Southern Chu

Southern Chu

Southern Chu

(907-951), one of the ten southern states in the period of Five Dynasties and ten states, was the only regime established with Hunan as the center in history

Ma Chu

, also known as

Southern Chu

With Tanzhou (now Changsha) as the capital. Since Ma Yin was granted the title of king of Chu in 907, there were 44 years in southern Chu. If Ma Yin's independent rule of Hunan in 896, it would be 56 years.

The founder of the state of Chu was Ma Yin, a native of Yanling in Xuzhou (now Yanling in Henan Province). In the third year of qianning (896), Ma Yin went to Changsha and stayed in Wu'an. After that, the Tang Dynasty appointed him as the governor of Tanzhou and the officer of Hunan Military government. In the fourth year of qianning (897), Tang Zhaozong appointed Ma Yin as the governor of Wu'an army. He crusaded one by one, eliminated the separatist forces in Hunan and unified Hunan. In the first year of Kaiping (907), Zhu Wen granted Ma Yin the title of king of Chu. In the second year of Tiancheng (927), the state of Chu was established, with Tanzhou as its capital and renamed Changsha Prefecture. In politics, Ma Yin pacified the rebellion army and strengthened the vassal forces outside, which made the social economy develop rapidly. In the first year of Changxing (930), Ma Yin died, ordered his sons and brothers one after another, and Ma Xisheng immediately succeeded to the throne. He was extravagant and extravagant. After Ma Xifan's accession to the throne, he was in power for a long time. During this period, there was internal strife among his brothers, and the Machu regime had slowly declined. In the 12th year of Tianfu (947), Xifan died, and the Ma brothers fought one after another. In 951, Bian Hao, a general of the Southern Tang Dynasty, captured Changsha and killed the southern Chu.

In the heyday of Southern Chu, it had jurisdiction over 27 prefectures, namely 29 prefectures, prefectures and prefectures. Lingxian 106. There are five Festival towns, including Wu'an, Wuping and Jingjiang, which are the whole territory of Hunan and most of Guangxi, the eastern part of Guizhou and the northern part of Guangdong. At the beginning of the founding of the people's Republic of China, the southern Chu pursued the policy of "worshiping the son of heaven". Except for Ma Xier, who was a minister to the Southern Tang Dynasty, the rest recognized the Five Dynasties as the suzerain states.

The southern Chu regime created the third short-term prosperity of Hunan since Chu state in Warring States period and Changsha state in Han Dynasty. On the one hand, local resources are fully utilized to develop the social economy dominated by agriculture. On the other hand, he advocated education, inherited and developed Hunan Chu culture.

history

Chaos in the late Tang Dynasty

Before Ma Yin came to Hunan, Ma Chu's ruling area, which was dominated by Hunan, experienced the jurisdiction of Shannandao, Jiangnan Dao and Lingnan Dao in Tang Dynasty, Jiangnan Xidao, Yuzhong Dao and Lingnan Dao in the middle of Tang Dynasty (Xuanzong period), and the regional division was more obvious. Then after an Shi rebellion, the establishment of e Yue observation envoy, Hunan observation envoy and GUI Guan observation envoy, and the administrative division was more detailed An Jiedushi, Wu Zhen Jiedushi, Jingjiang Jiedushi. It can be seen that this area became more and more independent from the central control of the Tang Dynasty.

Before Ma Yin came to Hunan, there were several forces in Hunan, such as Deng Chuna, Liu Shizheng, Leiman and so on. In fact, they were independent political forces, and the rule of Tang Dynasty existed in name only. However, Deng Chuna was known as the leader of Hunan, but he only controlled Tan and Shao, and his own army was not many, so his strength was not enough; Leiman started as a barbarian and led the barbarian army to plunder everywhere, but he did not want to run a mature regime, but he also developed independently and occupied one side; Liu Shizheng was under the control of Rong and Chen in the south, and Wu'an Jiedushi in the north, so he was under the control of the army. Local bandit commanders in all parts of Hunan were in charge of their own counties, and their influence was weak. The barbarians in Hunan had a large area of activity, and most of them were self-defense and had little contact with the mainland, but sometimes "invaded the border of Chu", which had a very important impact on the later Machu regime.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Hunan fell apart and local forces gradually rose. However, the independent forces were not strong enough to control the whole Hunan area, and because of their weak strength, they were easily conquered by other strong military forces. Therefore, the political situation in Hunan at that time gave the caizhou Legion an opportunity to take advantage of.

