Pre-Qin History (before 221 BC)
The remains of two Neolithic cultures - the Huqiutou Culture from around 5000 BC, and the Tanshi Mountain Culture, from around 3000 BC - have been discovered and excavated in the Fuzhou area. During the Warring States Period (c. 475 - 221 BC), Han Chinese began referring to the modern Fujian area as Min Yue , suggesting that the native inhabitants of the area were a branch of the Yue peoples, a family of non-Chinese tribes who once inhabited most of southern China.[3] In 306 BC, the Yue Kingdom (present-day Zhejiang Province) fell to the state of Chu. Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian wrote that the surviving members of the Yue royal family fled south to what is now Fujian, where they settled alongside the native Yue people, joining Chinese and Yue culture to create Minyue.Their major centre was not at Fuzhou's modern location, but further up the Min watershed near Wuyishan City.
Qin and Han Dynasties (221 BC - 200 AD)
The First Emperor of Qin unified ancient China in 221 BC and desired to bring the southern and southeast regions under Chinese rule. The Qin Dynasty organized its territory into "Commanderies" roughly equivalent to a province or prefecture - and the Fujian area was organized as Minzhong Commandery. The area seems to have continued mostly independent of Chinese control for the next century. The Han Dynasty followed the short-lived Qin, and Emperor Gaozu of Han declared both Minyue and neighboring Nanyue to be autonomous vassal kingdoms. In 202 BC Emperor Gaozu enfeoffed a leader named Wuzhu as King of Minyue, and a walled city called Ye (Chinese: 冶, Old Chinese: *Lyaʔ, literally "Beautiful") was built. The founding of Ye in 202 BC has become the traditional founding date of the city of Fuzhou.
In 110 BC, the armies of Emperor Wu of Han defeated the Minyue kingdom's armies and annexed its territory and people into China. Many Minyue citizens were forcibly
