CHENGDU HISTORY |
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More than four thousand years ago, the prehistorical Bronze Age culture of
Sanxingdui (4800-3100 BP) established itself in this region. Zizhu city (Zizhú Chéng) was one of the early settlements. Some believe that this
culture is related to the BA culture of West Asia.
In the early 4th century BC, the king of the ancient Shu moved his capital
to the city's current location. He was inspired by the ancient story of King
Tai of Zhou, Grandfather of King Wu of Zhou, moving his capital. History
recorded King Tai of Zhou's move as "it took a year to become a town; it
took 2 years to become a capital". Following this, king of Shu named the new
city as "Cheng Du", which means "become a capital"(In Chinese, word "cheng"
means "become", "du" means "capital").
After the conquer of Shu by Qin Dynasty in 316 BC, a new city was founded by
the Qin general Zhang Yi, which marked the beginning of contemporary Chengdu.
It was renamed Yì Zhou during Han Dynasty.
Liu Bei founded the kingdom of Shuhàn (220-263) in this city.
During Tang Dynasty, both the "Poet-God" Li Bó and the "Poet-Sage" Dù Fu
spent some part of their lives in Chengdu. Dù Fu constructed the celebrated
"Caotáng" (or grass-hut) in the second year of his four year stay
(759-762). But today's Caotáng, a rather sumptuous house in the traditional
style, was initially constructed in 1078 in memory of Dù Fu.
Chengdu was the birthplace of the first widely used paper money in the world
(Northern Song Dynasty, around A.D. 960).
Two more rebel leaders, one around the end of Song Dynasty, the other near
the end of Ming Dynasty, set up the capitals of their short-lived kingdoms
here, called Dàshu and Dàxi, respectively. |
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