Meng Zhixiang

Meng Zhixiang was a Chinese general and later founder of the Later Shu kingdom, one of the Ten Kingdoms of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, in 934.

Service under the Later Tang

Meng Zhixiang was an army commander under the Later Tang Dynasty , which was in control of northern China. He commanded the forces that overthrew the Kingdom in 925, incorporating the kingdom into the . Meng remained in Chengdu as the military governor, all the while plotting the overthrow of authority and naming himself emperor.

Founder of the Later Shu

Meng Zhixiang got his chance to realize his ambitions as the Later Tang Dynasty was going through a period of decline in the mid-930s. The ’s relations with the had soured and in general, domestic governance within the dynasty had declined. In 934, Meng declared himself emperor, restoring the Kingdom that he helped to overthrow less than a decade earlier.

Legacy

Although Meng Zhixiang did not reign long as emperor as he died the following year, his son, Meng Chang reigned very ably for three decades until the Song Dynasty incorporated the Later Shu into its domains during the process of reunifying the Chinese realm. Chengdu became a center of art and culture, especially the Amidst the Flowers Anthology and its importance in the development of .

Meng Chang

Meng Chang was Emperor of Later Shu , one of the located in the Sichuan basin.

Accession to the Throne

Meng Chang, posthumously known as Houzhu was the son of Meng Zhixiang, the founder of the Later Shu kingdom. When his father died in 934, he named himself emperor of the kingdom.

Rule and Fall

Meng ruled ably for three decades. The Later Shu became one of the centers for the arts and literature, where it flourished with support from the court. An anthology of lyric poetry known as the Amidst the Flowers Anthology was compiled in 940 It was also among the most stable of the southern kingdoms.

A new force arose in the north in 960 when the Song Dynasty replaced the Later Zhou Dynasty, the last of the . made it his mission to reunify the realm. forces forced Meng Chang to surrender in 965 on the road to the reunification of most of China.

Liu Xiang (warlord)

Liu Xiang or Liu Hsiang was one of the warlords controlling Sichuan province during the Warlord era of 20th century China.

During the period from 1927-1938, Sichuan was in the hands of five warlords: Liu Xiang, , Liu Wenhui, Deng Xihou, and Tian Songyao. No one warlord had enough power to take on all the others at once, so many small battles occurred, pitting one warlord against another. Large conflicts seldom developed, plotting and skirmishing characterized the Sichuanese political scene, and ephemeral coalitions and counter-coalitions emerged and vanished with equal rapidity.

However Liu Xiang was the most influential of the Sichuan warlords. He controlled Chongqing and its surrounding areas. This region, sitting on the banks of the Yangtze River, was rich because of trade with provinces down river and therefore controlled much of the economic activity in Sichuan.

From this position of strength, between 1930 and 1932 General Liu Wenhui and Liu Xiang improved their forces, organizing a small airforce at Chengdu, of two Fairchild KR-34CA aeroplanes and an unknown number of Junkers K53. In 1932 Liu began putting together the " and Tank Corps of Chungking". Armored cars were built in Shanghai based on the 1931 truck with a 37 mm gun and 2 MGs in a crude turret.

In 1935, Liu ousted his uncle and rival warlord, Liu Wenhui, becoming Chairman of the Government of Sichuan Province. A family-brokered peace was arranged which mollified Liu Wenhui with control of the neighbouring Xikang province, a sparsely populated but opium-rich territory on the periphery of Han China and Tibet.

At the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War Liu Xiang lead the Sichuan 15th Army at the Battle of Shanghai and 23rd Army Group in the Battle of Nanking, and was made Commander in Chief of the River Defence Forces for the Yangtze River. Liu Xiang died in 1938; some suspected he was poisoned by Chiang Kai-shek. Liu's death and the arrival of the central government in Chongqing in 1938 brought reforms that eventually put an end to the major warlord garrisons. The Sichuan faction broke up and a lot of Sichuan units turned their loyalties over to Chiang Kai-shek and became essentially Central army units.

