to this work . He took into account official and private chronicles, as well as family histories and individual biographies. In these chronicles, which Pei Songzhi always cites with precise references, facts and fiction are mixed up. In addition, the great popularity of the historical novel The Story of the Three Kingdoms had a major impact on the historical evaluation of the Three Kingdoms period.
For the history of the Wu dynasty, Pei Songzhi drew on numerous sources. The government of Wu State, like its competitors Wei and Shu, had created an official chronicle, the Wu Shu . In addition, three private chronicles play an important role: Yu Pus Jiangbiao zhuan , Zhang Bos Wu lu and Hu Zhongs Wu li . The gaps in the tradition were filled by collective biographies such as Wenshi zhuan , Gaoshi zhuan , Yishi zhuan and Lienü zhuan .
The emperors of the Wu Dynasty
| Posthumous name ( Shìhào諡 號) |
Birth name ( Běnmíng本名) |
Period of government ( Zàiwèiqī在位 期) |
Periods of government ( Niánhào年號) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Convention: "Wu" + posthumous name | |||
| Da Di (大帝 Dà Dì) | Sun Quan (孫權 Sūn Quán) | 222 - 252 |
Huangwu (黃武Huángwǔ) 222 - 229 Huanglong (黃龍 Huánglóng) 229 - 231 |
| Kuaiji Wang (會稽王 Kuaìjī Wáng) | Sun Liang (孫 亮 Sūn Liàng) | 252 - 258 |
Jianxing (建興Jianxing) 252 - 253 |
| Jing Di (景帝 Jǐng Dì) | Sun Xiu (孫 休 Sūn Xiū) | 258 - 264 | Yong'an (永安Yǒng'ān) 258 - 264 |
| Wucheng Hou (烏 程 侯 Wūchéng Hóu) or Guiming Hou (歸命 侯; Gūimìng Hóu) |
Sun Hao (孫皓 Sūn Hào) | 264 - 280 |
Yuanxing (元 興 Yuánxīng) 264 - 265 Ganlu (甘露Ganlu) 265 - 266 |
Family table
literature
- Rafe de Crespigny : Generals of the South. The foundation and early history of the Three Kingdoms state of Wu (= Australian National University. Faculty of Asian Studies Monographs. New Series 16). Australian National University, Canberra 1990, ISBN 0-7315-0901-3 ( anu.edu.au ( Memento of April 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive )).