Ye or Yecheng () was an ancient Chinese city located in what is now Linzhang County,

Handan Handan is a prefecture-level city located in the southwest of Hebei province, China. The southernmost prefecture-level city of the province, it borders Xingtai on the north, and the provinces of Shanxi on the west, Henan on the south and Shando ...

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

province and neighbouring

Anyang Anyang ( zh, s=安阳, t=安陽; ) is a prefecture-level city in Henan, China. Geographical coordinates are 35° 41'~ 36° 21' north latitude and 113° 38'~ 114° 59' east longitude. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the eas ...

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

province. Ye was first built in the

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period () was a period in History of China, Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou (256 BCE), characterized by the gradual erosion of royal power as local lords nominally subject t ...

by Duke Huan of Qi, and by the time of the

Warring States period The Warring States period in history of China, Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and ...

the city belonged to the state of Wei. During the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

, Ye was the seat of Wei Commandery and an important regional center. Following the collapse of Han rule, Ye served as the military headquarters of the warlords

Yuan Shao Yuan Shao (, ; died 28 June 202), courtesy name Benchu (), was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty. He occupied the northern territories of China during the civil wars that occurred tow ...

and

Cao Cao Cao Cao (; ; ; 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde, was a Chinese statesman, warlord, and poet who rose to power during the end of the Han dynasty (), ultimately taking effective control of the Han central government. He laid the foundation f ...

. Under the latter's rule, Ye transformed into a political and economic center of northeastern China during the Three Kingdoms period, and during the

Sixteen Kingdoms The Sixteen Kingdoms (), less commonly the Sixteen States, was a chaotic period in Chinese history from AD 304 to 439 when northern China fragmented into a series of short-lived dynastic states. The majority of these states were founded b ...

and

Northern dynasties The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as ...

, the city served as the capital for the

Later Zhao Zhao, briefly known officially as Wei (衛) in 350 AD, known in historiography as the Later Zhao (; 319–351) or Shi Zhao (石趙), was a dynasty of China ruled by the Shi family of Jie ethnicity during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. Among the ...

, Ran Wei, Former Yan,

Eastern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Eastern Wei (), was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that followed the disintegration of the Northern Wei dynasty. One of the Northern and Southern dynasties#Northern dynasties, Nor ...

and Northern Qi dynasties.

History

In 204, Cao Cao wrestled the city of Ye from Yuan Shao's son Yuan Shang. As the preceding battle of Ye had destroyed the inner city, Cao Cao set about rebuilding the city in the mold of an imperial capital. He initiated a number of works in Ye, digging canals in and around the city to improve irrigation and drainage, building the Hall of Civil Splendour (文昌殿) which was to become the centerpiece of Ye's palace complex, and erecting the Bronze Bird Terrace in 210 that became much-celebrated in

Chinese poetry Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, and a part of the Chinese literature. While this last term comprises Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Yue Chinese, and other historical and vernac ...

. Cao Cao's impact on Ye was so extensive that he alone, more than any ruler of the city before and after, is associated with the city of Ye in the Chinese cultural memory. Ironically, after Cao Cao's grandson

Cao Huan Cao Huan () (246 – 302/303), courtesy name Jingming, was the fifth and last emperor of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. On 4 February 266, he abdicated the throne in favour of regent Sima Yan (later Emperor Wu of the J ...

was forced to abdicate to Sima Yan in February 266, Cao Huan was relocated to Ye where he lived for the rest of his life. During the

period, Ye was an important city for the Jie-led

dynasty that unified most of northern China, later becoming its capital in 335 during the reign of Shi Hu. After Shi Hu's death, his adopted grandson, Ran Min, forcibly seized the city, where he founded the short-lived Ran Wei state in 350. The

Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were an ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. The Xianbei were likely not of a single ethnicity, but rather a multiling ...

-led Former Yan dynasty soon conquered Ran Wei in 352, and Ye became their capital from 357 up till its fall in 370. In the 490s,

Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei ((北)魏孝文帝) (October 13, 467 – April 26, 499), personal name Tuoba Hong (拓拔宏), later Yuan Hong (元宏), was an emperor of China's Northern Wei dynasty, reigning from September 20, 471 to April 26, ...

moved his capital from Pingcheng (平城, in modern Datong, Shanxi) to Luoyang. This move was not welcomed by all. Antagonism grew between Xiaowen and his sinicized court and those who preferred to cling to the traditional Tuoba tribal ways, and it only increased with further changes calling for the abandonment of Tuoba dress and names. Eventually, under the leadership of Gao Huan (a Chinese general who was Tuoba in his ways and "outlook"), the sinicization-dissenting 'northern garrisons' mutinied and captured Luoyang in 534. "At three days' notice its inhabitants were required to accompany Gao Huan to his own base, the city of Ye...where he declared himself the first Eastern Wei emperor." "During most of the sixth century Ho-pei (Hebei) was the heart of an independent state with its capital at Yeh e..." It remained the capital of the

dynasty and the Northern Qi dynasty until 580. At that time Ye was being used by a resistance force led by Yuchi Jiong, which was defeated by Yang Jian, founder of the

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

, and the city was razed to the ground. Some scholars, such as Ku Chi-kuang reported that the Hebei region continued to harbour separatist sympathies into the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

. It was the region from which An Lushan launched his rebellion during the reign of the Tang Emperor Xuanzong. The city was razed after the rebellion's failure. Extensive excavations of the city have been made in recent years, allowing Chinese historians to make detailed plans of the site. In 2012, archaeologists unearthed nearly 3,000

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

statues during a dig outside Ye. Most of the statues are made of white marble and limestone, and could date back to the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties (534–577 CE). A community of merchant Sogdians resided in Northern Qi era Ye.

References

* *{{Cite book, last=Tsao, first=Joanne, url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1141200097, title=The city of Ye in the Chinese literary landscape, isbn=978-90-04-42014-4, publisher = Brill , location=Leiden Boston , year = 2020 , oclc=1141200097 580 disestablishments Ancient Chinese capitals Archaeological sites in China Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Hebei Populated places disestablished in the 6th century Razed cities Qi (state) Cao Wei Later Zhao