Career

*1921 - 1922 Governor of Sichuan Province
*1921 - 1922 Military-Governor of Sichuan Province
*1923 - 1924 Military-Governor of Sichuan Province
*1923 - 1924 Governor of Sichuan Province
*1924 Governor of Sichuan Province
*1925 - 1926 Military-Governor of Sichuan Province
*1935 - 1938 Chairman of the Government of Sichuan Province
*1937 General Officer Commanding 15th Army
*1937 Commander in Chief 23rd Army Group
*1937 - 1938 Commander in Chief River Defence Forces

Liu Wenhui

Liu Wenhui, or Liu Wen-hui was one of the warlords of Sichuan Province during China's Warlord era. Liu Wenhui who rose to prominence in Sichuan in the 1920s and 1930s, came from a peasant family. At the beginning of his career, he was aligned with the Guomindang, commanding the Sichuan-Xigang Defence Force from 1927 to 1929. The western part of Sichuan province was then known as Xikang. Bordering Tibet, the region had a mixed population of Tibetans and Han Chinese.

Biography

He was then made Chairman of the Government of Sichuan Province from 1929, but his relationship with Chiang Kai-Shek was unstable as was the province he governed. Sichuan was in the hands of Liu Wenhui and four other warlords: , , Deng Xihou, and Tian Songyao. No one warlord had enough power to take on all the others at once, so many small battles occurred, pitting one warlord against another. Large conflicts seldom developed, plotting and skirmishing characterized the Sichuanese political scene, and ephemeral coalitions and counter coalitions emerged and vanished with equal rapidity.

In May 1930 his province was invaded by the army of Tibet. With the province locked in internal struggles, no reinforcements were sent to support the Sichuan troops stationed in Xikang. As a result, the Tibetan army captured, without encountering much resistance, Garze and Xinlong . When a negotiated ceasefire failed, Tibet expanded the war attempting to capture parts of southern Qinghai province. In March 1932 their force invaded Qinghai but was defeated by the Qinghai warlord Ma Bufang in July, routing the Tibetan army and driving it back to Xikang. The Qinghai army captured counties that had fallen into the hands of the Tibetan army since 1919. The victory on the part of the Qinghai army threatened the supply lines to the Tibetan forces in Garze and Xinlong. As a result, this part of the Tibetan army was forced to withdraw. In 1932 Liu Wenhui in cooperation with the Qinghai army, sent out a brigade, to attack the Tibetan troops in Garze and Xinlong, eventually occupying them, Dege and other counties east of the Jinshajiang River.

In 1932 Liu Wenhui drove the Tibetans back to the Yangtze River and even threatened to attack Chamdo. At Batang Town, Kesang Tsering, a half-Tibetan, claiming to be acting on behalf of Chiang Kai-shek, managed to evict Liu Wen-hui's governor from the town with the support of some local tribes. A powerful "freebooter Lama" from the region gained support from the Tibetan forces and occupied Batang, but later had to withdraw. By August 1932 the Tibetan government had lost so much territory the Dalai Lama telegraphed the Government of India asking for diplomatic assistance. The Sichuan and Tibetan armies confronted each other across the Jinsha River until the Xikang-Tibet Gangto Ceasefire Agreement was made in June 15, 1933. By early 1934 a ceasefire and armistices had been arranged with both Liu Wen-hui and Governor Ma of Chinghai in which the Tibetans gave up all territory to the east of the Yangtze but kept control of the Yaklo district which had previously been a Chinese enclave to the west of the river.

Finally Liu Wenhui was ousted from Chengdu by a rival warlord, his nephew, Liu Xiang in 1935, when Liu Xiang sided with smaller warlords against Liu Wenhui. A family-brokered peace was arranged which mollified Liu Wenhui with control of the familiar neighbouring Xikang province, a sparsely populated but opium-rich territory on the periphery of Han China. Liu set up headquarters in the city of Ya'an and set about the highest priorities of a warlord: self-preservation and self-enrichment. Self-enrichment was relatively secure through the illicit but uncontrollable opium trade; survival entailed maintaining troops but using them as little as possible. In this, the territory of Xikang province was advantageous to Liu Wenhui, since its marginal position effectively insulated him from rival warlords, and from military engagements ordered by the central government.

