Suzhou (Canal City)

Timeline

1. 501–548Suzhou (Gusu, Wu Commandery) · JiangnanIn the early 6th century Suzhou (Wu Commandery) was the core city of the Taihu Plain under the Liang of the Southern Dynasties. During Emperor Wu's Tianjian era the city of Gusu was expanded; canals crisscrossed the city, temples and markets stood side by side, and handicrafts such as silk and metallurgy flourished, making it an important source of Jiangnan tax revenue and grain.
2. 548–589Suzhou (Wu Commandery) · JiangnanThe Hou Jing Rebellion (548–552) affected Jiangnan, and Suzhou was at times ravaged by war. Under the Chen of the Southern Dynasties production gradually recovered; local strong families and overland and waterborne trade routes sustained the city economy, laying the foundation for Jiangnan's status as a heavily taxed region after Sui unification.
3. 589–600Suzhou (Wu Commandery) · JiangnanIn 589 the Sui destroyed Chen and unified north and south; Wu Commandery was renamed Wu Prefecture (later Suzhou). Emperor Wen of Sui dug canals linking the Yangtze and Huai regions, and by the late 6th century the pattern of northward grain transport from Jiangnan had begun to take shape. Suzhou, with its water-network advantage, became a hub on the composite canal–lake transport network, its "canal city" character increasingly pronounced.