Wu Yuan Burns Gucheng, 506 BCE

Background

In the Spring and Autumn period this area belonged to Wu and was called Laizhu Yi, its stronghold being Gucheng, which the gazetteer, quoting the Tukao, says was built by Wu. Chu and Wu had long contended for the land between the Huai and the Yangtze, and Wu campaigned against Chu with Wu Yuan as its general.

Time and place

The gazetteer dates the entry to the fourteenth year of King Jing of Zhou, a yiwei year:

敬王十四年乙未，吴以伍员伐楚，烧固城，其地复属吴。《郡纪》书「景王二十三年」者误，今从旧志。

Translated: In the fourteenth year of King Jing, a yiwei year, Wu sent Wu Yuan against Chu and burned Gucheng, and the land came back under Wu. The Junji gives the twenty-third year of King Jing, which is wrong; the old gazetteer is followed here.

By the sexagenary year given in the source, this is 506 BCE. The stronghold burned was Gucheng, the town of Laizhu Yi.

What happened

Wu campaigned against Chu with Wu Yuan, and in the course of the fighting burned Gucheng.

Consequences

Gucheng was burned and the land came back under Wu. Afterwards Yue destroyed Wu in the third year of King Yuan of Zhou and took the land, and Chu in turn destroyed Yue in the thirty-seventh year of King Xian; the allegiance of the Gucheng area changed with them.

Dating basis

This entry predates the establishment of Lishui County in 591 CE, the eleventh year of the Kaihuang era. At that time Lishui did not yet exist as a county: what is recorded here concerns the Lishui area and its predecessor Liyang County. The BCE year is a later reconstruction, not a figure given in the source.

Uncertainties

The year has a rival reading. The gazetteer notes that the Junji gives the twenty-third year of King Jing and that this is wrong, and follows the old gazetteer with the fourteenth year; the conversion to 506 BCE rests on that choice. The burning of Gucheng occupies a single sentence in the gazetteer, with no detail of the fighting, and this entry adds none. The confidence level is set to medium.