Leifeng pagoda was firstly built in the 10thcentury. At that time, Hangzhou was the capitalcity of WuyueKingdom. The territory of this kingdom was mainly in the ZhejiangProvince in the southeast ofChina.During the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, it was a small kingdom,relatively peaceful and steady, compared with other areas ofChina. This was due to thegovernors carried out the policies in the ruling areas that encouraging theproduction, promoting the Buddhism and culture and emphasizing the safeguard ofkingdom and its people. After more than 100 years, Sushi, the administrator in Hangzhou for twice in thesouthern Song dynasty, built an ancestral hall for the kings of Wuyue kingdomand praised its great contribution in his article.
The first king of the kingdom was Qian Liu,who was from Lin’an, Zhejiangprovince. He was once treading salt and traveling around the whole country formany years, which widened his horizon and knowledge. Because of his goodmartial art and scheming, he massed armies to protect local areas and defeatthe small-scale battles at start. Later he engaged in the more battles andextended his power in the whole Qiantang River areas. So he washonored “the great general in the world” by the central government. And in 907he was granted the title “the king of the Wuyue kingdom”. Since then, thereexisted a kingdom covering the 14 states in southeastChina. It had 5 kings in total andlast 72 years.
As the kings of the southeast ofChina,they carried out the policies that serving the central government and safeguardof the kingdom. All of this brought a huge benefit to the Wuyue kingdom. Theexpense on the military and war was reduced, so people could not suffer fromthe warring and their loans were less. In the relatively peaceful socialenvironment, people in Wuyue kingdom launched the water-conservancy projects,developed the production, accumulated wealth and created the art culture. Asthe governors enjoyed the benefits, local people also had an easeful andpeaceful life.
From many popular historical stories andlegends about Wuyue kingdom, we can learn that the governors of the kingdomresponded to the will of people and carried out the policies of benevolence.
