Portal:History of Imperial China/Selected article/4

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Engravings on a cliff-side mark one widely-accepted site of Chìbì, near modern Chibi City, Hubei. The engravings are at least a thousand years old.

The Battle of Red Cliffs, otherwise known as the Battle of Chibi, (traditional Chinese: 赤壁之戰; pinyin: chìbì zhī zhàn) was a decisive battle immediately prior to the period of the Three Kingdoms in China in the northern winter of 208 CE between the allied forces of the southern warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and the numerically superior forces of the northern warlord Cao Cao. Liu Bei and Sun Quan successfully frustrated Cao Cao's effort to conquer the land south of the Yangtze River and reunite the territory of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The allied victory at Red Cliffs ensured the survival of Liu Bei and Sun Quan, gave them control of the Yangtze (de Crespigny 2004:273), and provided a line of defence that was the basis for the later creation of the two southern kingdoms of Shu Han (蜀) and Eastern Wu (吳). For these reasons, it is considered a decisive battle in Chinese history. (read more...)