Ye (yè)
It was one of the prosperous metropolises in the Central Plains during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Later Zhao, Qian Yan, Eastern Wei, and Northern Qi successively established their capitals here. During the Wei Dynasty, Cao Cao also used this as the political center of the north. There are two cities in Ye. The North City was expanded by Cao Wei on the basis of the old city. It is seven miles from east to west and five miles from north to south. It is adjacent to Zhangshui River in the north. There are Bingjing, Tongjue and Jinhu platforms in the northwest corner of the city from north to south. In modern times, the Zhangshui River moved southward, and most of its former sites were in the north of the Zhangshui River, which is now in the area east of Ye Town and Santai Village in the southwest of Linzhang County, Hebei Province. Nancheng was built in the early years of the Eastern Wei Dynasty. It is located south of present-day Zhangshui River, six miles from east to west, eight miles and sixty paces from north to south. It is larger than Beicheng and is located in today's Anyang County, Henan Province.
Ye was originally the administrative center of Jizhou in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the center of governance in the Hebei Plain. Han Fu and Yuan Shao were the residences of state pastoralists. In the ninth year of Jian'an (204), Cao Cao defeated the remnants of the Yuan family who occupied Yecheng and led the Jizhou pastoralists, using Ye as his base to manage Hebei. Then he became the prime minister, was granted the title of Duke of Wei, and was promoted to the title of King of Wei. After that, the nominal capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty was Xu (now east of Xuchang, Henan), and the actual political center was Yecheng, the capital of Wei.
After Cao Pi succeeded the Han Dynasty and established the Wei Dynasty, he moved the capital to Luoyang. Ye has long been a large commercial and military city in the north. In the second year of Huangchu (221), Emperor Wen of the Wei Dynasty, Guangping (now southeast of Jize, Hebei), Yangping (now east of Daming, Hebei), and Wei (where the government was located in Ye) were called the "Three Wei"; at the same time, Chang'an (the former capital of the Western Han Dynasty) was named , Qiao (the original capital of Emperor Wei), Xuchang (the old capital of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty), Ye and Luoyang are collectively called the "Five Capitals", which shows the importance of Ye.
During the Sixteenth Kingdom, Later Zhao Shihu moved the capital from Xiangguo (now southwest of Xingtai, Hebei) to Yecheng, and changed the prefect to Wei Yin. After that, the Han Dynasty Ran Min established the Wei State, which was also located here. When Murong of the former Yan Dynasty destroyed Ran Wei, the capital was initially located in Ji (today's Beijing), and later the capital was also moved to Ye. In the former Qin Dynasty, Fu Jian once made Wang Meng the pastor of Jizhou and lived in Ye. Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty established Xiangzhou and made Ye the state to govern. In the first year of Tianping in the Eastern Wei Dynasty (534), Gao Huan entered Luoyang, established Xiaojing Emperor, and moved his capital to Ye. The Northern Qi Dynasty also established its capital here, and changed Wei Yin to Qing Yin. In the sixth year of Emperor Jiande of the Northern Zhou Dynasty (577), the Northern Qi Dynasty was destroyed and Ye was renamed the seat of Wei County in Xiangzhou. In the second year of the Elephant Period of Emperor Jing of Zhou Dynasty (580), when Prime Minister Yang Jian attempted to replace Zhou Dynasty, Yu Chijiong, the general manager of Xiangzhou, launched an army from Ye to attack, but failed.
Yang Jian burned Yecheng, and the thousand-year-old capital was reduced to ruins