Chao () was a minor state of the Chinese Bronze Age, whose people belonged to the Shu tribes (群舒, literally "Many Shu") that lived south of the

Huai River The Huai River (), Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as the Hwai, is a major river in China. It is located about midway between the Yellow River and Yangtze, the two longest rivers and largest drainage basins ...

. Chao's exact location is unknown; traditionally, it was assumed that the state had existed in the vicinity of modern-day Chaohu,

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

, but more recent sinologists like He Hao and Barry Blakeley consider it more likely that Chao was located further north, near the Huai River.

History

According to the ''

Book of Documents The ''Book of Documents'' (''Shūjīng'', earlier ''Shu King'') or ''Classic of History'', also known as the ''Shangshu'' (“Venerated Documents”), is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetorica ...

'', Chao was a satellite of the

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

until the latter was overthrown by the

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...

, whereupon Chao voluntarily submitted to

King Wu of Zhou King Wu of Zhou () was the first king of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. The chronology of his reign is disputed but is generally thought to have begun around 1046 BC and ended three years later in 1043 BC. King Wu's ancestral name was ...

around 1040 BCE. A few decades later during the reign of King Kang of Zhou, however, Chao rebelled and attacked Zhou territory. As result, the Zhou king sent the Six Armies of the West under Tung Kung to defeat Chao, though in the end it was the regional lord of E who defeated and captured Chao's rebellious ruler. Despite this, Chao remained restive, and when a massive war broke out between Xu and the Zhou dynasty in the 940s BCE, the people of Chao sided with Xu against their overlords. This rebellion, too, proved unsuccessful for Chao, and was crushed when the Duke of Mao captured Chao's capital. After the Zhou dynasty had largely collapsed in the 8th century BCE, Chao became fully independent, but soon came to be threatened by the expansionist state of

Chu Chu or CHU may refer to: Chinese history * Chu (state) (c. 1030 BC–223 BC), a state during the Zhou dynasty * Western Chu (206 BC–202 BC), a state founded and ruled by Xiang Yu * Chu Kingdom (Han dynasty) (201 BC–70 AD), a kingdom of the Ha ...

. Around 600 BCE, Chao and the other Shu states were forced to officially submit to Chu in order to avoid destruction. Nevertheless, the Shu states continued to maintain their desire for independence, which was supported and stirred by Chu's rival, Wu. In response, Chu began to fully conquer them one by one, beginning with Chao, whose fall is dated between 583-575 BCE by He Hao and sometime earlier by Blakeley. Even after the end of its independence, Chao's former capital continued to be a bone of contention between Chu and Wu:

King Zhufan of Wu King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

launched an attack on the city in 548 BCE, and was consequently killed during the fighting by a

sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Zhou dynasty topics Ancient Chinese states Zhou dynasty States and territories disestablished in the 6th century BC 6th-century BC disestablishments 1st-millennium BC disestablishments in China History of Anhui