Yangtze

Longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world

29 dated entries naming Yangtze, drawn from 27 separate years between 486 BCE and 1998 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as Chang Jiang, Yangtze River, Yangtze river, Yangzi River in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

JSON Wikipedia article Wikidata Q5413

5th century BC

486 BCEThe first part of the Grand Canal of China is built during the reign of King Fuchai of Wu. It links the Yangtze River with the Huai River, and is a measure to ship ample amount of supplies north for intended wars with the northern states of Song and Lu.source

2nd century BC

110 BCEEmperor Wu of Han annexes Dongyue and Minyue and relocates their population to the area between the Yangtze and Huai rivers.source

1st century

33Although the usurpation of Wang Mang and the Chimei Rebellion are behind him, Emperor Guangwu now faces a new threat to the Han dynasty: the Rebellion of Gongsun Shu in the Sichuan province. Gongsun's naval forces are unsuccessful against Han General Cen Peng, so Gongsun decides to fortify his position by blockading the entire Yangtze River with a large floating pontoon bridge, complete with floating fortified posts. After Cen Peng is unable to break through, he constructs several "castle ships" with high ramparts and ramming vessels known as "colliding swoopers", which break through Gongsun's lines and allow Cen to quell his rebellion. Gongsun Shu is totally defeated three years later.source

3rd century

203Battle of Xiakou: Warlord Sun Quan battles his rival Huang Zu along the Yangtze River near Wuhan.source

4th century

318The Eastern Jin dynasty loses its territories to the north of the Yangtze River, to the benefit of the Xiongnu and the Xianbei. The Former Zhao state is proclaimed; Liu Can and the state ruling family at Pingyang is executed in a coup d'état by Jin Zhun, who is in turn overthrown by Shi Le and Liu Yao.source

6th century

577Winter – Northern Qi, one of the Northern Dynasties, is conquered by Northern Zhou under Emperor Wu Di. He orders the last ruler (Gao Wei) and other members of the Gao clan to commit suicide. Northern China, above the Yangtze River, is once again brought under the control of a single power.source
587Fall – The Liang dynasty ends: Emperor Wéndi of the Sui dynasty abolishes Western Liang and expands his territory into the lower valley of the Yangtze River. He sends his official Gao Jiong to the capital Jiangling, to pacify the citizens. The former emperor Xiao Jing Di becomes a vassal and is named the Duke of Liang.source
588Emperor Wéndi of the Sui dynasty prepares a campaign against the Chen dynasty. He amasses 518,000 troops along the northern bank of the Yangtze River, stretching from Sichuan to the Pacific Ocean.source

7th century

609Emperor Yángdi completes the Grand Canal; it provides an unbroken inland ship transport between the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. The canal network is 1,776 km (1,400 miles) long—linking five river systems—and extends from Beijing to the city of Hangzhou.source

8th century

754A Tang census shows that 75% of the Chinese live north of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) River. The capital of Chang'an has a population of 2 million and more than 25 other cities have well over 500,000 citizens (approximate date).source
761A great Chinese famine in the Huai-Yangtze area, late in the year, drives many people to cannibalism (approximate date).source

10th century

919Battle of Langshan Jiang: The Wuyue navy (500 dragon ships) under Prince Qian Yuanguan who is preparing an invasion to attack the Wu Kingdom, defeats the naval forces of General Peng Yanzhang on the Yangtze River. Due to the use of flamethrower ships (using gunpowder to ignite petrol, like Greek fire) Qian Yuanguan manages to destroy 400 enemy ships and captures 7,000 prisoners.source

12th century

1161Jin–Song Wars: The Battle of Tangdao (November 16) and Battle of Caishi (November 26–27) on the Yangtze River, between the Jin dynasty and the Song dynasty in China result in two pivotal Song naval victories.source

