Chouchi (Chinese: 仇池; pinyin: Chóuchí), or Qiuchi (pinyin: Qiúchí), was a polity in China ruled by the Yang clan of Di ethnicity in modern-day Gansu Province. Its existence spanned both the Sixteen Kingdoms and Northern and Southern dynasties periods, but it is not listed among one of these regimes in historiography.
History
The Yang clan were initially the leaders of a prominent Di tribe in Qingshui County, Lüeyang Commandery (略陽郡; in modern Tianshui, Gansu) known as the Qingshui Di (清水氐). At the beginning of the 3rd century, Yang Teng (楊騰) led the tribe to migrate to Mount Chouchi in present-day Longnan, Gansu at the upper course of the Han River. His successors, (楊駒) and Yang Qianwan (楊千萬) paid tribute to the emperors of the Cao Wei Dynasty and were rewarded with the title of prince (wáng 王). According to Commentary on the Water Classic, at the top of Mount Chouchi were flat fields measuring around a hundred acres. Hence, the people of Chouchi were also known as the Baiqing Di (百頃氐; Hundred Acres Di).
Yang Feilong (楊飛龍) briefly shifted the center of the Chouchi realm back to Lüeyang, but his successor Yang Maosou later returned to Chouchi, where he reigned as an independent king at the beginning of the 4th century. The Chouchi troops often plundered territories in the Central Plains to the east and abducted people there, but the troops of Eastern Jin and Han-Zhao deprived the Chouchi empire of some of its people. In 322, Yang Nandi suffered a defeat at the hands of Han-Zhao and was degraded to prince of Wudu (武都王) and duke of Chouchi (仇池公). The following years were characterized by numerous internal struggles among the Yang clan and several usurpations of the throne. The rulers were not seen as mere regional inspectors (cishi 刺史) or governors (taishou 太守) of their region under the government of Jin.
In 371 Fu Jian, ruler of Former Qin, attacked Chouchi, captured the ruler Yang Cuan (楊篡) and ended the period of Former Chouchi.
Yang Ding, a great-great-grandson of Yang Maosou, and a son-in-law of Fu Jian, resurrected the Chouchi kingdom in 385, with the capital at Licheng (歷城). His younger brother Yang Sheng (楊盛) was able to conquer the region of Liangzhou (梁州) at the upper course of the Han River, and declared himself governor for the Jin Dynasty. Efforts to occupy the territory of modern Sichuan failed, but Chouchi controlled a large part of the modern provinces of Gansu (east) and Shaanxi (south).
After 443, the lords of Chouchi were only puppet rulers controlled by the Northern and Southern dynasties. Historians talk of the five realms of Chouchi (Chouchi wuguo 仇池五國): Former and Later Chouchi (Qianchouchi 前仇池, Houchouchi 後仇池), Wudu (武都), Yinping (陰平), and Wuxing (武興). Former Chouchi lasted between 296 and 371 while Later Chouchi lasted between 385 and 443. In 443, the Northern Wei conquered Chouchi, but was restored by Yang Wende that same year, beginning the Wudu period, although it could also be seen as a continuation of Later Chouchi. After the death of Yang Wendu in 477, the realm split into Yinping and Wuxing. Wuxing Kingdom was conquered by the Western Wei in 552 and Yinping Kingdom was conquered in 580 by Yang Jian (who later founded the Sui dynasty).