The Five Dynasties in Suzhou: From Warfare to Stability

At the end of the Tang dynasty, central China was in turmoil with constant warlord conflicts. Suzhou (苏州), located at a strategic junction in the southeast, became a contested ground for various military forces. In 897, Huainan (淮南) forces attacked Suzhou, but the Wuyue general Gu Quanwu (顾全武) shattered eighteen Huainan camps and captured over three thousand enemy soldiers. In 908, Wuyue forces besieged and recaptured Suzhou from Huainan occupiers, taking more than three thousand prisoners and seizing vast quantities of weapons and supplies. In 913, Wuyue general Qian Chuanli (钱传球) attacked Dongzhou in Huainan territory, capturing generals Li Shiyu and Yao Yanhuan along with three thousand troops. These wars repeatedly devastated Suzhou, yet they also laid the foundation for subsequent Wuyue rule.

The founder of the Wuyue Kingdom (吴越国), Qian Liu (钱镠), maintained deep respect for the central dynasties of the Central Plains (中原). His royal titles and posthumous honors were “bestowed” by these dynasties, and he consistently used their reign era names. This vassal relationship ensured that Suzhou enjoyed relative stability throughout the turbulent Five Dynasties period (五代时期). Wuyue adopted a policy of protecting its territory and nurturing its people, making Suzhou a haven of peace amid widespread warfare.

Wuyue Prince of Guangling Qian Yuanliu and his son Prince Weixian Qian Wenfeng served as Military Governors of Zhongwu Army, establishing their administrative headquarters in Suzhou. Qian Wenfeng inherited the local tradition of rulers building gardens and parks, constructing the magnificent Nanyuan (Southern Garden) and Dongzhuang (Eastern Estate, also called Dongshu or Dongpu). These gardens featured “rare and exotic plants whose trunks thickened to enveloping girth within his lifetime. Earth was piled to form mountains, creating rocky valleys where guests were received and entertained at their leisure.” Dongzhuang featured towering hills, clear ponds, and lush forests, located at the present-day main campus of Soochow University. Beyond cultivating rare flora, these gardens excavated ponds and constructed artificial rockeries, becoming not only “the finest scenery in Wu” with considerable aesthetic value, but also influencing garden design throughout Suzhou and beyond.

During the Five Dynasties (五代), Central China (中原) was in constant upheaval with warlord conflicts and frequent dynastic changes—five dynasties rose and fell within just fifty years—while the south remained relatively stable, naturally attracting population flows. In 957, “rebel troops burned Yangzhou (扬州), and its people all migrated to Jiangnan (江南),” with a portion settling in Suzhou. By 978, when Qian Chu (钱俶) surrendered his territory to the Song, Suzhou recorded over 35,000 registered households, with a population nearing 200,000. This demonstrates that immigration sustained steady population growth.

The Wuyue Kingdom actively recruited talent from the north, reportedly stationing “several dozen painters along the Songjiang River (松江), designated as ‘Phoenix-hand Commanders,’ to observe and sketch portraits of northern migrants, selecting the most distinguished and fortunate-looking for official appointments.” Many immigrants came to Suzhou to serve in government. Sun Hanying settled in Kunshan (昆山) as a military defender for the Qian clan, and his great-grandson Sun Zai passed the imperial examination in 1065. When Qian Yuanliu and Qian Wenfeng served as Military Governors of Zhongwu Army, Ding Shoujie and three others served together as administrative assistants. Their descendants flourished in Suzhou: Ding Shoujie’s grandson Ding Wei rose to become Grand Chancellor; Chen Zanming’s great-grandson Chen Zhiqi served as Director of Agricultural Administration; Fan Mengling’s great-grandson Fan Zhongyan (范仲淹) became Vice Director of the Chancellery; and Xie Chongli’s son Xie Tao served as Guest Attendant to the Crown Prince. Many of their descendants later achieved high academic honors.

