The Exploration of Chu Capitals

Searching for capitals of the pre-Qin period has always been a primary goal of modern Chinese archaeology. As once the vassal state with the largest territory in the Zhou era, the Chu has constantly been the center of this topic. How did Chu capitals change during the more than eight hundred years from the state’s founding to its demise, has triggered various hypotheses and discussions among the scholars. Taking time as the central axis and being problem-oriented, this thesis explores the Chu capitals from a long-term perspective. The work mainly includes the textual research analysis of the capital’s geographic location, the study of the era and nature of the urban sites designated (or inferred) as the capital, and the detailed discussion of its spatial layout. Besides, this thesis reflected on the theoretical approaches that Chinese archaeologists used for reconstructing early dynastic history, and then proposed future improvements.