During the GMD pursuit of the communist forces during the Long March, this conflict between the two leaders came to a head. Chiang repeatedly ordered Liu to bring his troops against the fleeing communists, but Liu made excuses, while secretly allowing safe passage for the Red Army in a non-aggression pact consistent with the first priority of a warlord: preserving one's troops and one's power. Thus the engagements around Xiakou in 1934 did not involve Liu Wenhui's 24th Route Army, but the 21st army of GMD troops garrisoned just across the Sichuan border in Mingshan.

From 1939 as Governor of Xikang Province Liu Wenhui tried to establish the infrastructure needed to support the remote province. Its transport was primitive and it had no industry to speak of. Large projects such as the hydroelectric plant built in 1944 promised to bring the area into the modern world. Liu Wenhui also promoted education as a way to improve Xikang’s situation.

Liu walked the tightrope of allegiance throughout the 1940's. He made sure that his forces saw as little action as possible, while at the same time he was careful not to arouse the full wrath of Chiang Kai-shek, and thereby continued to reap the benefits of wearing the Nationalist mantle.

As Governor of Xikang Province Liu switched sides from his half-hearted alignment with the Kuomingtang to siding with the Communists in 1949. He was rewarded with a bureaucratic post in the new communist government in Beijing. For the rest of his life, the former warlord served in various capacities in the Communist party, including as the minister of Forestry Ministry. Although Xikang ceased to exist in 1956 as part of the land reform, Liu Wenhui’s measures gave the area a solid basis for development. The hydroelectric plant he constructed in 1944 is still in operation. Kangding, once the provincial capital, is now a thriving town. In his last days, against governmental ban and relatives' objection, Liu Wenhui convinced his relatives to go to Tiananmen Square to pay his respect to Zhou Enlai when the Chinese premier passed away.

Career

*1926 General Officer Commanding 24th Division
*1927 - 1929 General Officer Commanding Sichuan-Xigang Defence Force
*1929 - 1935 Chairman of the Government of Sichuan Province
*1935 - 1949 General Officer Commanding 24th Army
*1938 Director of the Generalissimo's Headquarters Chungking
*1939 - 1950 Governor of Xikang Province
*1944 - 1945 General Officer Commanding 22nd Corps

List of earthquakes in Sichuan

The Sichuan province of has seen many earthquakes the most recent of which occurred in 2008.

Earthquakes with magnitude greater than 7.0

Earthquakes registering magnitudes between 6.0 and 6.9

Li Bing

Li Bing was a administrator and engineer of the Warring States period. He served the as an administrator, and has become renowned for his association with the , the construction of which he is traditionally said to have instigated and overseen. Because of the importance of this 2000 years old system to the development of Sichuan and the Yangtze River region, Li Bing became a great Chinese cultural icon, hailed as a great civil administrator and expert. In Chinese mythology, he is known as the vanquisher of the and is compared to the Great Yu.

Life and career

King Zhaoxiang of Qin dispatched Li Bing as joint military and civilian governor over , a recently defeated state in Sichuan province, Southwest China, just of Chengdu. According to the ''Records of the Grand Historian'', Li Bing was appointed governor of Shu in c. 277 BCE. However, the ''Annals of the Huayang Kingdom'', written by the , place Li Bing in Shu in 272 BCE. He arrived just as Zhang Ruo had put down the last of the marquis rebellions and moved out to engage the Chu city of Yan. Conveniently, Zhang Ruo did not leave any incumbent ministers. Therefore, Li Bing had complete control over . “When he arrived in , Li Bing witnessed the sufferings of local people from frequent flooding of Minjiang River.” Additionally, the monarchy had been sending its exiles to this state and the military needed food and infrastructure.

Li Bing then created “the largest, most carefully planned public works project yet seen anywhere on the eastern half of the Eurasian continent.” It would be called , . He conducted an extensive hydraulic survey of the in order to stabilize the waters from flooding settlements and plot out an extension into Chengdu. This extension would be a fairway to provide logistical military support to the Chengdu supply lines. This is standard practice for administrators who routinely combine their agricultural projects for both the civilian and military purposes. The is 735km long and it is the largest and the longest of the Yangtze .

