As early as in 222 B.C., Wushang County was established while its name was derived from a doleful legend.
It is said there lived a man called Yan Wu. Yan was so poor that he even didn’t have money to bury his father after his death. He had to dig the earth to make a tomb by his hands, which made his hands bleeding. Divine black crows in nearby trees were moved by Yan’s filial piety. They helped Yan by taking clods in their mouths from faraway. Some crow’s beaks were hurt, so there was even blood in the clods. There came the name of Wushang, meaning loyalty. Like these crows, Yiwu people have inherited the virtue of loyalty generation after generation.
In 624A.D., it was renamed Yiwu, and was promoted to a city in 1988. Yiwu has been awarded the honorable titles of “Home of Chinese Martial Arts”, “Home of Chinese Modern Folk Painting” and “Home of Operatic Songs”.
Yiwu has undergone two thousand years of difficulties while achieved 2,000 years of development.
It is also the cradle of many historical celebrities and outstanding personalities, including the famous poet Luo Binwang of Tang Dynasty, General Zong Ze of Song Dynasty who heroically fought Jin aggressors, and the renowned physician Zhu Danxi in the period of Jin-yuan era . Modern educator Chen Wangdao, literary theorist Feng Xuefeng, and historian Wu Han were also from Yiwu.
Today’s Yiwu is attracting people all around the world. They are creating legend with your diligence and intelligence just like Yiwu people.
