Chu Takes Lingping, 529 BCE

Background

The previous entry records that in the seventh year of King Jing of Zhou Chu destroyed Lai and Wu moved its settlement to the foot of Lingping Mountain under the name Lingping. Lingping being a Wu settlement, Chu and Wu went on contending for this ground.

Time and place

The gazetteer dates this entry to "the sixteenth year, a renshen year", continuing the reign of King Jing of Zhou:

十六年壬申，楚子弃疾遣苏乃为将，败吴军，取陵平，更名平陵。「乃」，野志作「逸」，《高淳志》作「代」，今从《金陵志》及《郡纪》。

Translated: In the sixteenth year, a renshen year, the viscount of Chu, Qiji, sent Su Nai as general; he defeated the Wu army, took Lingping and renamed it Pingling. For "Nai", the unofficial gazetteer has "Yi" and the Gaochun gazetteer has "Dai"; the Jinling gazetteer and the Junji are followed here.

By the sexagenary year given in the source, this is 529 BCE. The fighting took place at Lingping, the settlement to which Wu had moved, and the gazetteer notes that Lingping Mountain lies in present-day Liyang.

The old record quoted by the Yuan gazetteer

This engagement is not found in the Chunqiu, the Zuo Zhuan, the Shiji or other standard histories, and a search of this library found no record of it there. The Yuan gazetteer Zhida Jinling Xinzhi (juan 12A, "Monuments"), quoting an older record, the Sheng Gong Temple Record, preserves it:

固城，吳時瀨渚縣也。楚靈王與吳戰，吳軍不利，遂陷此城，吳乃移瀨渚於歷陽南十里，改為陵平縣。平王立，使佞蘇乃為將，戰敗吳軍，以吳陵平縣改平陵縣。王聽費無極……

Translated: Gucheng was the Laizhu county of Wu. King Ling of Chu fought Wu; the Wu army fared ill and the town fell, whereupon Wu moved Laizhu ten li south of Liyang and renamed it Lingping County. When King Ping came to the throne he sent the favourite Su Nai as general, who defeated the Wu army, and the Wu Lingping County was renamed Pingling County. The king listened to Fei Wuji ...

This account agrees with the gazetteer in the main points — Su Nai defeats Wu and Lingping becomes Pingling — with two differences: the gazetteer has Wu move its settlement "to the foot of Lingping Mountain", whereas this record has it moved "ten li south of Liyang", a different place; and the gazetteer names "the Chu prince Qiji" as the sender, whereas this record says "when King Ping came to the throne". The same gazetteer adds a note of its own that there were two places called Pingling, and that the Jingding and Xianchun gazetteers, in saying that Gucheng was also called Pingling, "failed to examine the matter" — that is, it does not accept that Gucheng was Pingling.

What happened

The viscount of Chu, Qiji, sent Su Nai as general; he defeated the Wu army, took Lingping, and at once renamed it Pingling.

Consequences

Lingping passed to Chu under the new name Pingling, and the Wu settlement there was lost. The gazetteer continues with the conquest of Wu by Yue in the third year of King Yuan of Zhou and the conquest of Yue by Chu in the thirty-seventh year of King Xian, showing how often this ground changed hands in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

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

First, the general's name has variant readings. The gazetteer notes that the unofficial gazetteer gives "Yi" and the Gaochun gazetteer "Dai", and follows the Jinling gazetteer and the Junji; this entry follows the old gazetteer with "Su Nai", while the old record quoted by the Yuan Zhida Jinling Xinzhi has "the favourite Su Nai", a minor variant, and both are recorded.

Second, the engagement appears in no standard history — the Chunqiu, the Zuo Zhuan and the Shiji were searched without result — so the second source is an old record quoted by the Yuan Zhida Jinling Xinzhi, of lower authority than a standard history; and that gazetteer's own note disputes the identification of Gucheng with Pingling, standing against the old gazetteer, so the two are set side by side.

Third, the year is given only as "the sixteenth year", without repeating the royal title; if the dating of the previous entry is wrong, this one follows it. On these grounds the confidence level is set to medium.