The northern migrants who moved south during the Five Dynasties brought with them high cultural attainment and refined skills. The renowned poet Luo Yin served Qian Liu as Chief Secretary, Administrative Assistant, and Imperial Censor, dying in 910 and buried in Xindeng (modern Hangzhou (杭州) suburbs). His writing was praised as “forceful and vigorous,” with sharp wit and rich political experience, earning him recognition as a leading talent of Jiangdong (江东). His son Luo Saiweng served as an administrative assistant to the Zhenhai Military Governor, becoming famous for painting sheep with “superlative skill, unmatched in his time.” Another celebrated poet, Pi Rixiu, remained in Suzhou after serving as Military Judge. His son Pi Guangye was born in Suzhou and could compose literature by age ten. As an adult, he attracted Qian Liu’s admiration for his literary talent, serving as Administrative Assistant of Zhexi and achieving diplomatic successes on foreign missions. In 937 he became Chancellor, establishing numerous ceremonial protocols, and authored the Pishi Jianwen Lu in thirteen volumes. His younger brother Guanglin rose to Governor of Wenzhou, while his son Pican served as Administrative Judge of the Marshal’s Headquarters and wrote Lumen Jiachao Shiyong. The Pi family was celebrated as “three generations of literary excellence in Jiangdong.” These immigrant talents disseminated culture and skills, contributing to population growth and fostering Jiangnan’s economic and cultural development.

Many immigrants to Wuyue-era Suzhou arrived as prisoners of war. The 897 battle for Suzhou saw Wuyue general Gu Quanwu shatter eighteen Huainan camps and capture over three thousand enemy soldiers including Wei Yue. The 908 recapture of Suzhou yielded another three thousand prisoners and massive quantities of weapons and supplies. The 913 attack on Dongzhou captured generals Li Shiyu and Yao Yanhuan with three thousand troops. Most of these prisoners settled in Wuyue territory, becoming robust laborers who brought northern production techniques and even customs, injecting fresh vitality into the development of the Wuyue Kingdom and Suzhou.

Wuyue attached great importance to water conservancy within Suzhou’s (苏州) territory, establishing specialized administrative bodies and mobilizing labor forces to dredge waterways, enabling Tai Lake’s (太湖) waters to flow downstream, while instituting comprehensive measures and systems to ensure the construction, maintenance, and protection of hydraulic engineering projects.

The Qian clan constructed sea walls along multiple coastal locations, using “iron chains threaded through wooden posts, secured with stone wedges” to “break the force of the waters,” preventing tidal incursions while installing sluice gates to block river tides from entering canals. In 904, Qian Liu personally supervised laborers in dredging the Songjiang River and Xinyangjiang (新洋江) streams to prevent tidal flooding. After dredging, the Xinyangjiang could “both drain accumulated floodwaters into the Songjiang and draw river water to irrigate the elevated ridges.”

In 915, Wuyue established the Director of Water Conservancy and Agricultural Colonies to oversee hydraulic affairs, and created the Shallow-Dredging Army (also called the Clearing Army) to manage river channels and build dikes against flooding. The Dredging Army was organized into four routes (some sources say two): one called the River-Opening Battalion, responsible for dredging and maintaining thirty-six waterways in Changshu (常熟) and Kunshan; the other three routes managed desilting, weed removal, and sluice installation for the Wusongjiang (吴淞江), Jishuigang (急水港), Dian Lake (淀山湖), Xiaoguanpu, and the Grand Canal (大运河). These troops numbered seven to eight thousand across the four prefectures surrounding Tai Lake (太湖). Thanks to their efforts, Tai Lake waters flowed directly down the Wusongjiang in one direction and through Jishuigang into Dian Lake to reach the sea in another. This enabled farmers to irrigate during droughts and drain fields during floods—a thoroughly comprehensive system.

During Qian Yuanliu’s administration, the twenty-four streams of Haiyu (modern Changshu) became clogged with sand carried in by twice-daily tides. Yuanliu dispatched River-Opening Battalion commander Mei Shizhong as Director of Water Conservancy, recruiting hydraulic troops to construct sluice gates at each stream mouth that “opened and closed according to schedule to prepare for droughts and floods.” To defend against flooding and tidal surges, Suzhou specially created the Water Fortress Army, appointing Li Kaishan as Water Fortress General to station troops at Hupu Harbor (浒浦). In emergencies, they provided immediate relief, greatly benefiting the populace. During droughts, sluice gates opened to channel river water; during floods, they closed to block inundation—becoming an enormous agricultural benefit.

