Ji and the Qin and Han Dynasties

If you've been following the past two blog posts, you've read about the beginnings of today's city of Beijing through its foundation as Ji state and its rise as the capital of Yan after Ji was crushed and annexed by Yan state. If you've been following these posts, let's continue on with the history of Ji during the Qin and Han Dynasties!

After the state of Yan was defeated by Qin in 222 BCE, it ceased to exist. As a result Ji lost its status as a capital city. However, it remained the most powerful city in northeast China. It was a city of strategic importance and the regional hub for transportation.

A statue of Qin Shi Huang. (Prosopee/Wikimedia Commons)

During Qin rule, Emperor Qin Huangdi (Qin Shi Huang) implemented a commandery system (郡, or 'jun') on the former Zhou vassal states as part of the military occupation. This divided each county in a state into a special adminstrative zone that made the county system of ancient China essentially irrelevant. The 36 commanderies he established (in addition to 12 others in the Qin territories that were created during the Warring States period) each carried their own weight militarily. Ji became the capital of the Guangyang commandery.

After the fall of Qin, the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 AD) took possession of Ji, officially renamed the city Fanyang and made it the administrative capital of Youzhou prefecture, which encompassed much of the area around today's Beijing, Hebei province, and Tianjin. Also during this time Ji was transferred to Yuyang commandery and made its capital.

During Han rule, the old states were transformed into "regional kingdoms" by Han Emperor Liu Bang and given a little more autonomy than they had under the Qin. Also, a system of prefectures was also established. Ji was made the capital of Youzhou prefecture.

Ji was involved in a number of conflicts with the surrounding regional powers both inside and outside of China. When the Yellow Turban Revolt broke out in AD 184, Ji came under assault from the revolting peasants who were led by Zhang Jue, leader of the secretive Taoist societies which organized and instigated the revolt.

According to the classical Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in AD 189, Yuyang Commandery was the scene of a dramatic rebellion staged by the rebels Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun. The two launched a rebellion against Liu Yu (governor of Youzhou) and the Ten Eunuchs, took control of Yuyang, and organized an army. After Zhang Chun started becoming tyrannical toward his own soldiers, he was murdered by one of his own officers. The rebel army surrendered to Han forces afterwards. Zhang Ju, who at that time was isolated and desperate, commmitted suicide.

After the collapse of the Han Dynasty in the year 220, the ancient city of Ji would undergo keep changing hands and undergo many changes for centuries to come.......

The City of Ji and Yan State

Yesterday I talked a little about the state of Ji and how the city of Beijing has its roots in that ancient city-state. Today we'll take a look at Ji during its time as capital of the state which conquered and annexed Ji, Yan.

Soon after its conquest by Yan, Ji became the capital of Yan State and was known alternately as Ji or Yanjing (燕京, meaning "Yan capital") - a name for Beijing which has persisted well into the modern age. It remained northern China's regional powerhouse for many more centuries to come. As the authority of the King of Zhou waned, Yan emerged as one of China's most powerful states. Throughout the period of the Warring States (475-221 BCE), Yan remained at war with Zhao and Qi states, as well as the nomadic peoples to the north. It was invaded a number of times by all three.

For the next several hundred years, Ji remained the most powerful city in the region. It was naturally one of Yan's fortified cities. In fact, the walls that surrounded Ji and other regions of Yan state predate the Great Wall by some 1,500 years! The Lotus Pond and its location along the major north-south trade route where traders from the central states and the steppes of northern Asia stopped made Ji a strategically valuable city. Throughout most of Yan's existence during this time, Ji was not only the main capital (Yan had one other city - Xiadu - which occasionally served as Yan's capital city) of Yan, but was also a military base and the economic and political center of the state.

In 227 BC, most of the neighboring states had fallen to and were absorbed by the powerful Qin state (778-07 BCE). They started massing troops on Yan's borders to prepare for its eventual conquest. Prince Dan of Yan sent the assassin Jing Ke to assassinate the Qin king Qin Shi Huang, aka the "tiger of Qin ". His attempt failed and the king, who personally killed Jing Ke, was enraged. He ordered his army to crush Yan and make it part of Qin. A year later, Ji fell to the Qin armies after the defeat of the vast majority of the Yan army on the banks of the Yishui River. Three years later, the rest of Yan state fell to the Qin and King Xi was captured.

In recent years, remnants of the old Yan capital have been found some 30 miles (48 km) southwest of what is now downtown Beijing. At one site which was discovered near the Liuli River in Fangshan district in recent decades, remnants of the city walls, moats, Yan palaces, and various artifacts were unearthed by archaeologists. This was the location of the ancient capital of Yanjing, which had expanded well beyond the borders of the old city-state of Ji.

For more about Yanjing, check out the following link:
http://www.archaeology.org/beijing/songnian.html (A very interesting interview with one of China's "veteran" archaeologists about ancient Beijing.)
http://www.bjchinese.bjedu.cn/englishHome.do?method=article&&articleId=221 (Details about the Yanjing archaeological dig and a little history of the ancient Yan capital.)

(Map copyright: Philg88/Wikimedia Commons)

Ji State and the Beginnings of Beijing

Over the next several days I'm going to write a series of blog posts about one of the great capital cities of our time: Beijing. In these posts we'll explore the history of Beijing and how it went from being a tiny city-state to the massive city it gradually became over the past millinea.

Beijing is a city that is both the capital of China and a major technological and industrial hub. But many people in the West are not aware that many centuries ago on the site of one of modern-day Beijing's residential districts, a whole different city-state once existed! In its time this city-state - and the capital city it remained for many centuries after the fall of the state - was also regarded as a major metropolitan area and a military power to be reckoned with. It was also the city where Beijing itself has its roots.

Along Liulichang Street in what is now the Xicheng district of Beijing once stood the city of Ji. Ji City was the capital of Ji State (11th century-7th century BCE), which was essentially the city itself. Ji was a walled city which was inhabited by people said to be descendants of the Yellow Emperor. It was one of eight states which were the vassal states that founded the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE).

For some three hundred years during the Spring and Autumn period of the Zhou Dynasty (771-476 BCE), Ji remained a powerhouse in the region. It was certainly a tiny city-state compared to the neighboring states, but it had a powerful army. The city-state depended on Lotus Pond, which is now located in Beijing, for its water supply. This gave the city a huge natural advantage that lasted well beyond the demise of Ji.

During the 7th century BCE (approx.), the more powerful neighboring state of Yan (11th century-222 BCE) defeated Ji in a war and absorbed it into Yan. Soon afterwards, it became the capital of Yan State and was known alternately as Yanjing or Ji. 

Ji State might have fallen, but Ji City itself remained as strong as ever.

If you want to read more about the state of Ji and the discovery by Chinese archaeologists of the ancient sites of Ji City and the Yan capital it became, be sure to have a look at the following article:
http://www.archaeology.org/beijing/songnian.html