Shou Xian

[Shou-hsien]. A district on the south bank of the Huai River in Anhui province, China. In the latter part of the Eastern Zhou period this area was held in succession by the states of Wu, Yue (which annexed Wu in 473 bc) and Chu (which expelled Yue c333 bc). Bronzes and mirrors of the 6th-3rd centuries BC have been found in large numbers in and near Shou Xian, many of them with decoration typical of the so-called Huai style. The most important single discovery made in Shou Xian is a tomb of the 5 th century bc excavated in 1955. Some of the 486 bronze objects found in the tomb are dedicated in their inscriptions to a marquis of Cai, a state whose rulers took refuge from Chu invasions in the state of Wu in 494 bc and apparently remained in exile at Shou Xian from that time until 447 bc, when the last Cai prince was murdered. Many bronzes of the same period, one with an inscription in which the Cai state is mentioned, have been found in Shucheng Xian 120 km south of Shou Xian; these may be connected with another small principality in this region, the state of Shu (not to be confused with the Shu state in Sichuan province, which is written with a different character; see Ba and Shu). Two centuries after the destruction of Cai, Shou Xian became the last capital of Chu: retreating before Qin armies, the Chu court arrived at Shou Xian c241 bc and resided there until the final conquest of Chu by Qin in 223 bc. Inscribed bronzes from a tomb robbed in 1934 at Shou Xian Zhujiaji identify the tomb’s owner as one of the Chu kings who ruled at