Ma Yin enters Hunan

In the first year of Jingfu (892), after the death of caizhou general sun Ru, most of his soldiers surrendered to Yang xingmi. However, Liu Jianfeng and Ma Yin took over more than 1000 troops and went south to Jiangxi. Later, the scale reached about 100000. In the first year of qianning (894), Liu Jianfeng and Ma Yin led the army of caizhou into Hunan from zouling, and then began to conquer various forces in Hunan. In the third year of qianning (896), Liu Jianfeng was killed by his subordinates, and Zhang Tui and Ma Yin were the main ones. In August of the third year of qianning, Ma Yin sentenced Hunan Junfu affairs. In the first year of Guanghua (898), he entered Wu'an junjiedushi. Wu'an junjiedushi was the highest administrative organ in Hunan at that time, which was in charge of other military Jiedushi in Hunan. In the first year of Kaiping (907), Zhu wenjianliang took Ma Yin as the king of Chu. In the sixth volume of the spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms, it is recorded in the ancient family of King Wu and Mu that in September of the second year of Kaiping (908), "the king's land is wide, and the people's Li Shi Hunan sui'an is in peace.". From 894 to 908, Ma Yin was used to establish and stabilize the regime.

In the first year of qianning (894), Liu Jianfeng and Ma Yin killed Deng Chuna, claiming that after he left Wu'an, Jiang Li was the commander of Deng Chuna in Shaozhou, and then descended to Liu Jianfeng. After Deng's death, Jiang Li asked to be the governor of Shaozhou, and was not allowed to do so. Therefore, according to Shaozhou, Lian Feishan and Meishan fought against Kou Xiangtan and Ma Yin broke it. Yang, Tang, Cai, Chen and Lu were all local bandits. Their strength was limited. Ma Yin left Li Qiong, Qin Yanqiao, Zhang tuying, Li Tang and other caizhou troops to attack them. Within two years, Heng, Yong, Dao, Shi, Lian and other five states all joined Ma Yin's hands.

In the first year of Tianfu (901), Lei Man, an envoy of Wuzhen, died. Ziyanwei claimed that he was in charge of the affairs of Langzhou after he left. But he followed his father's style and often burned between Jingzhou and Hubei. About the first year of Kaiping (907), his younger brother Yangong was driven by him. In the first year of Kaiping, Lei Yangong attacked Wu Zhen as an envoy, but Yangong still attacked and plundered the Jing and Hu. Later Liang sent Ma Yin and Gao Jichang to join forces to attack. In 908, Qin Yanhuan conquered Langzhou and Yangong went to Huainan. After Mahalanobis got to the state of Delang, he changed Wu Zhen's army to Yongshun's army.

In the fourth year of Kaiping (910), song you, a man Miao in Chenzhou, and pan Jinsheng, a man Miao in Jingzhou, threatened to invade the border of Chu several times. Ma Yin sent LV Shi Zhou to attack him. In the first year of Qianhua (911), pan Jinsheng was killed in Wugang. In the second year of Qianhua period, the Manchu Miao in Chenzhou, the Manchu Miao in songye and the Manchu Miao in Xuzhou, the Changshi Yi, were all in command of Chu. Peng Gan, the governor of Jizhou, was a Miao Hao who lived in chishi cave. According to the legend of Zhong, he took his younger brother Peng Jian as the governor of Jizhou, and later replaced him by Peng Gan. After Zhong Chuan died, thousands of people returned to Ma Yin in July of the third year of Kaiping (909). According to the records in volume 11 of the annals of the nine kingdoms, Peng Gan wanted to enter Hunan. In December of the third year of Tianyou (906), he sent Aozhan and Lixu to Ma Yin to investigate the reality of Hunan. After Zhan and others came back, he thought that Hunan could not be mapped, and then he took charge of thousands of his family and tribe and attached them to Machu.

