[Mekatulia]

Historical and Cultural significance of Hubei

Hubei 湖北 has a rich history and a culture of its own dating back to the Pre-Qin dynasty先秦. During then, it was known as Chu楚. We often hear this common saying "天上九头鸟，地上湖北佬", which loosely translated to hold both extremes of having degratory and complimentary meaning. The people from Hubei are known for their craftiness and intelligence. With their rich historical and cultural background, many people can obviously see why.

Pre-Qin 先秦（春秋，战国）

During Spring & Autumn 春秋 and Warring States 战国 period, Chu 楚 was already by land mass, one of the biggest and one of the most powerful and resourceful state. The unification of Central Plains 中原, was an inevitable process, and as we know Qin 秦 finally united all the other states, while most of them are fully captured, but Chu agreed to surrender. The significance of this was, when the Qin regime and control imposed too many harsh laws on the unified Central Plains, the common notion was there will come a day an uprising to overthrow Qin. Amongst those who are able to, bearing in mind that it was then still a very much noble 贵族 and family 家族oriented society, the consensus was that Chu will be the one leading the uprising 灭秦必楚也, reason being, Chu had most of their society structure, the nobles, intact because they surrendered to Qin rather than being slaughtered. It was proven that after 15 years of Qin rule, it was indeed Xiang Yu 项羽 of Chu making the head waves in the revolt against Qin.

Three Kingdom Period 三国

If by then the historical and culture of Hubei is not impressive enough, then perhaps the Three Kingdom Period saw some of the most glorious battles and some of the most famous people made their names in history, mostly concentrated in Hubei. The 3 Kingdom period is one where many people are familiar with, giving birth to a very unique break in the Chinese culture, and set a stage for many tales of heroic deeds. Many battles were being fought, but most historians grouped the 3 main battles during this period were:

1. Battle of Guandu 官渡之战 (current approx. HeNan 河南封丘西)
2. Battle of Chibi 赤壁之战 (current approx. south of Wuhan)
3. Battle of Yiling 夷陵之战 (current Yichang 宜昌)

Out of the 3 main battles that occurred during the 3 Kingdoms period, 2 happened in Hubei. There is also 1 small battle that happened at Changbanpo 长坂坡 (current approx. JingZhou DangYang 荆州当阳) which was very famous. That is where Zhang Fei shouted and broke the bridge stopping the onslaught of Cao Cao's troops, and also where Zhao Yun 七进七处ran back into the enemy territory 7 times to rescue Liu Shan, son of Liu Bei.

At that time, some of the best minds of the country were residing in Hubei, LongZhong 隆中 (current XiangYang 襄阳. Note: It was known that the name of the city was recently changed to 襄阳市, previously was known officially as 襄樊市), this is where ZhugeLiang was happily spending his time tending to his QQ农场 before he was being recruited.

Novel 射雕英雄传

In the novel, the frequently mentioned city XiangYang is where the protagonist GuoJing 郭靖 spent his whole life unofficially helped holding the fort.

Late Qing Dynasty 晚清

It was said that one person Zeng GuoFan 曾国藩 help extended the rule of the Qing Dynasty which otherwise would have fallen some 20 years earlier. He recruited and organised the Huai Jun troops 淮军, which comprises recruits from AnHui, Hubei, HeNan and the surrounding area. This troop basically defended against and subsequently eradicated the "Taiping Kingdom of Heaven" 太平天国.

Han Yang Metal Works Factory 汉阳铁厂, now a district in Wuhan, was the first heavy industry set up by the late Qing government, which was a sign of a late and not much successful effort at modernization.

1911 to Post WW2 China

I am not too familiar with the long march and other internal strife, but basically, Hubei is where the 辛亥革命 XinHai Revolution successfully started.