First, the origin of Jinyang City
There is a story recorded in the "Spring and Autumn of the Lü Dynasty": One day, King Zhou Cheng and his young brother Shu Yu were teasing and playing, and he casually picked up a piece of tong leaf and gave it to Shu Yu as a "Jue", saying: "I will seal you with this." Shu Yu was very happy to hear this, so he went to tell Zhou Gong. The Duke of Zhou went to ask King Cheng, "Did the Son of Heaven really seal Shu Yu?" King Cheng said, "That's just a joke with Shu Yu, where will it be true?" Zhou Gong solemnly said to King Cheng, "The Son of Heaven has no jokes. The words spoken in the mouth of the Son of Heaven cannot be counted! So he made Uncle Yu the Marquis of Tang. This is the story of the famous "Tong Ye FengDi". Shuyu's tang was sealed, near today's Taiyuan. Later, Uncle Yu Zi Xie's father, because of the Tang Dynasty's proximity to Jinshui, changed the name of the country to Jin, and the capital city was called Jinyang. The Jin Ancestral Hall in the southwest of present-day Taiyuan City was built by later generations to commemorate Tang Shuyu.
During the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, Jinyang City was already quite famous. In 497 BC (the fifteenth year of the Duke of Jinding), civil unrest broke out in the Jin state. The Fan and Zhongxing clans attacked the palace of Zhao Jianzi (赵鞅), but Jianzi could not resist and fled from Handan to Jinyang. At that time, Jinyang City was originally built by Dong Anyu, a vassal of Zhao Jianzi, and the city was intact. The palace is made of copper as pillars and surrounded by walls of Di Artemisia, which is strong and majestic. After Zhao Jianzi settled in Jinyang, he further added chengguo and strengthened the garrison. After Zhao Jianzi's death, his son Zhao Xiangzi succeeded to the throne and still lived in Jinyang. At this time, Zhi Bo, who held real power in the Jin State, was arrogant for a while, and he arbitrarily asked Han and Wei for territory, and Han and Wei did not dare not give it to him; he also asked Zhao Xiangzi for Cai (in present-day lishi county, shanxi) and Gao Wolf (in present-day northern Lishi County), and xiangzi did not want to give it to him, so he joined forces with Han and Wei to attack Zhao Xiangzi. Zhi Bo led his troops to besiege Jinyang City, and after three months in a row, he still could not attack it, so he decided to irrigate jinyang city, and the water almost flooded Jinyang city. In this way, it was surrounded for another three full years. At that time, Jinyang City, according to the "Warring States Policy", said: "The nest in the city is living in the nest, the cauldron is hanging and cooking, the wealth and food will be exhausted, and the soldiers and soldiers will win the disease." At a time of great danger, Zhao Xiangzi sent Zhang Mengtan out of the city overnight to meet Han Xuanzi and Wei Huanzi. Zhang Mengtan said to Han Xuanzi and Wei Huanzi: "I have heard the truth of 'cold lips and dead teeth'. Now that the king of the two kingdoms of Zhi Boshuai has come to cut down Zhao, Zhao is about to perish. After Zhao's death, I am afraid that the next step will be the turn of Han and Wei! Han Xuanzi and Wei Huanzi also deeply understood this, but they did not dare to offend Zhi Bo. So Zhang Mengtan agreed with them on a date to jointly fight back against Zhibo. On the night of the agreed day, Xiangzi ordered people to kill the officials who guarded the embankment of Zhibo and break the water to flood the Zhibo army. The Zhibo Army was in chaos. Xiangzi killed the pawn in front, Han and Wei took advantage of the situation to attack together, and Zhibo was defeated and captured, and later killed by Xiangzi. This battle of Jinyang laid the foundation for the division of the three families of Han, Zhao, and Wei into Jin.
Second, the North Gate of the Central Plains
During the Qin and Han dynasties, because the Xiongnu in the north were strong and there were often wars, Jinyang, which was located at the "north gate of the Central Plains", became more and more important. In the fourth year (246 BC) of King Xiang of Qinzhuang, Taiyuan County was established, and the seat of government was in Jinyang, and since then Jinyang has been known as Taiyuan. In the early years of the Han Dynasty, Han Gaozu made his son Liu Heng the Acting King and garrisoned Jinyang. Liu Heng was Emperor Wen of Han. In the third year after Liu Heng ascended the throne (177 BC), he also went to Taiyuan to inspect and "stay in Taiyuan for more than ten days". Later, Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty also visited Jinyang.