The founding of Southern Chu

In 907, Hou Liang granted Ma Yin the title of king of Chu, admitting his separatist rule over Hunan. In 927, following the imperial system, Ma Yin changed Tanzhou into Changsha Prefecture, which was the capital of the country. He built a palace in Changsha City and set up a hundred officials. He established an independent kingdom worthy of the name and became one of the ten feudal Separatist States in the Five Dynasties.

In 930, Ma Yin died and his second son Ma Xisheng succeeded to the throne. In 932, Ma Xisheng died and Ma Xifan, the fourth son of Ma Yin, succeeded to the throne. In 947, Ma Xifan died and Ma Xiguang succeeded to the throne. In 949, Ma Xiguang was defeated and killed. So Ma Xihe became the king of Chu. However, after only eight or nine months of being king of Chu, Ma Xihe was overthrown by his younger brother Ma Xichong in a coup. The battle for the throne from 949 to 951 was called the battle for the throne.

In November of 951, the Southern Tang Dynasty took advantage of the civil strife in Chu, and sent general Bian Hao to attack Changsha and destroy Chu at one stroke. Before the Southern Tang Dynasty had a firm foothold, Ma Yin's old general Liu Yan defeated the Southern Tang army and continued to occupy Hunan.

Politics

Central Government Office

In August of the second year of Tiancheng (927), "the king of Chu, Yin Shijian, established a palace and set up a hundred officials, all of them were like the emperor, or slightly changed their names: the academician of Hanlin was called the Bachelor of Wenyuan, the Privy Council was called the left and right confidential secretary, the group was called his highness, and the order was called Jiao. Yao Yanzhang was the prime minister on the left, Xu Dejiu was the prime minister on the right, Li Feng was the situ, Cui Ying was the Sikong, tuobaheng was the servant, Zhang Yanyao and Zhang Ying were the confidential officers. "According to the records in the" Ten States spring and Autumn Annals "volume 104" Ten States hundred officials table ", the central government set up public, left prime minister, right prime minister, bushe, Taibao, Shizhong, pingzhangshi and other positions, but most of them were preferential treatment, without actual power, unless they concurrently held other official positions. According to historical records, there are the Ministry of war and the Ministry of rites. In addition, "judge the confidential secretary" is a unique official position of Ma Chu, not really in charge of military affairs as "Privy Council". No other activities of Zhang Yanyao and Zhang Ying are recorded in historical materials.

governor of one or more provinces

In addition to Wu'an envoys in Tanzhou, where the Machu regime was located, there were Yongshun army envoys in Langzhou, Jingjiang army envoys in Guizhou and Ningyuan army envoys in Rongzhou. However, the army envoys of Ningyuan army were acquired by Liu in December of the first year of Qianhua (911). Since then, Machu has been holding this post.

Local officials

The local system of Machu followed the Tang Dynasty, which was a three-level system of Jiedushi, prefecture and county. The governor of the prefecture is the chief officer, and there are other officers, such as Biejia, Changshi and Sima. There are county magistrate in the county, including Cheng, Zhubo and Wei. In addition, there are jimifu Prefecture. There are many ethnic minorities in Machu, such as Xuzhou governor, Yezhou governor and Xizhou governor.

Economics

business

According to historical records, Ma Yin "has a wide range of land, which is to support the scholars and the people". Politically, he adopted the policy of serving the emperor and pacifying the scholars and the people. At the same time, he pursued the policy of rewarding agriculture and mulberry, developing tea, advocating textile and paying attention to commercial trade. Taking advantage of Hunan's geographical position as the center of the Southern political power, Machu vigorously developed commercial trade with the Central Plains and its surrounding areas, adopted tariff free measures, encouraged import and export trade, and recruited foreign investors

Chinese PinYin : Nan Chu