Ink Wash Painting of Ezhou

“When Ezhou stirs, the realm falls into chaos; when Ezhou is at peace, the realm is settled!” Throughout five thousand years of Chinese history, Ezhou has always played a pivotal role.

From the position taken by the Jiuli tribes in the battle between the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou in ancient times, which led to Chiyou's defeat and dismemberment, to the centuries-long standoff between the Sanmiao tribes, after Yu divided the land into nine provinces, and the Xia Dynasty, until the two peoples left the Central Plains after years of loving and fighting one another; then to the Ehou, chief among the nobles of the Shang Dynasty, who risked offending the king by pleading for the rescue of the Marquis of Jiu, only to be subjected to the punishment of being made into dried meat by King Zhou of Shang, an act that cost the Shang Dynasty the support of the realm; and then to Ehou Yufang, who defied the Western Zhou for more than three hundred years, rallying crowds with a single call and joining forces with the Huaiyi and Dongyi, marching all the way to the vicinity of Chengzhou, the Eastern Capital (near today's White Horse Temple, east of Luoyang). The two sides then wore each other down until both were destroyed. Even today, people in Ezhou still say they “refuse to submit to Zhou.”