Guangling Commandery was a historical

commandery In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...

of China from

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

, located in present-day central

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

province in central coastal China. It was named after Guangling, a historical name of

Yangzhou Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou, Jiangsu, ...

. In early Han dynasty, the commandery was known as Dongyang (東陽), and successively constituted part of the Wu Kingdom (195–154 BC) and the Jiangdu Kingdom (154–121 BC). In 121 BC, Jiangdu was abolished, and Guangling became a commandery. In 117 BC, Guangling was granted to Liu Xu (劉胥), a son of the reigning Emperor Wu, as a kingdom. Xu and his descendants ruled Guangling until the usurpation of

Wang Mang Wang Mang (45 BCE6 October 23 CE), courtesy name Jujun, officially known as the Shijianguo Emperor (), was the founder and the only emperor of the short-lived Chinese Xin dynasty. He was originally an official and consort kin of the ...

. The commandery was restored when

Eastern Han The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

was founded. In 37 AD, it absorbed the Sishui Kingdom. In 58, it was granted to Liu Jing (劉荊), a son of the

Emperor 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 the Han dynasty by restoring the dynasty in AD 25, thus founding the Eastern Han dynasty. He ...

, but was revoked when Jing was involved in a conspiracy in 67. In 140, the commandery administered 11 counties: Guangling, Jiangdu (江都),

Gaoyou Gaoyou (), is a county-level city under the administration of Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, China, located in the Yangtze River Delta on the north side of the Yangtze River. History Recent archaeological finds at the Longqiuzhuang site in Gaoyou has ...

(高郵), Ping'an (平安), Ling (淩), Dongyang (東陽), Sheyang (射陽), Yandu (鹽瀆), Yu (舆), Tangyi (堂邑) and Haixi (海西). The population was 410,190 individuals or 83,970 households. From the

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu dominated China from AD 220 to 280 following the end of the Han dynasty. This period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and followed by the Jin dynasty (266–420), Western Jin dyna ...

period to the

Liu Song Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern dynasties (南朝宋) in historiography, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Northern and Southern dynasties#Southern dynasti ...

dynasty, a number of counties were transferred to neighboring Xiapi (下邳) and Linhuai (臨淮) commanderies. In 464, four counties – Guangling, Hailing (海陵), Gaoyou and Jiangdu – remained in the commandery. The total population was 45,613 individuals, or 7,744 households. The commandery was abolished in early

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

. In the Tang dynasty, Guangling Commandery was the alternative name of the Yang Prefecture. In 741, it administered 7 counties, namely Jiangdu, Jiangyang (江陽), Luhe (六合), Hailing, Yangzi (揚子) and Tianchang (天長). The population was 467,857 individuals or 77,105 households.''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

'', Chapter 41.

References

{{Han dynasty provinces Commanderies of the Han dynasty Commanderies of the Jin dynasty (266–420) Commanderies of the Southern dynasties