Youzhou (ancient China)

As is standard in Chinese, the same name "Youzhou" was also often used to describe the prefectural seat or provincial capital from which the area was administered.

You was revived during the Tang dynasty as a smaller, commandery prefecture; its capital Youzhou was within present-day Beijing.

The "Book of Xia" in the Classic of History from the earlier Spring and Autumn period (771–476 BC) states that Yu the Great, founder of the Xia dynasty, divided China into Nine Provinces—Jizhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Yuzhou, Liangzhou and Yongzhou—and does not mention Youzhou as one of the nine.

Sima Qian in the Records of the Grand Historian, written from 109 to 91 BC explains that Shun, sovereign who relinquished power to Yu the Great, felt the domain in north was too vast and created three new prefectures including Youzhou from Yanzhou.

You Prefecture comprised the Shanggu, Zhuo, Guangyang, Dai, Bohai, Yuyang, Right Beiping, Liaoxi, Liaodong, Xuantu and Lelang Commanderies.

In the Eastern Han dynasty, You Prefecture had ten commanderies—Zhuo, Dai, Shangu, Yuyang, Right Beiping, Liaoxi, Liaoning, Xuantu, Lelang and Guangyang, as well as the Principality of Liaodong.

[4] Toward the end of the Han dynasty, Yellow Turban Rebellion erupted in Hebei in AD 184 and briefly seized You Prefecture's administrative seat at Ji.

[5] Two years later, Gongsun Zan was driven out of Ji by Yuan Shao with the help of Wuhuan and Xianbei allies from the steppes.

Within the jurisdiction of You Prefecture were eleven commanderies, Fanyang, Yan Principality, Beiping, Shanggu, Dai, Liaoxi, Liaodong, Xuantu, Lelang, Changli and Daifang, which collectively ruled 60 counties.

[7] To help sustain the troops garrisoned in Youzhou, the governor in AD 250 built the Lilingyan, an irrigation system that greatly improved agricultural output in the plains around Ji.

[5] By the time of the Rebellion of the Eight Princes, You Prefecture was controlled by Wang Jun, who secured alliances with nomadic tribes north of it by arranging marriages of his daughters to tribal chieftains of the Xianbei and Wuhuan.

He Yan then conspired with a Wuhuan chieftain, Shen Deng, to assassinate Wang Jun during a field trip to the Qingquan River just south of Ji.

Shen Deng believed the rain storm was divine intervention in favor of Wang Jun and disclosed the plot.

Back in Shanxi, Liu Yuan built a multi-ethnic army and broke free from the Jin dynasty.

Sima Rui resurrected the dynasty in Jiankang (modern-day Nanjing), known as the Eastern Jin, which continued to rule southern China.

Wang Jun in Youzhou remained loyal to the Eastern Jin regime in Jiankang and repelled several attacks by one of Liu Yuan's subordinates, Shi Le, an ethnic Jie.

In 319, Shi Le, founded his own kingdom, the Later Zhao, in Xiangguo (modern day Xingtai, Hebei Province), defeated Duan Pidi and captured You Prefecture.

[10] In 524, Xianbei military families in the Six Frontier Towns rebelled against the Northern Wei and were crushed with the assistance of Rouran chieftain Yujiulü Anagui.

The Northern Wei resettled 200,000 residents from the frontier towns to Hebei, where a local famine quickly prompted the migrants to rebel again under the leadership of Du Luozhou in 525.

Du Luozhou led the rebels from Shanggu (modern-day Huailai) south through the Juyong Pass and defeated Wei troops north of Youzhou and eventually captured the city.

[11] In 528 Wei troops under Erzhu Rong's subordinate, Hou Yuan, retook the city from rebel leader Han Lou.

In the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960), the warlord Liu Rengong established his base in Youzhou and declared himself "King of Yan" (燕王).