ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER CHINESE FORT
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[ May 6th 2005 ]

Chinese archaeologists have discovered the ancient ruins of a 1,700-year-old fort in eastern China's Anhui province. The structure, in a territory known as 'Kingdom of Wei', was constructed between 230 and 233 AD, Agence France-Presse is reporting. The ruins of a melting furnace, a stone mill, some 2,000 arrows and food vessels such as basins, jars and kettles were unearthed in a debris field surrounding the fort.

The Kingdom of Wei was one of the Three Kingdoms competing for control of China after the fall of the Han Dynasty. According to Wikipedia, the decline of the Han Dynasty in the northern part of China was under the control of Cao Cao, the Imperial Secretariat to the last Han emperor. In 213, he was titled Wei Gong (duke of Wei) and given ten cities as his domain. This area was named the 'State of Wei'.

At that time, the southern part of China was already divided into two areas controlled by two warlords (later the Kingdom of Shu and Kingdom of Wu). In 216, Cao Cao was promoted to Wei Wang (king of Wei).

In 220, Cao Cao died and his son Cao Pi succeeded to the title Wei Wang and the position as Imperial Secretarist. Later that year, Cao Pi seized the imperial throne and claimed to have founded the Wei dynasty, but Liu Bei of Shu immediately contested his claim to the throne, and Sun Quan followed suite in 222.

Wei conquered the Kingdom of Shu in 263. Shortly afterwards, in 265, the Wei dynasty was overthrown by its last Imperial Secretariat, Sima Yan, founder of the Jin Dynasty (265-420).

Kingdom of Wei reference courtesty of Wikipedia.