Third, many people have made their mark in Jinyang
Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, through the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the status of Jinyang has become more and more important, and the city has become stronger and stronger. There are many people who have originated from Jinyang. Some took Taiyuan as their base and then seized national power and became emperors; some claimed the title of emperor in Taiyuan and divided one side. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Erzhu Rong held the real power of northern Wei in the qualification of the king of Taiyuan. Later, Erzhu Rong was killed by Emperor Xiaozhuang, and power passed to Erzhu Rong's subordinate Gao Huan, and Northern Wei split into Eastern Wei and Western Wei. Gao Huan also started from Jinyang. The capital of Eastern Wei was at Yi (邺, in present-day Linzhang County, Hebei), but power was controlled by Gao Huan, who at the time was known as "Bedu". Later, Gao Huan's son Gao Yang usurped Eastern Wei to establish himself, the state name Qi, historically known as "Northern Qi", Jinyang always maintained the status of the capital.
Fourth, the name of the Tang Dynasty originated from this
Tang Gaozu Li Yuan was originally the ambassador of Hedong, Shanxi, and remained behind in Taiyuan. It was by virtue of Jinyang as his base that he recruited troops and bought horses, and captured Chang'an in one fell swoop and became emperor. Because he was based on the Fiefdom of Tang, he was given the title of Tang. The capital of the Tang Dynasty was in Chang'an (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi), and Jinyang was later designated as the northern capital. At this time, the scale of Jinyang City was already very spectacular, according to the New Book of Tang And Geography, the entire Jinyang City consisted of three parts, namely the capital city, the east city and the middle city. The capital city is between Fen and Jin'ershui, 4,321 steps long, 3,122 steps wide, and around 15,153 steps (forty-two miles), and the height of the city is four zhang. Jinyang Palace is in the northwest of the capital, around the palace 2,520 steps, four feet high. In the south of the palace there is Daming City, that is, the Forbidden City of Northern Qi. To the east of the Fenhe River is the Eastern City, built for the eleventh year of Zhenguan (637 AD). Between the capital and the east castle is the middle castle, which was built by Wuhou Shi. At that time, the scope of Jinyang City far exceeded that of today's Taiyuan City.
Fifth, the "Dragon City" of the "True Dragon Heavenly Son"
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the first person to start a career in Taiyuan was Li Cunxun, who took the name of the country as Tang and was known as "Later Tang". Later, the capital was moved to Luoyang, with Jinyang as the northern capital. After that, Shi Jingtang, who was originally an envoy of the Later Tang River East Jiedushi, was also called emperor in Jinyang, taking the name of the country as Jin, and the history was called "Later Jin". Later, the capital was moved to Kaifeng, with Jinyang as Beijing. Liu Zhiyuan was originally an envoy to the Eastern Jiedu of the Later Jin Dynasty and remained in Beijing, and later became emperor in Jinyang, known in history as "Later Han". Later, the capital was moved to Kaifeng, and Jinyang was also beijing. After the fall of the Later Han Dynasty, Liu Chong, the envoy of Hedong Jiedu and the retainer of Taiyuan, also claimed the title of emperor in Jinyang, and was known as the "Northern Han Dynasty" in history.
It is precisely because Jinyang has an important position in history that some people call Jinyang "Dragon City" and say that there is a "true dragon heavenly son" here. Therefore, the Tiezhou Mountain in the north of Jinyang is said to be the "Dragon Horn", and the Dragon Mountain and Tianlong Mountain in the southwest are said to be the "Dragon Tail".
Sixth, Song Taizu destroyed the "Dragon City" and it was difficult to protect the foundation of Bandai
In the early years of the Song Dynasty, Jinyang was still in the hands of the Northern Han Dynasty. Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin did not attack Jinyang twice. In the fourth year of the Taiping Revival (979 AD), Zhao Guangyi, the Emperor Taizong of Song, once again sent an army to attack Jinyang, but due to the strong strength of jinyang city, it was still unable to attack after two months of siege. Later, Emperor Taizong of Song ordered the fenhe river to flood Jinyang City before taking Jinyang down. After the capture of Jinyang, Emperor Taizong of Song ordered the city to be burned down and all the people in the city to be moved to Henan. At this point, the once prosperous Jinyang City was completely destroyed. In order to completely eradicate this "dragon city", the rulers of the Northern Song Dynasty even bulldozed the peak of Tiezhou Mountain north of Jinyang in order to remove the "dragon horn". Later, Taiyuan City was built in the area of Tangming Town, northeast of the former site of Jinyang City, and in order to nail the "dragon vein", only the "Ding" street was built, not the cross road. Yuan Hao asked the so-called "official street cross to T-shaped character" in the poem "The Ancient City of Jinyang" is what it means. However, the rulers of the Northern Song Dynasty did not preserve his foundation of The Dynasty. Later, the Jin people moved south, because Jinyang had been destroyed, and the Jin soldiers were able to drive straight in, and soon captured Fenjing (汴京, in modern Kaifeng, Henan), with the result that Hui and the Second Emperor qin were taken prisoner.
