State of Ji The
city-state of Ji was inhabited by the tribe of the
Yellow Emperor in the
Shang dynasty and became one of the founding
vassal states of the
Zhou Kingdom. According to
Sima Qian's
Records of the Grand Historian,
King Wu of Zhou, in the 11th year of his term as elder, deposed
King Zhou of Shang and conferred titles to nobles within his domain, including the rulers of the city states Ji and
Yan. According to the
Book of Rites,
King Wu of Zhou was so eager to establish his legitimacy after
his victory over the Shang at Muye that before dismounting from his chariot, he named the descendants of the Yellow Emperor to the State of Ji. The 11th year of the reign of King Wu of Zhou approximates to 1046BC. The Beijing Municipal Government designates 1045BC as the first year of the city's history.
State of Yan At some time in the late
Western Zhou dynasty or the early
Eastern Zhou dynasty, the neighboring State of Yan conquered Ji and made the city its capital. The Yan state eventually became one of the seven powers of the
Warring States period (476–221BC). The rulers of the Yan built several capitals and moved their seat of power in response to threats from the nomadic tribes from the north and neighboring kingdoms from the south. Ji was referred to historians as
Shangdu. Other Yan capitals include: (1) the
Liulihe Site in southern
Fangshan District of
Beijing, which served as the Yan capital prior to Yan's conquest of Ji, (2) Linyi (临易) in present-day
Rongcheng and
Xiong Counties of
Hebei Province to which the seat of Yan moved in 690sBC, (3) the ancient city of Doudian in
Liangxiang of Fangshan District, known as Zhongdu (中都), or the "Middle Capital" and (4)
Xiadu (下都) or the "Lower Capital", a larger settlement south of Linyi, in modern-day
Yi County, Hebei Province, that was built in the 300sBC. By the time the
State of Qin invaded Yan in 226BC, the capital of Yan was back in Ji. The city of Ji is believed to be located in the southwestern part of present-day urban Beijing, just south of
Guang'anmen in
Xicheng and
Fengtai Districts. Historical accounts mention a "Hill of Ji" northwest of the city, which would correspond to the large mound at the
White Cloud Abbey, outside Xibianmen about 4 km north of Guang'anmen. South and west of Guang'anmen, archaeologists have unearthed remnants of concentrated human habitation dating back to at least the 400sBC. The fact that the other four capitals were buried beneath farmland and the Guang'anmen area is a densely populated section of urban Beijing accounts for the greater difficulty of searching for Ji's ruins. In 2008, city authorities in Beijing announced that archaeological efforts would accompany urban renewal constructions projects in southern Beijing to search for more artifacts of Ji in the pre-imperial era.
Qin dynasty The
Qin general
Wang Jian conquered Ji in 226BC and the
First Emperor completed his unification of China in 221BC. The country was organized into 48
commanderies. Ji was the capital of the
Guangyang Commandery, whose name it sometimes used. To prevent the Warring States from regaining their power, the First Emperor ordered the walls of the old capitals be destroyed and Ji's walls were torn down in 215BC but later rebuilt. The Qin removed defensive barriers dividing the Warring States, including the southern wall of the Yan, which separated the Beijing Plain from the Central Plain, and built a national roadway network. Ji served as the junction for the roads connecting the Central Plain with Mongolia and Manchuria. The First Emperor visited Ji in 215BC and, to protect the frontier from the
Xiongnu, had the Qin Great Wall built north of Ji and fortified
Juyong Pass. The Qin conscripted men from throughout the country to be garrisoned at the forts north of Ji. In 209BC, a group of conscripts who were delayed in their march to the north by flooding in central China and faced the penalty of death, rose in
rebellion under the leadership of
Chen Sheng and
Wu Guang. The rebellion spread to Ji, where
Han Guang revived the Yan Kingdom. Han Guang sent his subordinate
Zang Tu to help rebel leader
Xiang Yu, who succeeded in capturing the Qin capital at Xianyang in 207BC. Xiang Yu then divided the country into
Eighteen Principalities, appointing Zang Tu as the lord of Ji and Han Guang as the lord of nearby Liaodong. Han Guang refused to cede Ji to Zang Tu, who seized the city and killed Han Guang. Zang Tu then sided with
Liu Bang, the lord of Sichuan, in the
war against Xiang Yu. After Liu Bang prevailed and founded the
Han dynasty, Zang Tu was appointed the
Prince of Yan, and governed the
Principality of Yan from Ji.
