Changzhou: Mystery and Flow

The town has an old “wood and bamboo” well; its inner wall is lined by a woven bamboo mesh and wooden piers can be seen at its bottom. Archeological studies reveal it to be more than 2,500 years old, and the well is still fed with clear water.

History gives different versions as to the builder of Yancheng. One says that the town was built by the king of Yan in the late Shang and early Zhou dynasties around the 11th century BC. His kingdom was originally located to the east of present-day Qufu in Shandong Province. But this king revolted against the central sovereign, and fled southward to Changzhou after he was defeated by the monarch of the Zhou Dynasty. He dug moats and moved earth to build his city, which he still called Yancheng, or the City of Yan. Because the new town was heavily guarded by moats, as if being inundated, the official city name was gradually replaced by a homophone, “Yan” or “inundate.”

Another version has it that the city was built by Jizha, prince of the State of Wu 2,500 years ago, while still others believe that it was an early capital or military stronghold of the State of Wu. No conclusion on the true builder of the city has been reached.

The unique layout of the city invites continued curiosity. How were the three moats and two outer towns circling a central town formed? It is not credible that they were formed naturally, and no less incredible if artificially, given the technology of the time. How could ancients dig out, spade by spade, three artificial rivers of such a scale that they have been running for thousands of years?

Another riddle relates to three mounds. There were once hundreds of earthen mounds within one kilometer of Yancheng’s perimeter, but now only some 70 are left. Three of them are bigger than the others. Folklore says that the King of Yan had a beautiful daughter named Bai-ling, and the king and the queen adored her very much. Twenty kilometers northeast of Yan was a city state named Liu. The greedy and insidious Prince of Liu deceived the King of Yan into granting the hand of his cherished daughter. When the king was out one day, his son-in-law Prince Liu obtained the key to the rear garden in the name of Princess Bailing and stole the White Jade Turtle that the king had kept as a guardian of his state. Without investigating the story, the enraged king executed the princess. The truth was soon revealed, and the remorseful father arranged a spectacular funeral for his daughter as atonement, and buried with her countless treasures in the hope of ensuring her comfort in the afterlife. To thwart tomb theft, the king built two other mounds to distract and confuse theives. For centuries local people believed that the kind-hearted princess could extend blessings, and often come to pray at all three mounds.

Political and Cultural Heights

Changzhou reached its political heyday during the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589), after Xiao Zheng and his family settled here. In 311, during the Yongjia Reign of the late Western Jin Dynasty (265-316), ethnic groups from the north invaded the northern part of China, forcing locals to flee south. Xiao Zheng was among the refugees. He led his clan on an exodus from their hometown in Donghai Prefecture’s Lanling County (around present-day Cangshan and Zaozhuang of Shandong Province). They crossed the Yangtze River and came into Jinling’s Wujin County, which is present-day Changzhou. The rich river system and fertile land kept them around, and the settlers identified themselves as the Southern Lanling Xiaos. The Xiao clan flourished rapidly on this rich farmland and soon ascended politically during a period of strenuous jostling amongst local regimes. The Xiaos founded two successive southern dynasties that dominated southern China – the Qi (479-502) and Liang (502-557) which together lasted 78 years and saw 15 emperors come and go.