In 949, Wuyue established several thousand agricultural colony soldiers who, irrigated by the Wusongjiang River, reclaimed land along both banks for cultivation, yielding not only grain harvests but also reinforcing the maintenance and utilization of hydraulic engineering.

Alongside water conservancy projects, Wuyue intensified land reclamation. In the later Wuyue period, Qian Chu “recruited farmers capable of reclaiming wasteland, exempting them from taxes, so that no land within the territory lay abandoned.” When someone proposed identifying unregistered adult males who evaded regular taxation to increase state revenue, Qian Chu had the person “flogged at the city gate” as punishment. This philosophy of “preserving wealth among the people” won widespread popular support. Wuyue placed great emphasis on land reclamation, expanding survival resources and stabilizing people’s livelihoods.

Since ancient times, Jiangnan has followed the practice of “dividing land according to elevation, with low-lying areas around lakes connected by longitudinal channels running north-south to the river, and transverse dikes running east-west to distribute water flow in a grid pattern.” Generally, “one longitudinal channel every five to seven li, one transverse dike every seven to ten li.” Earth excavated from digging channels was used to build dikes twenty to thirty zhang wide and one to three zhang high, always exceeding the highest water level of rivers and lakes, with weirs, sluice gates, and floodgates installed to regulate and control inland water levels. This created an interconnected polder field system with dense water networks and regional coordination. Polder fields varied in size, with some encompassing dozens of li in circumference—large as city walls. This water-agriculture infrastructure promoted economic development.

With Suzhou’s development of water conservancy networks and the pond-dike-polder field system, lakeshore wastelands were transformed into fertile fields. Large stretches of marshland around Tai Lake were reclaimed and cultivated, steadily increasing grain production and further laying the foundation for Suzhou’s eventual status as one of the nation’s granaries, epitomized by the Song dynasty proverb “When Suzhou and Huzhou harvest abundantly, the whole world has enough to eat.”

The adoption of curved-beam plows and improved chain-pump waterwheel technology reduced labor intensity while enhancing farming efficiency, further expanding cultivated acreage and operational scope.

Suzhou’s rice varieties multiplied during this period, most notably the fragrant japonica (xiangjing), also called fragrant rice (xiangdao), which appeared during the Southern Dynasties (南朝) and was cultivated on a larger scale in the Tang dynasty. Lu Guimeng wrote in his “Two Poems on Jiangnan”: “With favorable winds, the fragrant rice ripens at the boat’s stern; in fine drizzle, red carp leap at the water’s edge.” He also wrote: “Fragrant rice ripens as autumn vegetables tenderize; having dined with monks, I listen to the harmonious clouds.” By the Five Dynasties, it was widely cultivated throughout Jiangnan.

New rice varieties emerging in the late Tang included red lotus rice (hongliandao) and jizha. Red lotus rice “has large grains with red awns and red husks, planted in the fifth month and ripening in the ninth, hence called red lotus.” Jizha was a type of late rice “with long grains and mottled color, planted in the fifth month and ripening in the ninth.” Jizha was relatively easy to grow, with higher yields and lower prices. Due to Wu region’s (吴地) warm and prolonged climate, double-cropping rice (also called “second harvest rice”) emerged from the Tang dynasty onward, increasing the multiple cropping index.

Jiangnan has traditionally followed the custom of “rice as staple and fish as accompaniment,” predominantly cultivating rice. However, from the Eastern Han through Eastern Wu (东吴) and into the Southern Dynasties, large-scale northern migration increased wheat cultivation in Wu territory, particularly in hilly areas. This transformed Suzhou’s traditional grain economy from single-crop rice agriculture toward integrated dry-wet farming with both rice and wheat. Two harvests per year—rice in summer-autumn and wheat in winter-spring—greatly improved land utilization efficiency. The Five Dynasties marked the crucial transitional period when this rice-wheat rotation system evolved from experimental beginnings toward widespread establishment.

Suzhou’s economic crop production during the Five Dynasties also achieved national significance. Tea drinking had become widespread throughout the empire, and Suzhou was an important tea-producing region. Lu Yu’s Classic of Tea noted that Suzhou tea was produced in the Dongting Mountain (洞庭山) area. By the late Tang and Five Dynasties, Suzhou had become a tribute tea production area with improved tea quality.

