Fengyang County () is a county in north-central

Anhui Province Anhui is an inland province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiangxi to the south, Hub ...

, China. It is under the administration of

Chuzhou Chuzhou () is a prefecture-level city in eastern Anhui Provinces of China, Province, China. It borders the provincial capital of Hefei to the south and southwest, Huainan to the west, Bengbu to the northwest, and the province of Jiangsu to the ...

, a

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province of China, province and above a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in China's ...

. The county was home to 765,600 people as of 2013.

Administrative divisions

Fengyang County is divided into 14

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and 1

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

. The county seat is in Fucheng Town.

14 Towns

The county is home to the following 14 towns:

1 Township

The county's sole township is: * Huangwan ().

Geography

The county's northern border is formed by the

Huai River The Huai River, formerly romanized as the Hwai, is a major river in East China, about long with a drainage area of . It is located about midway between the Yellow River and Yangtze River, the two longest rivers and largest drainage basins ...

and neighboring Wuhe County. The county is also home to the Huayuan Lake, which totals about 30 square kilometers in size.

Climate

The average annual temperature for Fengyang County is 14.9 °C, and the average annual precipitation is 904.4 mm.

History

Pre-Ming Dynasty

During the Xia, Shang and early Zhou dynasties, the

Dongyi The Dongyi or Eastern Yi () was a collective term for ancient peoples found in Chinese records. The definition of Dongyi varied across the ages, but in most cases referred to inhabitants of eastern China, then later, the Korean peninsula and Jap ...

peoples inhabited this area and were collectively known as the Huaiyi after the Huai River. During the late Western Zhou Period and the early

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period () was a period in History of China, Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou (256 BCE), characterized by the gradual erosion of royal power as local lords nominally subject t ...

, the Dongyi became increasingly sinicized and formed their own states. During the late Spring and Autumn period, the once-powerful Dongyi state of Xu was pressured from all directions and destroyed through a series of wars with its neighbors, such as the Chu State and the Wu State. Another Dongyi State was the small Zhongli State, which was a part of the Huaiyi Confederation led by the State of Xu. Tombs belonging to the royalty of the Zhongli State were discovered in excavations between 2005 and 2008 near Fengyang. Eventually, the Huaiyi peoples were either pushed south or assimilated.

Ming Dynasty

Fengyang's best known historical site is linked with the name of the county's most famous native,

Zhu Yuanzhang 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 founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1368 to 1398. In ...

(1328–1398). Although coming from a poor family, he became an important rebel leader and, later, the founder of China's

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. Once entrenched as 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 ...

in nearby

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

, he honored the memory of his father, Zhu Wusi (d. 1344), and his mother, Lady Chen, by posthumously raising them to imperial dignity, and building for them an imperial-style mausoleum, known as Ming Huangling (, literally, "Ming Imperial Mausoleum").Eric N. Danielson,
The Ming Ancestor Tomb
". ''China Heritage Quarterly'', No. 16, December 2008. The emperor even started building the new imperial capital, named Zhongdu () near his childhood hometown, but the project was eventually abandoned. The stone figures of the Huangling Mausoleum have survived, and have been re-erected at the original location, some south of the county seat (). The mausoleum statuary and the remains of the capital-building project are protected as a national historic site known as "Zhongdu Imperial City of the Ming and the Imperial Mausoleum's Statuary" (), often shortened to . The Hongwu Emperor resettled people from

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

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 ...

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 ...

and Lake Taihu into Fengyang. In 1370, existing counties in the area were merged into a new county, named Linhuai County.

Qing Dynasty

In 1754, Linhuai County was restructured into a new county called Fengyang County, which serves as the descendant of the modern Fengyang County.

Recent History

The county's borders are jurisdiction has changed numerous times since its Qing-era formation. From 1959 to 1960, during the

Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward was an industrialization campaign within China from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to transform the country from an agrarian society into an indu ...

, 60,245 people of the county died, occupying 17.7 percent to its total population of 335,698. 8,404 complete households were wiped out. In 1974, future Chinese

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

Li Keqiang Li Keqiang ( zh, s=李克强, p=Lǐ Kèqiáng; 3 July 1955 – 27 October 2023) was a Chinese economist and politician who served as the seventh premier of China from 2013 to 2023. He was also the second-ranked member of the Politburo Standing ...

was sent to Damiao, Fengyang County as part of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

's Down to the Countryside Program. Here, he did manual labour throughout the day and studied for university, Li recounts his days in the county as "hard times". He rose up to the rank of Damiao's Communist Party branch secretary in 1976, before leaving for

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

in 1978.

Economy

Fengyang County's natural resources include

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

vermiculite Vermiculite is a hydrous phyllosilicate mineral which undergoes significant expansion when heated. Exfoliation occurs when the mineral is heated sufficiently; commercial furnaces can routinely produce this effect. Vermiculite forms by the weathe ...

, and

asbestos Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length su ...

Transportation

Key highways in the county include the G36 Expressway, Anhui Provincial Highway 101, Anhui Provincial Highway 207, Anhui Provincial Highway 307, and Anhui Provincial Highway 310. The Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Rail also passes through the county.

Notable People

* Liu Zhibai, Chinese ink painter *

, founder of the Ming Dynasty

References

{{County-level divisions of Anhui Chuzhou County-level divisions of Anhui