Han and Xin dynasties When the Han court began to purge former supporters of Xiang Yu, Zang Tu became fearful and rebelled. Liu Bang as the
Emperor Gaozu personally led a campaign against Zang Tu in Ji. Zang Tu was defeated and killed in 206BC. Emperor Gaozu appointed his childhood friend
Lu Wan as the Prince of Yan. In 195BC, he became distrustful of Lu Wan and invaded Ji. Lu Wan fled to the
Xiongnu in the steppes. To tighten control of the region, the Emperor Gaozu sent his son Liu Jian to Ji as the Prince of Yan. After Liu Jian died in 181BC, Gaozu's widow, the
Empress Lü Zhi controlled the Han court, and made her nephew Lü Tong as the Prince of Yan. When Empress Lü Zhi's regency ended in 179BC, Liu Ze became the Prince of Yan and his family ruled Ji for three generations. In 117BC,
Emperor Wu of Han appointed his son Liu Dan as the Prince of Yan. Liu Dan held the title for 38 years. In 106BC, Emperor Wu of Han organized the
Western Han dynasty into 13 province-sized inspectorates, each overseen by a
cishi () or inspector. The city of Ji was the seat of the
Youzhou Inspectorate, which oversaw roughly the same territory as the
State of Yan during the
Warring States period. Youzhou was composed of the
Shanggu,
Zhuo,
Guangyang,
Bohai,
Yuyang,
Right Beiping,
Liaoxi,
Liaodong,
Xuantu and
Lelang Commanderies. After Emperor Wu died, Liu Dan conspired with the Empress Gaichang and
Sang Hongyang to subvert the throne. When the plot was foiled, Liu Dan was forced to commit suicide in 80BC and the Principality of Yan was converted to
Guangyang Commandery. In 73BC, Liu Jian's son, Liu Jian was appointed the Prince of Guangyang and the Guangyang Commandery became the Guangyang Principality. Liu Jian's tomb is now
Dabaotai Western Han Dynasty Mausoleum in
Fengtai District of Beijing. His grandson Liu Jia was ousted from the principality after
Wang Mang's seized the Han throne. During the
Wang Mang interregnum, Guangyang Principality became the
Guangyou Principality. During the
Eastern Han dynasty, Youzhou was as one of 12 prefectures and contained a dozen subordinate commanderies, including the Guangyang Commandery. In AD24,
Liu Xiu moved Youzhou's prefectural seat from Ji County (in modern-day Tianjin) to the city of Ji. In AD96, the city of Ji served as the seat of both the Guangyang Commandery and Youzhou. Near the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, the commander of Fanyang was
Liu Yan, better known as the governor of Yizhou Province a few years later. After Liu Yan's reposting, Liu Yu became the commander of Yizhou. His subordinate,
Gongsun Zan, eventually attacked Youzhou and killed Liu Yu, becoming the commander of Fanyang.
Wei, Jin and Northern dynasties During the
Three Kingdoms, the
Kingdom of Wei controlled ten of the Han dynasty's prefectures including Youzhou and its capital Ji. The Wei Kingdom reorganized and decentralized the governance of commanderies under Youzhou. Guangyang Commandery became the State of Yan (燕国), which had four counties: Ji County, Changping, Jundu and Guangyang County, and was governed from the city of Ji.
Fanyang Commandery was governed from Zhuo County.