Li Bing faced a number of daunting tasks. Firstly, the administration was more experienced working with arid lands than with wet rice . Additionally, by slowing the water current, this reduced the river’s ability to carry away large sediments. At peak discharge, the flows at about 5000 or even 6000 cubic meters per second. At low water, it lessens to about 500 cubic meters per second. On the other hand, the water diversion would have a positive effect and with the system of land distribution with wet paddy rice in the Chengdu plains.

But that was only half of the problem. The other half had to do with culture. The native people of believed that the was a deity. As recorded in the , “ relates the tale that, upon appointment as administrator of Po, a province of , Hsi-men Pao discouraged the superstition of the people about a bride for the god of the river and punished the local gentry and bureaucrats who took advantage of such superstitions.” This was the ordinary practice of Administrators across the region. But, His-men Pao did not succeed. Therefore, in order to avert a similar massive revolt, Li Bing set out to end this practice “by a combination of tact and showmanship”.

Steven Sage describes from the that the first thing Li Bing did was setup a temple to honor the Min deity. He then offered his own two daughters as brides to the deity. But first he set up a large nuptial banquet along the river. He offered a toast. But the deity did not drink his glass of wine. Deeply offended, Li Bing runs off sword drawn. Two bulls prepared in advance were then seen by the crowd fighting along the river bank. Symbolically, this was Li Bing in a duel with the deity. Li Bing returns to the scene sweating as if in battle and calls for assistance. One of his lieutenants ran up to the bull that Li Bing had pointed out was the deity and killed the bull. The river spirit was subdued. “Through the medium of the bull, Li Bing had won.”

“In 268 BCE, Li Bing is said to have personally led tens of thousands of workers in the initial stage of construction on the Min River banks.” These people were mostly exiles from lands conquered by the , as well as pioneers, and the local population.

External sources

*Chi, Ch‘ao-ting. Key Economic Areas in Chinese History as Revealed in the Development of Public Works for Water-Control. Ed. Relations, American Institute of Pacific. 2d ed. New York, Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1963.
Cotterell, Arthur. First Emperor of China. London: MacMillan London Limited, 1981.
*Elvin, Mark. ''The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China'' 1st ed. New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press, 2004.
*Sage, Steven F., ''Ancient Sichuan and the Unification of China'', Albany, New York: State University of New York Press . ISBN 0791410382
*CHN ''“Taming the Floodwaters: The High Heritage Price of Massive Hydraulic Projects”'' China Heritage Newsletter China Heritage Project, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies , The Australian National University No. 1, March 2005. ISSN 1833-8461.
08 April 2005. 27 June 2006.
*PRC “Li Bing” chinaculture.org 2003. 27 June 2006.

Later Shu

Later Shu was one of the Ten Kingdoms during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China from 907 to 960. It was located in present-day Sichuan with its capital in Chengdu.

Founding

The original Kingdom that was founded in 907 from the ashes of the Tang Dynasty was conquered by the Later Tang Dynasty, the second of the five dynasties that ruled the north during this period of time.

Meng Zhixiang commanded elements of the Later Tang Dynasty in the conquered territories of the Kingdom. He was named military governor in 925, but had plotted to make himself emperor, an action he took in 934 as, Li Siyuan, emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty, had seen relations with their powerful neighbors to the north, the , sour by his rule.

Territorial Extent

The Later Shu Kingdom held essentially the same territory as the Former Shu kingdom. The kingdom held most of present-day Sichuan, along with southern Gansu and Shaanxi, western Hebei and all of present-day Chongqing. As with the Former Shu, the capital of the kingdom was at Chengdu.

Succession

Meng Zhixiang died the year following his self-declaration of ascending to the position of emperor of the Shu. His son, Meng Chang ruled very ably for thirty years until the kingdom was incorporated into the expanding Song Dynasty from the north in 965.

Rulers