Shu (kingdom)

Shu (Chinese: 蜀; Pinyin: Shǔ; former romanization: Shuh), also known as Ancient Shu (Chinese: 古蜀; pinyin: Gǔ Shǔ) in historiography, was an ancient kingdom in what is now Sichuan Province. It was based on the Chengdu Plain, in the western Sichuan basin with some extension northeast to the upper Han River valley. To the east was the Ba tribal confederation. Further east down the Han and Yangtze rivers was the State of Chu. To the north over the Qinling Mountains was the State of Qin. To the west and south were tribal peoples of little military power.

This independent Shu state was conquered by the state of Qin in 316 BCE. Recent archaeological discoveries at Sanxingdui and Jinsha thought to be sites of Shu culture indicate the presence of a unique civilization in this region before the Qin conquest.

In subsequent periods of Chinese history the Sichuan area continued to be referred to as Shu after this ancient state, and later states founded in the same region were also called Shu.

Before 316 BCE, the Sichuan Basin was isolated from what was then a Bronze Age civilization that was centered in the Yellow River basin to the northeast. The discovery of Sanxingdui in 1987 was a major surprise since it indicated a major symbolic culture in Neolithic China that was previously unknown. Circa 2050–1250 BCE the site of Sanxingdui 40 km north of Chengdu appears to have been the center of a fairly extensive kingdom. Objects found in two treasure pits are in a style distinct from objects found from further north. This culture is suggested by many archaeologists to be that of the Shu kingdom.

There are very few mentions of Shu in early Chinese historical records until the 4th century BCE. Although there are possible references to a "Shu" in Shang dynasty oracle bones inscriptions that indicate contact between Shu and Shang, it is not clear if the Shu mentioned refer to the kingdom in Sichuan or other different polities elsewhere. Shu was first mentioned in Shujing as one of the allies of King Wu of Zhou who helped defeat the Shang in 1046 BCE at the Battle of Muye. However, shortly after Zhou's conquest, it was mentioned in Yizhoushu that a subordinate of King Wu led an expedition against Shu. After the battle of Muye, northern influences on Shu seem to have increased and then decreased while the Shu remained culturally distinct; archaeology suggests contacts with Shu in the late Shang and early Zhou period, but little evidence of influence from later Zhou. The expulsion of the Zhou from the Wei River valley in 771 BCE probably increased Shu's isolation.

Written accounts of Shu are largely a mixture of mythological stories and historical legends found in local annals and miscellaneous notes, which include the Han dynasty compilation Chronicle of the Kings of Shu [zh] and the Jin dynasty Chronicles of Huayang. There are a few names of semi-legendary kings and emperors, such as Cancong (meaning "silkworm-bush"), Boguan [zh] ("cypress-irrigator"), Yufu [zh] ("cormorant"), and Duyu ("cuckoo"). According to Chronicles of Huayang, Cancong was the first of the legendary kings and had protruding eyes, while Duyu taught the people agriculture and transformed into a cuckoo after his death.

In 666 BCE a man from Chu called Bieling [vi] ("turtle spirit") founded the Kaiming dynasty which lasted twelve generations until the Qin conquest. Legend has it that Bieling had died in Chu and his body floated upriver to Shu, whereupon he came back to life. While at Shu, he was successful in managing a flood and Duyu then abdicated in his favor. A later account states that the Kaiming kings occupied the far south of Shu before travelling up the Min River and taking over from Duyu.

As the state of Chu expanded westward up the Han and Yangtze valleys it pushed the Ba peoples west toward Shu. In the 5th and 4th centuries BCE in Sichuan archaeologists hold that this interaction helped create Ba–Shu culture. There was also some Chu influence on the Shu state. In 474 BCE emissaries from the Shu state presented gifts to the Qin state which was the first recorded contact between these two states. Later Shu troops crossed the Qinling Mountains and approached the Qin capital of Yong, and in 387 Shu and Qin troops clashed near Hanzhong on the upper Han river.