A Brief History of Chengdu

A Brief History of Chengdu was co-authored by He Yimin, director of the Urban Research Institute at Sichuan University, and Wang Yi, director of the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and curator of the Jinsha Site Museum, and published by Sichuan People's Publishing House in August 2018. Adopting a "grand history, long durée" perspective, the book uses thematic chapters to trace Chengdu's evolution from prehistoric ancient Shu civilization to the mid-20th century, highlighting the city's continuity—"its urban site unchanged for over three thousand years, its name unchanged for over two thousand." It opens with the mountains and rivers of the Chengdu Plain, weaving in archaeological discoveries such as the Baodun ancient city, Sanxingdui, and the Jinsha site to discuss ancient Shu legends of Can Cong, Bo Huo, Yu Fu, Du Yu, and Kai Ming and early state forms, extending to the Qin conquest of Ba and Shu as a historical turning point. Subsequent chapters present the "Land of Abundance" created by the Dujiangyan irrigation works in the Qin and Han periods, Chengdu's listing as one of the "Five Capitals," and achievements in tea culture, lacquerware, silk, Shu learning, and medicine; the "haven of peace" amid the turmoil of Wei, Jin, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the founding of Shu Han and Zhuge Liang's governance, the Cheng-Han regime, and the arrival of Buddhism and Daoism; the Tang-Song prosperity of "Yangzhou first, Chengdu second," the Former and Later Shu states, Mohe Pool and the Jinguan City, and the flourishing of poetry, music, and painting; the Song-Yuan period's commerce and jiaozi (the world's earliest paper money), Shu block printing, the establishment of the province, and the Shu princely palace. The final two chapters move from the destruction of the city by the Daxi regime in the late Ming, the Huguang immigration and urban reconstruction, to the modern Sichuan Machinery Bureau, the abolition of the imperial exams and founding of schools, reform and constitutionalism, "setting off the Chinese revolution," and on through warlord rule in the Republican era, the New Culture Movement, the wartime rear base, and the ancient city's rebirth. Both scholarly and readable, the book is an introductory general history for understanding Chengdu's historical and cultural threads.