The history of Shangqiu ("Hills of Shang") is closely related to the very beginning of Chinese history. The tradition dates back to the
Three August Ones and Five Emperors periods (c. 25th century BC), when the legendary Emperors
Shennong,
Zhuanxu and
Ku were said to be living in the present Shangqiu area. The son of
Emperor Ku, Qi (), who helped
Yu the Great to control floods, was
enfeoffed the area of Shang, who also became the ancestor of the
Predynastic Shang. Shangqiu was also reportedly one of the capitals defended by the Xia emperor
Xiang, troubled by rebellions in his reign. The thirteenth generation grandson of
Xie (),
Tang overthrew the ruling Xia dynasty and founded the
Shang dynasty, with its first capital at Nanbo (, currently south of Shangqiu). Around the 11th century BC, the Shang dynasty was replaced by the Zhou dynasty. The royal descendants of the Shang dynasty were
enfeoffed the area of Shangqiu, which later became the
state of Song. The Song capital, known as
Suiyang, was located at present-day Nanguan (南关) in the south of Shangqiu's urban area. The Song was a major power during the
Spring and Autumn era, but declined during the
Warring States era and eventually fell to the
Qi and
Wei in 286 BC. In the
Han dynasty, Suiyang served as the capital of the
Liang Kingdom.
King Xiao of Liang (r. 169 BC – 144 BC) stayed loyal to the
Emperor Jing of Han in the
Rebellion of the Seven States, during which a failed siege of Suiyang caused the collapse of the main rebel army. The king was also a famous patron of arts and literature who hosted some of the best known Han poets, such as
Zhuang Ji and
Sima Xiangru, in the Liang capital. From the
Cao Wei dynasty to the early
Sui dynasty, Suiyang was the seat of Liang Commandery (梁郡). It became the seat of
Song Prefecture (Songzhou) in 596 AD. During the
An Lushan rebellion in the
Tang dynasty, a ten-month-long
siege of Suiyang in 757 turned the tide of the war to the Tang's favor. Before he ascended to the imperial throne as the Emperor Taizu of Song,
Zhao Kuangyin was the
jiedushi (military governor) of Guidejun (歸德軍), a region centered in Songzhou. Thus, he chose "Song" as the name of the new dynasty he founded in 960. The city was the southern capital of the
Northern Song dynasty under the name
Nanjing. Shangqiu was the first in a series of temporary capitals that the Song dynasty government moved to during their retreat from the north, when most of northern China had been conquered by the Jurchens in the
Jin–Song wars. The Song court had retreated south to the city from their original capital in
Kaifeng, after it was captured by the
Jurchens in the
Jingkang Incident of 1127. It was known at the time as
Kweiteh, , or () and had both a
Catholic diocese and an
Anglican mission, the later of which ran St Paul's Hospital. It changed hands frequently during the fighting among the Chinese warlords in 1927. Gui'de Airbase is now known as
Shangqiu Airport. ==Geography and climate==