The terrain of the Three Gorges is difficult to access, so in
history war strategists defeated strong armies with few soldiers.
And because of the convenient water carriage, large scale military
material provision became possible. Based on these factors, the
Three Gorges became a strategic point from the Spring and Autumn
Period (770 BC-476 BC) to the War of Resistance against Japanese
Aggression, and many other wars happened there. This was to destroy
parts of local culture, as well as bring a new cultural
divergence.
Wars in Baidi Town
Located at the entrance of the Qutang Gorge on the northern bank
of the Yangtze River, and only a 20-minute ride from Fengjie, Baidi
Town was the birthplace of the ancient Ba and Shu states over 2,000
years ago.
According to a local folk tale, when construction of the town
began, a stream of white steam rose up from a well, like a white
dragon flying up to heaven. The town was therefore named Baidi,
meaning Heavenly White Dragon.
During the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), Emperor Liu Bei of
the Shu Kingdom was disastrously defeated by the Wu Kingdom and
retreated to Baidi. After a series of bloody defense battles, they
stationed there. He fell fatally ill and just before his death he
confided his state affairs to his son Liu Chan, the future emperor
of the Shu, and to his prime minister, Zhuge Liang. This incident
later became known as "confiding to the orphan at Baidi".
Baidi Town is now a group of temple-like courtyard buildings,
surrounded by beautiful scenery, which makes it hard for people to
connect the place with bloody wars. But the history was real. Look
down at Baidi Town, from the rapid river and toughened gorges,
people can understand why this became a strategic point and why Liu
Bei was stationed there.
To modern military theory the terrain is no longer as important
as before. But in the age of cold steel, the Three Gorges served as
a defensible barrier which enemies had to take.
Only several kilometers from Zhongxian County is the "Yajiao"
site -- one of the most important archeological sites in the Three
Gorges area. Exploration work has already finished, and many pits
were left after the excavations. This site was identified as a tomb
of the Chu Kingdom in the late period of the Warring States Period
(475 BC-221 BC). Weapons were buried with the dead in almost all
the tombs. So it can be concluded that they were soldiers' tombs
from the Chu. According to historical record, the Chu, Ba, Shu and
Qin Kingdoms engaged in warfare in the Warring States Period but at
last were to merge and unify. The findings at the Yajiao site give
proof to this theory.
The brave Ba people and the wars
In historic records, the tales of the Three Gorges, the Ba
people, the Ba Kingdom and the Ba culture are important. But nobody
has found an actual connection with the Ba people or its kingdom.
Archeologist can just about outline the history of the Ba from the
written record, oral tales and archeology evidence.
The late Warring States Period, the Shu, Ba, Chu, Qin and other
little kingdoms began to struggle and fight for more than 300
years. From 700 BC, the Chu defeated the Ba; the Qin, Ba and Chu
joined hands and defeated the Yong, a smaller kingdom; and then the
Chu defeated the Ba again; the weak Ba Kingdom cooperated with the
Qin and fought with the Chu, but was defeated for the third time.
From then on the Ba became weaker and weaker and the Chu occupied
the Three Gorges area. Until 316 BC, the Qin ended the Ba and Shu
and directly struggled with the Chu in the Three Gorges.
The aim of the wars among the Ba, Chu and Shu was mostly over
salt. But when the Qin and Chu confronted each other in the Three
Gorges area, the Qin had already put their goal seizing the
downriver area of the Yangtze River and the unification of China
became an historical trend.
In this 300 year history, the Ba's fate was not good. They were
situated between two strong kingdoms -- the Shu from its west and
the Chu from the east. The Ba continuously moved around in the
Three Gorges area and the capital also moved from east to west --
from Quren to Linjiang, to Pingdu, to Zhiyi and to Jiangzhou at
last. Archeologists have two explanations of the changes -- some
hold that because of the continuous prosperity of the Ba, its soil
expanded to the west; and others hold that because the Ba was
defeated by the Chu several times they had to move westward.
No matter which is true, the Ba people wrote their history
through their valiancy. According to Huayang Guozhi (The History of
Huayang), by the late Shang Dynasty (c.1600 BC-c.1100BC), the Ba
Kingdom had become an important political force in the Three Gorges
area. It took part in the war of "Wuwang attacking Zhou -- the last
ruler of the Shang Dynasty", and played an important role in their
bravery in the history of the Zhou Dynasty that took place during
the Shang Dynasty. According to Yanghua, a researcher of the
Yichang Museum of Hubei Province, the Ba people were pioneers in
the army of Wuwang and when they took part in battles they danced a
fierce war dance accompanied by songs to frighten enemies that
excited morale.
