Chu (state)

Chu

*s-r̥aʔ
c. 1030 BC – 223 BC
  Chu (楚)
c. 350 BC
Status
Capital
Religion
GovernmentMonarchy
Historical eraZhou dynasty
• Founded by Xiong Yi
c. 1030 BC 
• Xiong Tong proclaimed king
706 or 703 BC
• Conquered by Qin
 223 BC
CurrencyAncient Chinese coinage
Succeeded by
Qin dynasty
Chu
"Chu" in seal script (top) and regular (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinChǔ
Bopomofoㄔㄨˇ
Wade–GilesCh'u3
Tongyong PinyinChǔ
IPA[ʈʂʰù]
Wu
SuzhouneseTshòu
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationChó
JyutpingCo2
IPA[tsʰɔ˧˥]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJChhó͘
Tâi-lôTshóo
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinesetʂʰjó
Old Chinese
Baxter (1992)*tsrhjaʔ
Baxter–Sagart (2014)*s-r̥aʔ

Chu (Chinese: ; pinyin: Chǔ; Wade–Giles: Ch'u,[2] Old Chinese: *s-r̥aʔ[3]) was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. Their first ruler was King Wu of Chu in the early 8th century BC. Chu was located in the south of the Zhou heartland and lasted during the Spring and Autumn period. At the end of the Warring States period it was destroyed by the Qin in 223 BC during the Qin's wars of unification.

Also known as Jing () and Jingchu (荊楚), Chu included most of the present-day provinces of Hubei and Hunan, along with parts of Chongqing, Guizhou, Henan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. For more than 400 years, the Chu capital Danyang was located at the junction of the Dan and Xi Rivers[4][5] near present-day Xichuan County, Henan, but later moved to Ying. The house of Chu originally bore the ancestral temple surname Nai ( OC: /*rneːlʔ/) which was later written as Mi ( OC: /*meʔ/). They also bore the lineage name Yan ( OC: /*qlamʔ/, /*qʰɯːm/) which would later be written Xiong ( OC: /*ɢʷlɯm/).[6][7]

  1. ^ "楚都丹陽". Archived from the original on 2011-07-07.
  2. ^ "Chu". Encyclopedia Britannica. 3 November 2023.
  3. ^ Baxter & Sagart (2014), p. 332.
  4. ^ "河南库区发掘工作圆满结束,出土文物已通过验收". 合肥晚报. 2011-01-25. Archived from the original on 2011-07-11.
  5. ^ "科大考古队觅宝千余件". 凤凰网. 2011-01-25. Archived from the original on 2018-09-30. Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  6. ^ Theobald, Ulrich. (2018) "The Regional State of Chu 楚" in ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art
  7. ^ Zhang, Zhengming. (2019) A History Of Chu (Volume 1) Honolulu: Enrich Professional Publishing. p. 46-47