Dai Prefecture, also known by its Chinese name Daizhou, was a

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin word, "''praefectura"'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain inter ...

(''zhou'') of imperial China in what is now northern

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

. It existed intermittently from AD585 to 1912. Its eponymous seat Daizhou was located at Shangguan in

Dai County Dai County, also known by its Chinese name Daixian, is a county in Xinzhou, Shanxi Province, China. Its county seat at Shangguan is also known as Daixian. The county has an area of and had a population of 178,870 at the time of the 2020 c ...

. The territory it administered included all or part of what are now the counties of Dai, Wutai, Fanshi, and

Yuanping Yuanping is a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Xinzhou, in north-central Shanxi Province, China. History The territory of present-day Yuanping was held by Zhao during the Warring States Period of Chine ...

's Xinzhou Prefecture.

Name

''Dàizhōu'' is the

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

form of the

Standard Mandarin Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern Standard language, standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the Republic of ...

reading of the Chinese

placename Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper nam ...

. In the

system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...

romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...

devised by Thomas Wade and systematized by

Herbert Giles Herbert Allen Giles (; 8 December 184513 February 1935) was a British diplomat and sinologist who was the professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge for 35 years. Giles was educated at Charterhouse School before becoming a British dip ...

, the same pronunciation is written Tai Prefecture, ''Tai Chou'', or ''Tai-chou''. It appeared as Taichow or TaichowSha on the

Chinese Postal Map The history of the postage stamps and postal history of China is complicated by the gradual decay of Imperial China and the years of civil war and Japanese occupation in the 1930s and 1940s. In modern times, postal delivery is handled by Ch ...

.. Although "

" only refers to an administrative office or area in English,. the Chinese name can refer to either the prefecture or to the prefectural seat at old or new

Guangwu Emperor Guangwu of Han (; 15 January 5 BC29 March AD 57), born Liu Xiu (), courtesy name Wenshu (), was a Chinese monarch. He served as an emperor of China, emperor of the Han dynasty by restoring the dynasty in AD 25, thus founding the Han dy ...

.. The prefectural seat was also known for a time as

Yanmen Yanmen Pass, also known by its Chinese name Yanmenguan and as Xixingguan, is a mountain pass which includes three fortified gatehouses along the Great Wall of China. The area was a strategic choke point in ancient and medieval China, contro ...

.. During periods when the prefecture was demoted to

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

status, its seat was also known as

Daixian Dai County, also known by its Chinese name Daixian, is a county in Xinzhou, Shanxi Province, China. Its county seat at Shangguan is also known as Daixian. The county has an area of and had a population of 178,870 at the time of the 2020 c ...

. Daizhou was named after

Dai Commandery Dai Commandery was a commandery (''jùn'') of the state of Zhao established BC and of northern imperial Chinese dynasties until the time of the Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty (r. AD581–604). It occupied lands in what is now Hebei, Shanxi, ...

,. which was abolished around the time of its formation,. even though Guangwu County, in which Daizhou is located, had not been part of it.. The commandery in turn had been named after the former capital of the Baidi Kingdom of Dai, whose name represented a transcription of the native name using the

Chinese character Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only on ...

,. which is pronounced ''dài'' in present-day Mandarin but had probably sounded like in

Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...

. That city had been in

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

's Yu County,. but it was used for a series of petty states and appanages during the

Warring States The Warring States period in Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and struggles for gre ...

Eighteen Kingdoms The historiographical term "Eighteen Kingdoms" ( zh, t=十八國), also translated as "Eighteen States", refers to the eighteen '' fengjian'' states in China created by military leader Xiang Yu in 206 BCE, after the collapse of the Qin dynasty.� ...

, and Han which spread the name into

and Yunzhong Commanderies. This confusion sometimes caused some medieval writers to erroneously conflate locations in Dai Prefecture (like

Mount Wutai Mount Wutai, also known by its Chinese name Wutaishan and as is a sacred Buddhist site at the headwaters of the Qingshui in Shanxi Province, China. Its central area is surrounded by a cluster of flat-topped peaks or mesas roughly correspondin ...

) with places from the ancient stories concerning the Zhao conquest of the first Dai Kingdom.

History

Dai Prefecture was created by renaming and reorganizing the earlier Si Prefecture. in

Yanmen Commandery Yanmen Commandery was an administrative subdivision (''jùn'') of the state of Zhao established BC and of northern imperial Chinese dynasties until AD758. It occupied lands in what is now Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Its first seat was at Shanwu ...

.. This occurred in AD585 under the Wen Emperor of Sui. Its seat was at present-day

, which was known as Guangwu until 598 and then as Yanmen when its surrounding

was renamed due to the Chinese naming taboo. It was abolished and merged with

. Dai Prefecture was reëstablished by the Tang in 618, abolished and merged with Yanmen Commandery again in 742, and reëstablished a second time a few years later in 758. Under the Tang, it formed part of

Hedong Circuit __NOTOC__ Hedong (, unless otherwise noted) may refer to these places in China: Districts *Hedong District, Sanya, in Sanya, Hainan *Hedong District, Linyi, in Linyi, Shandong * Hedong District, Tianjin, in Tianjin Subdistricts * Hedong Subdistric ...

. During this period, the seat at Daizhou administered a prefecture covering what are now the counties of Dai, Wutai, Fanshi, and

.. Under the

Hongwu Emperor The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328– 24 June 1398), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Ming, personal name Zhu Yuanzhang, courtesy name Guorui, was the List of emperors of the Ming dynasty, founding emperor of the Ming dyna ...

of the

Ming The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, t ...

, it was demoted to a

for six years beginning in 1369. Under the

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

, Dai was removed from the authority of

Taiyuan Prefecture Taiyuan; Mandarin pronunciation: ( Taiyuan Jin: /tʰai˦˥ ye˩˩/) is the capital of Shanxi, China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. It is an industrial base focusing on ene ...

and made a directly-administered prefecture in 1724 or 1728. Following the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). The revolution was the culmination of a decade ...

, it was converted into various counties in the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links