Shuofang () was an ancient Chinese

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 ...

, situated in the Hetao region in modern-day

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

near

Baotou Baotou; is the largest city by urban population in Inner Mongolia, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, as of the 2020 census, its built-up (''or metro'') area made up of its 5 urban districts is home to 2,261,089 people with a total po ...

. First founded by

Emperor Wu of Han Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), born Liu Che and courtesy name Tong, was the seventh Emperor of China, emperor of the Han dynasty from 141 to 87 BC. His reign lasted 54 years – a record not broken until the reign of the Kangxi ...

in the wake of the successful reconquest of the area from

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...

tribes, it was dissolved during the late Eastern Han dynasty and then reconstituted centuries later during the

Northern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei ( zh, c=北魏, p=Běi Wèi), Tuoba Wei ( zh, c=拓跋魏, p=Tuòbá Wèi), Yuan Wei ( zh, c=元魏, p=Yuán Wèi) and Later Wei ( zh, t=後魏, p=Hòu Wèi), was an Dynasties of China, impe ...

and Sui periods, before finally being dissolved during the

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 ...

Name

The term Shuofang, in Ancient usage, simply referred to the north; this definition was recorded in dictionaries such as the Erya.

History

The northward bend of the

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

is an area of considerable strategic importance that had been part of the

State of Zhao Zhao () was one of the seven major states during the Warring States period of ancient China. It emerged from the tripartite division of Jin, along with Han and Wei, in the 5th century BC. Zhao gained considerable strength from the military ...

during the early

Warring States period The Warring States period in history of China, 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 ...

. During this period it was called Jiuyuan, and was a commandery. As Zhao gradually weakened, the area fell under Xiongnu control, only to be reconquered during the

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...

by a large expedition led by the general

Meng Tian Meng Tian (c. 250 BC – August or September 210 BC) was a Chinese inventor and military general of the Qin dynasty who distinguished himself in campaigns against the Xiongnu and in the construction of the Great Wall of China. He was the elder ...

. In the chaos of the rebellions that took place during the end of the Qin dynasty, the Xiongnu once again moved into the area and took control, and retained this area even after the foundation of the Han dynasty, using it as an important staging post for raiding into northern and northeastern China. It was only during the Han–Xiongnu War launched by Emperor Wu that the Han dynasty proactively sought to take over the former borderlands of the Qin dynasty. In 127 BC, an expedition led by

Wei Qing Wei Qing (died Jun 106 BC?In Emperor Wu's biography in ''Book of Han'' and volume 21 of ''Zizhi Tongjian'', the record of Wei Qing's death appeared after the 4th month of the 5th year of the ''Yuan'feng'' era. Thus, it is likely (but not certai ...

defeated the Xiongnu, leading to the foundation of Shuofang Commandery; by 8 BC the commandery had ten constituent counties. In the spring of 617,

Liang Shidu Liang Shidu (梁師都) (died 3 Jun 628Emperor Taizong's biography in ''Old Book of Tang'' indicate that Liang was killed on the ''bingshen'' day of the 4th month of the 2nd year of the ''Zhenguan'' era of Emperor Taizong's reign; this correspon ...

, a former regimental commander from a prominent family of Shuofang commandery on the southern edge of ethe Ordos, seized power from the commandery officials and declared the establishment of the "Liang" state with himself as emperor.

References

{{Han dynasty provinces 2nd century BC in China Commanderies of the Han dynasty