Ye (Hebei)

Ye or Yecheng (simplified Chinese: 邺城; traditional Chinese: 鄴城; pinyin: Yèchéng; Wade–Giles: Yeh⁴-ch'eng²) was an ancient Chinese city located in what is now Linzhang County, Hebei and the neighbouring Anyang County, Henan (modern Handan municipality).

Ye was first built in the Spring and Autumn Period by Lord Huan of Qi, and by the time of the Warring States Period the city belonged to the state of Wei. Ye was a political and economic center of China during the Three Kingdoms Period and Northern Dynasties. It served as the military headquarters of the warlords Yuan Shao and Cao Cao in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty and later as the capital of the Eastern Wei Dynasty and Northern Qi Dynasty. The city was razed to the ground in 580, after Yang Jian, future founder of the Sui Dynasty, defeated a resistance force led by Yuchi Jiong, which used Ye as a base of operations. Extensive excavations of the city have been made in recent years, allowing Chinese historians to make detailed plans of the site.

In 2012, the archaeologists unearthed nearly 3,000 Buddha statues during a dig outside of Ye. Most of the statues are made of white marble and limestone, and could date back to the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties 534-577 CE).