Chu (state)
Chu (Chinese: 楚, Hanyu Pinyin: Chǔ, Old Chinese: *s-r̥aʔ), or Ch'u in Wade–Giles romanization, was a Zhou dynasty vassal state. Their first ruler was King Wu of Chu in the early 8th century BCE. Chu was located in the south of the Zhou heartland and lasted during the Spring and Autumn period. At the end of the Warring States period it was destroyed by the Qin in 223 BCE during the Qin's wars of unification.
Chu | |||||||
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| c. 1030 BCE – 223 BCE | |||||||
Chu (楚) c. 350 BCE | |||||||
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| Government | Monarchy | ||||||
| Historical era | Zhou dynasty | ||||||
• Founded by Xiong Yi | c. 1030 BCE | ||||||
• Xiong Tong proclaimed king | 706 or 703 BCE | ||||||
• Conquered by Qin | 223 BCE | ||||||
| Currency | Ancient Chinese coinage | ||||||
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| Chu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"Chu" in seal script (top) and regular (bottom) Chinese characters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 楚 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Also known as Jing (荊) and Jingchu (荊楚), Chu included most of the present-day provinces of Hubei and Hunan, along with parts of Chongqing, Guizhou, Henan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. For more than 400 years, the Chu capital Danyang was located at the junction of the Dan and Xi Rivers near present-day Xichuan County, Henan, but later moved to Ying. The house of Chu originally bore the ancestral temple surname Nai (嬭 OC: /*rneːlʔ/) which was later written as Mi (芈 OC: /*meʔ/). They also bore the lineage name Yan (酓 OC: /*qlamʔ/, /*qʰɯːm/) which would later be written Xiong (熊 OC: /*ɢʷlɯm/).