Sericulture was a crucial source of silk textiles. Suzhou was a region with developed sericulture. Late Tang poets who lived in Suzhou, such as Pi Rixiu and Lu Guimeng, frequently wrote poems depicting Jiangnan sericulture. The Five Dynasties monk-poet Guanxiu wrote: “I’ve heard of the silkworm-raising woman who mounts the mulberry tree before dawn; descending, she fears the silkworms’ hunger, ignoring even her crying child.” This reflects how silkworm-raising women would rise early to gather mulberry leaves, so preoccupied with feeding their silkworms that they paid no attention to their crying children—a vivid illustration of how sericulture had become an essential sideline occupation for Jiangnan farming households.

Suzhou’s warm climate produced abundant citrus fruits and bayberries. The citrus from Suzhou’s eastern and western hills enjoyed national renown for superior quality and had served as tribute goods since the Tang dynasty. During the Five Dynasties, citrus cultivation was widespread throughout the region.

Suzhou’s low-lying terrain, known as the “land of water and marshes,” boasted developed fishery production, yielding not only various freshwater fish but also numerous marine species. On one occasion when the Song court dispatched Academician Tao Gu as envoy to Wuyue, the Wuyue king “hosted a banquet with hundreds of varieties of aquatic creatures, ordering chefs to prepare over ten types of crabs ranging from large sea crabs to small river crabs.” The large sea crabs (laiyou, modern swimming crabs) and small river crabs (pengqi, also called penghu) demonstrated the remarkable diversity of Suzhou’s aquatic cuisine.

Suzhou’s fish production during the Five Dynasties included the traditional Songjiang perch, whose fillets were treasured throughout the realm. Tai Lake whitefish “spawned in the shallow waters among reeds along the lake’s edge, where locals could collect them and send them as tribute to Luoyang (洛阳) at any time.” Locals associated the fortnight bracketing Mangzhong (Grain in Ear) with the plum-rains spell—“entering plum season”—then, some fifteen days later, with shoals of whitefish so thick they were simply called “seasonal whitefish.”

Yellow croaker (shishouyu, modern yellow fish) was also a Suzhou specialty. According to the Wu Lu, this fish was supreme among all river and sea fish. Arriving in early summer, it was greatly cherished by Wu people, who used the flowering of chinaberry trees as a seasonal indicator. A local proverb went: “When chinaberry blossoms open, yellow croakers arrive; selling winter bedding to buy fish, we dance three platforms.” A second run appeared in the eighth month, known as “returning-tide yellow croaker.” The fish was named for the two bones in its head—white, bean-sized, and stone-hard. Facing the East China Sea (东海), Suzhou was an important production and marketing center for yellow croaker.

Drawing upon historical traditions and local specialties, Suzhou’s handicraft industry during the Five Dynasties featured several notably prominent sectors:

Although the Wuyue regime recorded burdensome taxation, its attention to water conservancy and infrastructure enabled economic development. Combined with relatively equitable governance by Suzhou officials, the city achieved overall stable growth during the Five Dynasties. The proliferation of specialized wine houses and restaurants throughout the city reflected thriving commercial activity. Suzhou’s commercial development was closely tied to advances in agriculture and handicrafts. Improved water conservancy and expanded farmland increased agricultural output, providing abundant goods for trade. Silk textiles, salt, wine, paper, gold and silver objects, and ships became important trade commodities. As a major Wuyue city, Suzhou’s vibrant commercial activities laid the foundation for the even greater commercial prosperity of the Song dynasty.

During the Five Dynasties period (907–960), under Wuyue rule, Suzhou gradually stabilized from the warlord conflicts of the late Tang. The Qian clan adopted policies of territorial protection and people’s welfare, emphasizing water conservancy, land reclamation, and talent recruitment, making Suzhou a haven amid widespread warfare. Massive immigration brought northern culture, technology, and labor, stimulating Suzhou’s economic and cultural development. In agriculture, water conservancy networks and the pond-dike-polder field system increased grain yields. In handicrafts, textiles, salt production, shipbuilding, papermaking, and wine-making flourished. Commerce thrived accordingly. The Five Dynasties period laid the solid foundation for Suzhou’s later status as one of the nation’s granaries—epitomized by the proverb “When Suzhou and Huzhou harvest abundantly, the whole world has enough to eat”—and its commercial prosperity during the Song dynasty.