When referring to the Ba, the story of Manzi is necessary to
tell. According to Huayang Guozhi, (The History of Huayang), -- In
the later part of the Warring States Period, internal rebellions
occurred throughout China. Manzi was a general of the Ba Kingdom,
borrowing troops from the Chu kingdom, and mortgaging them with
three Ba cities. After putting down the rebellions, and protecting
the mortgaged cities, Man Zi drew his sword and cut his own throat,
sacrificing his life in exchange for the Chu king's assistance. The
King of Chu sighed: "Why isn't the general from my kingdom?"
There are many tombs and weapons found in the Three Gorges areas
which show proof of the bravery of the Ba people. In a
5000-square-meter Yujiaba site, warriors were buried, densely
packed, hinting at the cruelty of the battles. The unearthed bronze
swords of the Ba were only 20 to 40 centimeters long, much shorter
than the swords of the Chu or the Qin. The weapons tell of the
ferocity of their owners.
On the Ba people's swords there are many illustrations -- mostly
tigers or hearts in a hand. The tiger was the totem of the Ba
people, but the heart in a hand might have meant to send a heart to
their lovers or hold their enemies' heart in celebration. There's
no great certainty, and no matter how romantic or fierce, the
history has past and there's no evidence.
The brave Ba people can't ward off the advance of history. In
223 BC, the Qin got stronger having destroyed the Ba and Shu, and
prepared for breaking the Three Gorges and uniting the whole of
China. Wang Jian, a general of the Qin, led 600,000 military and
broke the Three Gorges and defeated the Chu, and Zhao and Yan in
the second year, and the Qi in the third year. China was then
united.
Wars destroyed yet merged cultures
From the angle of history, war is greatly destructive but in
China it did at lest promote the merging of nationalities and
cultures and form a united "national" Chinese culture.
In the sites of the Three Gorges, there are a lot of tombs in
the Chu kingdom style with wares of the Chu -- ding (an ancient
cooking vessel), fu (kettle), basin and painted potteries. In the
Yichang museum of Hubei
Province, there is bronze ware showing the achievements of the
Chu Kingdom's culture.
Yang Hua, a researcher with the museum, says the tombs were all
for Chu military officers to fight with the Ba people. They
represented the life style of Chu's noblemen and made painted
pottery to copy the bronze ware, which were mainly buried in the
tombs with the dead. Now the Ba people and Ba kingdom has already
disappeared, and clues have been got from other historical
kingdoms' records, tales and costumes of local people there.
All the cultures, of the Chu, Ba, Shu and Qin, gathered and
mixed together to form Chinese culture.
The tale of the Zhang Fei Temple
Large scale wars that happened in the Three Gorges occurred in
the Three Kingdoms period. The Zhang Fei Temple was a relic left
from that time.
Here's a tale of the temple.
Zhang Fei was noted for his loyalty to friends and for his
bravery. He met Liu Bei and Guan Yu and became sworn brothers at
the Peach Garden and vowed to combine their strengths and efforts
to restore peace and order to the country.
In 221, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei's sworn brother, died in the battle
with the Wu State. Zhang Fei, who was called the Tiger General,
swore revenge and prepared to attack the state of Wu with his army.
He ordered Commanders Zhang Da and Fan Jiang to lead the attack and
avenge his brother, under pain of death. The two treacherous
officers cut off Zhang Fei's head, intending to surrender to the Wu
State. However, they heard of a peace settlement between the states
of Wu and Shu, and threw Zhang Fei's head into the river.
Legend has it that Zhang Fei appeared in a fisherman's dream and
made a request to rescue his head and bury it in the Shu. The
fisherman obeyed, and accidentally found a jar of gold when he
rescued the head. Then he buried the head on Flying Phoenix Hill
and built a temple using the gold he had found to commemorate the
bold general.
The story is moving, but after Zhang Fei's death, Shu got
weaker. In AD 223, Liu Bei was defeated by Wu and dead in Baidi
town. Liu Chan, Liu Bei's son, occupied the Three Gorges for 40
years and had no ambitions to invade the Wu. Because of the special
terrain, the Wu also couldn't break it. Until 263, the Wei Kingdom
broke the Shu, then defeated the Wu, and unified China. -- What
surprised us was the route Wei took was almost the same as the Qin,
when it defeated the Ba and Shu 400 years before.
Nowadays, when the national water project conflicted with the
Zhangfei Temple, people decided to relocate the temple. The
original Zhang Fei Temple would be below the water line after the
Three Gorges project, so it had to be relocated.
The new location is more than 30 kilometers upriver from the old
one. It was prudently selected -- the mountain, water and other
surroundings are very similar to the old one and near to the town.
The relocation steps were also very complicated -- all the wood
ware, brick, tiles, poles and stone ware were numbered, moved to
the new location and restored.
(China.org.cn by Chen Lin and Daragh Moller, December 15,
2003)