History of Shangqiu
The history of Shangqiu is closely related to the very beginning of Chinese history. Tradition dates back to the Three August Ones and Five Emperors periods (c. 25th century BC), when the semi-legendary Emperors Shennong, Zhuanxu and Ku were said to be living in the present Shangqiu area. The son of Emperor Ku, Qi (契), who helped Yu the Great to control floods, was enfeoffed the area of Shang (which is the current day Shangqiu area), who also became the ancestor of the ancient nationality of Shang. It is said that the Shang people first started trading with neighboring countries by shipping the goods with ox wagons.
Since then, people doing business are called Shang people (Shāngrén 商人, means businessman), which is still the case now, although people are not likely to know the origin of the words. Shangqiu was also reportedly one of the capitals defended by the Xia emperor Xiang, troubled by rebellions in his reign. The thirteenth generation grandson of Qi (契), Tang overthrew the ruling Xia Dynasty and founded the Shang Dynasty, with its first capital at Nanbo (南亳, currently south of Shangqiu). Around the 11th century BC, the Shang Dynasty was replaced by the Zhou Dynasty. The royal descendants of Shang Dynasty were enfeoffed the area of Shangqiu, which later became the state of Song.
The city was the southern capital of the Northern Song dynasty under the name Nanjing. Shangqiu was the first in a series of temporary capitals that the Song Dynasty government moved to during their retreat from the north, when most of northern China had been conquered by the Jurchens in the Jin–Song wars. The Song court had retreated south to the city from their original capital in Kaifeng, after it was captured by the Jurchens in the Jingkang Incident of 1127.The court moved to Shangqiu because of its historical importance to Emperor Taizu of Song, the founder of the dynasty, who had previously served in the city as a military governor. The symbolism of the city was meant to secure the political legitimacy of the new Emperor Gaozong, who was crowned emperor of China in Shangqiu on June 12, 1127. The capital was again moved in 1128 to Yangzhou, and finally to Hangzhou in 1129.
Under the Republic, Shangqiu was considered a key city in eastern Henan owing to its position along the Lunghai (now Longhai) Railway between the port of Haizhou on the East China Sea and Lanzhou in central China. It was known at the time as Kweiteh, Kwei-teh, or Kuei-te (Chinese: t 歸德, s 归德, p Guīdé) and had both a Catholic diocese and an Anglicanmission, the later of which ran St Paul’s Hospital.[8] It changed hands frequently during the fighting among the Chinese warlords in 1927.
