Yangtze River History – West Zhou Dynasty

Yangtze River History – Early Period of West Zhou Dynasty

In West Zhou Dynasty, Yangtze River Three Gorges area is the range where Ba people lived. As Ba people got great success in the battle of Shang Dynasty, so the emperor conferred them as one of the kingdoms. According to some ancient books, we can see that Ba kingdom has become a real kingdom in West Zhou Dynasty. At that time, the capital of Ba Kingdom was in today's Chongqing area.

Yangtze River History – Mid Period of West Zhou Dynasty

In the mid period of West Zhou Dynasty, the condition of Ba Kingdom began to change. The Chu Kingdom, who came from the western central plain, first lived in Hubei province in early West Zhou Dynasty and its territory was small at that time. Later, as continuous development, they have own large scale territory. It was recorded that the territory of Chu Kingdom includes the areas between midstream of the Yangtze River to Han River, Hubei province, stretching over thousand miles. At this time, Chu kingdom wanted to enlarge its territory again. And the Ba Kingdom was a good choice. So, Chu Kingdom began to go on a punitive expedition to the Ba Kingdom along the Yangtze River.

Yangtze River History – Late Period of West Zhou Dynasty

To the late of West Zhou Dynasty, the power of Chu Kingdom became stronger. After hundred years battle between Chu Kingdom and Ba Kingdom in Xiling Gorge area, at last, the whole Xiling Gorge area and midstream and downstream of Qing River were occupied by Chu Kingdom. Except the Ba people move to the district at west of Mt. Wu, the other small kingdoms in Three Gorges area surrendered to Chu Kingdom.

In Ancient, Yangtze River Three Gorges area was important salt production area. According to the research of historical geographer, the Sichuan Basin (including Three Gorges Area) was a sea where sedimentate about 20 million years salt quality

It was recorded in many ancient books that the salt production in Yangtze River history. For example, the Linjun Tribe which lived in midstream area of Qingjiang River in Xia and Shang Dynasties ever fight for the salt production area in Qingjiang River area, and controlled the several salt production base station. There are some relics of "salt well" which were used by the working people in Three Gorges areas. In recent years, there also found some potteries which were used to make salt. From this, we can see that the working people in Three Gorges area have known and used salt for a long time in history.

These events which happened in Yangtze River area are important parts of Yangtze River history, which adds for fun to Yangtze Cruise tourist.