Chuzhou is a very historical and cultural city.
Back to the ancient, people have started to work on this piece of land. Many culture remains from the New Stone Tool Age have been found. During the eras of Xia, Shang and Zhou, there spread some tribal kingdoms, such as Zhongli and Jiao Kingdoms. The “Huai Yi” tribe, after many years of development and fighting, had gradually melted into the Hua Xia civilization.
During the Spring and Autumn era, Chuzhou area had been involved in the battles among different empires. Chuzhou area was then occupied by Wu and Chu Kingdoms and was so called “Wu Tou Chu Wei”. Afterwards the union of all the empires into Qing was followed by the fighting between Chu and Han. There were many tragic stories of Qing and Chu.
During the three-kingdom ear, Chu Zhou had become the fighting field of Wei and Wu. During the “Eight Emperors' fights” in West Jin Dynasty, the LangYa King SiMa, Rui had once hidden in the MaTou Peak in the southwest of Chu Zhou. Hence the hill was named Mountain Langya.
After three hundred years of wars, in Sui and Tang Dynasties, the city of Chuzhou was established. In 589, the city was named Chuzhou. The officers Li Youqing, Wei Yingwu and Li Deyu had all governed Chuzhou and left a series of antiques and poems over.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, OuYang Xiu was degraded and expelled to Chuzhou and created the well-renowned essay “Zui Weng Ting Ji” and “Yong Le Ting Ji”, where he described the natural beauty and local culture in Chuzhou. Later Su, Shi rewrote the two essays as mottos. Afterwards, Chuzhou and Mountain Langya became very famous all over the country. During the Southern Song Period, Changhe and Huaihe Rivers and their neighborhoods became the front field to fight the Jin Army. The famous general and poet Xin Qiji was governing Chuzhou. He had been stabilizing people's living, reducing tax, developing economy and training army. Chuzhou had hence taken on a new look. Song culture and economic development had imposed important influence on the history of Chuzhou.
Later in Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born in a very poor peasants' family in FengyYang County, had organized an army fighting against Yuan Empire. After more than ten years of battles, he overrode Yuan Dynasty and established Ming Dynasty. Fengyang Fu had once built up the palace for Zhu Yuanzhang and Chuzhou as the capital. Now the remains of Fengyang royal city and royal tomb had been listed as one of the key protected historical places in China.
In the Qing Dynasty, there appeared many famous intellectuals in Chuzhou, for example, the scholar Dai, Lan Fen, female scholar Wang Zhenyi and Wu family etc. They all have very important roles in the history of Chuzhou culture. Wu Jingzi, despite of his diseases, had completed the masterpiece “Ru Lin Wai Shi”. The novel had been spread all over the world during the following three hundred years.
Later in the Qing Dynasty, during the late period of Tai Ping Kingdom, the north of the Yangtze River and the east of Anhui had become an important fighting field involved in the battles between the Tai Ping Army and Qing Army. In 1858, there broke the famous “Wu Yi battle”.
During the anti-emporium wars, Chuzhou had experience the Xin Hai Revolution and “May 4 Incident”. The east of Anhui was one of the basic camps of the anti-Japanese wars. The famous officials Liu Shaoqi, Chen Yi, Zhang Yunyi and Luo Binghui had all been working here. In the January of 1949, the whole east part of Anhui was liberated. The new Chu County Administration Committee was set up. There are nine subsidiary counties.
After the establishment of the new country, Chuzhou had experience many years of development. In 1979, the Xiao Gang Village in Fengyang initiated the “Da Bao Gan” and pioneered the revolution of the new China.
In the December of 1992, the government recognized Chuzhou as a province-level city. Nowadays, Chuzhou is developing very fast in its course of industrialization and urbanization. A new industrial and touristic city is now set up on the north bank of the Yangtze River.