13th century

1236Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty: The Mongols under Ögedei Khan penetrate deep into the Southern Song. The important city of Xiangyang, gateway to the Yangtze plain, capitulates to them.source
1260May 21 – Kublai sends his envoy Hao Jing to negotiate with Song dynasty Chancellor Jia Sidao, after the small force left by Kublai south of the Yangtze River is destroyed, by a Chinese army of the Southern Song dynasty. Chancellor Jia Sidao imprisons the entire embassy of Kublai. This slight will not be forgotten by Kublai, but he is unable to assault the Song, due to the civil war with his rival brother Ariq Böke.source
1265In the first major battle in five years (since the Song dynasty Chinese pushed the forces of Kublai Khan back across the Yangzi River, after Möngke Khan's failed invasion in 1259), Kublai Khan engages the Chinese in Sichuan province. Kublai gains a preliminary victory, and war booty of 146 captured Song dynasty naval ships.source
1275March – Mongol forces (some 200,000 men) under Bayan of the Baarin ("Hundred Eyes") defeat a Chinese army of 130,000 men led by the Song chancellor Jia Sidao on the Yangtze River. Sidao sends an emissary to Bayan to discuss a truce, but he declines to negotiate. Dowager Empress Xie Daoqing strips Sidao of his rank and titles, and he is later on her orders executed by one of his own guards as he is being sent to exile in Fujian.source

14th century

1371The Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty in China introduces the census registration system of lijia, or the hundreds-and-tithing system, throughout the Yangzi Valley. This system groups households into units of ten and groups of one hundred, whereupon their capacities for paying taxes and providing the state with corvée labor service can be assessed. The system becomes fully operational in 1381, when it counts 59,873,305 people living in China (the historian Timothy Brook asserts that the number was much higher, somewhere between 65 million and 75 million).source
1371May – Under the direction of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Emperor Hongwu, the Ming conquest of Xia begins as troops from China, led by Generals Fu Youde and Tang He invade what is now the Sichuan province from the north, while Admiral Liao Yongzhong leads an attack on Xia's east coast and along the Yangtze river.source

15th century

1401December 2 – Jingnan campaign: Rebel General Zhu Di adopts a new approach in his war against the Chinese Imperial troops and departs from Beiping to drive troops southward to the Yangtze River, capturing Dong'e, Dongping, Wenshang, and Pei over the next two months.source
1402June 3 – Jingnan campaign: After crossing the Huai River into what is now Jiangsu province, and taking Yangzhou (May 18) and Luhe (May 19), the Yan Army of Zhu Di crosses the Yangtze River at Guazhou and is within striking distance of the Imperial Chinese capital at Nanjing by June 8, forcing Emperor Zhu Yun Wen to prepare terms of surrender that include granting the Yan Kingdom areas north of the Yangtze. Zhu Di refuses.source
1403In China, the Emperor Cheng Zu moves the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, commissions the Yongle Encyclopedia, one of the world's earliest and largest known general encyclopedias, and orders his coastal provinces to build a vast fleet of ships, with construction centered at Longjiang near Nanjing; the inland provinces are to provide wood and float it down the Yangtze River.source

19th century

1853May 19 — Western Expedition launched along the Yangtze Riversource

20th century

1931June–November – 1931 China flood: the Yangtze and Huai Rivers flood in a populous region, leaving an estimated 422,000 dead (150,000 drowned) with many more dying of consequential starvation and disease in the aftermath.source
1937December 12 – USS Panay incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat USS Panay on the Yangtze in China; the United States accepts the Japanese statement that this was unintentional.source
1949April 20 – Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst goes up the Yangtze River, to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of Mao's Communist forces. Under heavy fire, she grounds off Rose Island. After an abortive rescue attempt on April 26, she anchors 10 mi upstream. Negotiations with the Communists to let the ship leave drag on for weeks, during which time the ship's cat Simon raises the crew's morale.source
1949July 31 – Captain Kerans of HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall, under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army on both sides of the Yangtze River, and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day.source
1969July 10 to 16 – According to Chinese government official confirmed report, a torrential massive heavy rain and debris flow, maximum nearly 600 to 1,000 millimeters precipitation amount, massive flood in Jianghan Plain, Anhui Province, Yangtze river, total 1,603 persons were human relative fatalities.source
1998August 7 – Yangtze River Floods: in China the Yangtze river breaks through the main bank; before this, from August 1–5, peripheral levees collapsed consecutively in Jiayu County Baizhou Bay. The death toll exceeds 12,000, with many thousands more injured.source