Yuyang Commandery was governed from Yuyuang (in modern-day
Huairou District of Beijing), Shanggu Commandery was governed from Juyong (in modern-day
Yanqing County of Beijing). The Wei court instituted offices in Youzhou to manage relations with the
Wuhuan and
Xianbei. Ji was demoted to
Jixian, a county seat, in the
Western Jin dynasty, which made neighboring
Zhuo County, in present-day
Hebei Province, the prefectural capital of Youzhou. In the early 4th century, the Western Jin dynasty
was overthrown by
steppe peoples who had settled in northern China and established in a series of
mostly short-lived kingdoms. During the so-called
Sixteen Kingdoms period, the city of Ji was successively controlled by the
Di-led
Former Qin, the
Jie-led
Later Zhao, the
Xianbei-led
Former Yan and
Later Yan. In 319 AD,
Shi Le, the founder of the
Later Zhao Kingdom, captured Ji from
Duan Pidi, a Xianbei chieftain nominally loyal to the Jin dynasty. In 349,
Ran Min, an
ethnic Han general seized control of this kingdom, which he renamed
Ran Wei in 350. But before he could capture Ji, the city was taken by the Murong Xianbei, led by Prince
Murong Jun who swept down from
Manchuria. Murong Jun then defeated Ran Min and extinguished the Ran Wei. In 352, he declared himself emperor and made the city the capital of the
Former Yan Kingdom. Five years later, the Former Yan's capital was moved further south to
Ye in southern Hebei. Ji became the prefectural capital of Youzhou. This designation continued through the remainder of the Northern dynasties,
Eastern Wei,
Northern Qi and
Northern Zhou.
Sui and Tang dynasties During the
Sui dynasty, Youzhou became
Zhuo Commandery and Ji remained the capital of the commandery as
Zhuojun.
Emperor Yang of Sui mobilized more than million men and women to build the
Grand Canal to Zhuojun, to carry men and materiale for his
campaigns against Goguryeo. Outside of Ji, the Linshuo Palace was built in 609 to accommodate the emperor during his trips and to and from Korea. The brutal reign of Emperor Yang brought rebellions against the Sui dynasty. One of these, led by
Dou Jiande rose from Zhuojun and besieged Ji in 620 but was defeated by
Luo Yi, a Sui general who joined
Li Yuan's insurrection against the Sui. Li Yuan founded the
Tang dynasty. From the 7th to mid-10th centuries during the
Tang and
Later Jin dynasties, Fanyang was an important military garrison and a commercial hub. To the north of the city lay the military region of Yingzhou () with Daizhou () to the west. The Tang dynasty reduced the size of a prefecture, as a unit of administration administrative division, from a province to a commandery and renamed Zhuojun back to Youzhou, which was one of over 300 Tang Prefectures. With the creation of a separate prefecture called Ji (, ) in present-day
Tianjin in 730, the name Ji was transplanted from Beijing to Tianjin, where a
Ji County () still exists today. In Beijing, the city of Ji gradually became known as Youzhou. The seat of the government of Youzhou remained in place but took on slightly different names. In 616, the government was called Youzhou Zongguanfu (); in 622, Youzhou Dazongguanfu (); in 624, Youzhou Dadudufu (); and in 626, Youzhou Dudufu (). In 645, Tang
Emperor Taizong launched
another war against Goguryeo using Ji as the base of forward operating base. He built the
Fayuan Temple in the western suburbs to commemorate the war dead. From 710, the head of the government in Youzhou became a , a regional military commander. In 742, Youzhou was renamed Fanyang Commandery. In 759, during the
An–Shi Rebellion,
Shi Siming declared himself emperor of the
Great Yan dynasty and made Fanyang
Yanjing. After the rebellion was suppressed, the seat of government became Youzhou Lulong Dudufu ().
Liao, Jin, and Yuan dynasties Under the
Liao dynasty (9071125), the city was renamed
Nanjing and was the southern capital of Liao. It was also called Yanjing. In the following
Jin dynasty (1115–1234), the city was called
Zhongdu, the central capital of the Jin. After the
Mongols took the city, it was renamed Yanjing. After the Mongols razed it, a new city called
Khanbaliq or Dadu was built adjacent to the former Jin capital which was the capital of the
Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). ==Modern significance==