page_title: Changsha Kingdom
section_title: Territory
hierarchical_section_title: Changsha Kingdom / Territory
caption_attribution_description: A Chinese topographic map (with the south positioned at the top) from Mawangdui tomb 3; dated to the early Western Han period (183&#8211;168 BC); length is 96 cm; width is 96 cm; the map is made of ink on silk. It is now housed in the Hunan Provincial Museum, Changsha. The map depicts a large territory in southern China spanning from the imperial fiefdom of Changsha (a semi-autonomous kingdom within the Han Empire, now modern-day Hunan) to the independent and sometimes hostile Kingdom of Nanyue in what is now modern-day Guangdong and northern Vietnam.
context_page_description: The Changsha Kingdom was a kingdom within the Han Empire of China, located in present-day Hunan and some surrounding areas. The kingdom was founded when Emperor Gaozu granted the territory to his follower Wu Rui in 203 or 202 BC, around the same time as the establishment of the Han dynasty. Wu Rui and his descendants held the kingdom for five generations until Wu Zhu died without an heir in 157 BC. In 155 BC, the kingdom was reestablished for a member of the imperial family. However, the creation of this second kingdom coincided with the Rebellion of the Seven States and the subsequent reforms under Emperor Jing, and Changsha under the imperial family saw its autonomy greatly diminished. The kingdom was dissolved during Wang Mang's usurpation, briefly restored after the founding of the Eastern Han, and finally abolished in AD 33 and converted to a commandery under the imperial government.
  Changsha was one of the largest and longest-lasting kingdoms in Han China. Despite being established on the empire's frontier, technology and art flourished in Changsha.
context_section_description: The exact extent of the first Changsha Kingdom is still unclear. The official Book of Han reports Changsha's border “reaching the north bank of Han River and stretching to Jiuyi Mountains”, although it is unlikely that Changsha actually reached so far. Similarly, it reports that, when Emperor Gaozu created the Kingdom of Changsha, he granted Wu Rui authority over the five commanderies of Changsha, Yuzhang (豫章, Yùzhāng), Xiang (象, Xiàng), Guilin (桂林, Guìlín) and Nanhai (南海, Nánhǎi). However, Yuzhang Commandery had already been conferred to Ying Bu, the King of Huainan, while Xiang, Guilin, and Nanhai Commanderies were all held by Zhao Tuo, the effectively independent King of Nanyue. This state of the Changsha–Nanyue border was confirmed in a map unearthed from the Mawangdui tombs. On the other hand, other preserved and unearthed texts have shown that there were two other commanderies actually controlled by the Changsha Kingdom: Wuling (武陵, Wǔlíng) and Guiyang (桂陽, Guìyáng). The first may have been granted by the imperial Han government; the historical geographer Zhou Zhenhe argues that the "Yuzhang" recorded in the Book of Han was simply a mistake for "Wuling", which would have been part of the original grant of the kingdom. Guiyang was likely created by the kings of Changsha at some point for defense against invasions from Nanyue.
  The reconstruction offered by Zhou and Tan Qixiang is that Changsha's northern border ran along modern Tongcheng, Songzi, and Gong'an counties; the western border along modern Longshan, Zhenyuan, and Jingzhou counties; and the eastern border along modern Gao'an, Yichuan, Lianhua, and Chaling counties. Changsha's southern frontier with Nanyue was approximately the modern southern border of Hunan.
  When Emperor Jing granted Changsha to his son Liu Fa, the kingdom's territory was reduced to Changsha Commandery alone. Consequently, the kingdom's southwestern border was in the vicinity of modern Chaling, Wugang and Quanzhou counties. From Emperor Wu's reign onward, 20 marquisates were created from Changsha. These marquisates were administered as parts of neighboring commanderies, further reducing the kingdom's territory.
caption: Silk map unearthed from Mawangdui, showing Changsha and the neighboring kingdom of Nanyue
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