Gaonu County () was an ancient Chinese

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 ...

under the jurisdiction of

Shang Commandery Shang Commandery ( zh, c=上郡, l=Upper Commandery) was a historical commandery of China. It was located in modern-day Northern Shaanxi. The commandery was established during the reign of Marquess Wen of Wei. In 328 BC, it was annexed by the Q ...

in present-day northern

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

. The county was established in 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 ...

, during the reign of

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary state, unitary d ...

. Iterations of Gaonu County continued until the latter

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 ...

period, albeit interrupted by rebellions and invasions. The location of Gaonu County corresponds to present-day

Baota District Baota District ( zh, s=宝塔区, t=寶塔區, p=Bǎotǎ Qū) is a district in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China. The district has an area of , and a permanent population of 497,085 as of 2019. Baota District serves as Yan'an's administrative center, hosting ...

and

Ansai District Ansai () is a district of the city of Yan'an, Shaanxi province, China. It has a total area of and a population of 172,900 people. Part of the Loess Plateau, the district has an average elevation of . Its postal code is 717400, and its Serial Num ...

within

Yan'an Yan'an; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi Province of China, province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several c ...

. During the Qin dynasty and the

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 ...

, Gaonu County served as an important regional center within present-day Yan'an.

History

In 328 BCE, the

Qin state Qin (, , or ''Ch'in'') was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. It is traditionally dated to 897 BC. The state of Qin originated from a reconquest of western lands that had previously been lost to the Xirong. Its location at ...

took land corresponding to present-day

from the Wei state. Subsequently, during the rule of Emperor

Qin Shihuang Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary dynasty in Chine ...

, the area was organized as Gaonu County beginning in 221 BCE, and was placed under the jurisdiction of the

. In 206 BCE, following the collapse of the Qin, Gaonu County was taken by forces belonging to

Xiang Yu Xiang Yu (), born Xiang Ji, was a Chinese warlord who founded and led the short-lived ancient Chinese states, kingdom-state of Western Chu during the interregnum period between the Qin dynasty, Qin and Han dynasty, Han dynasties of China, d ...

during the

Chu–Han Contention The Chu–Han Contention (), also known as the Chu–Han War (), was an interregnum in Imperial China between the fall of the Qin dynasty and the establishment of the Han dynasty. After the Qin dynasty was overthrown in 206 BCE, the empir ...

. However, just six months later, armies belonging to Emperor Gaozu of the

retook Gaonu County. From 177 BCE to 117 BCE, invading

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 ...

forces invaded the Shang Commandery numerous times as part of the Han–Xiongnu War, and Gaonu County changed hands several times. During the Qin dynasty, 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 ...

supervised the construction of roads in Gaonu County which led northward to present-day Yulin and

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. ...

. The ''

Commentary on the Water Classic The ''Commentary on the Water Classic'' (), or ''Commentaries on the Water Classic'', commonly known as ''Shui Jing Zhu'', is a work on the Chinese geography in ancient times, describing the traditional understanding of its waterways and ancie ...

'', written by

Li Daoyuan Li Daoyuan (; 466 or 472 in Zhuo County, Hebei – 527) was a Chinese geographer, politician, and writer during the Northern Wei dynasty. He is known as the author of the '' Commentary on the Water Classic'' (''Shuijingzhu''), a monumental work o ...

, has a passage which says that Gaonu County has a form of "combustible" water, which would turn out to be

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

. This was corroborated in the later ''

Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang The ''Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang'' () is a book written by Duan Chengshi in the 9th century, during the Tang Dynasty. It focuses on miscellany of Chinese and foreign legends and hearsay, reports on natural phenomena, short anecdotes, an ...

'', written by

Duan Chengshi Duan Chengshi () (died 863) was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty. He was born to a wealthy family in present-day Zibo, Shandong. A descendant of the early Tang official Duan Zhixuan (, ''Duàn Zhìxuán'') (-642), and the son of Duan Wenchang (, ...

, which states that Gaonu County was known to have "greasy" water which was burned for use in lamps. In 9 CE, Gaonu County was renamed to Pingli County (

simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one that is simpler (usually shorter), according to a well-founded ordering. Examples include: ...

: 平利县;

traditional Chinese A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

: 平利縣;

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' ...

: ''Pínglì Xiàn''). Shortly afterwards, during the early

period, it was renamed Gaonu County. However, near the end of the Eastern Han period, Gaonu County would be permanently abolished.

Demographics

A census carried out during the final years of the

Western Han The Han dynasty was an 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) and a warring int ...

period counted 52,752 people in Gaonu County.

References

{{coord missing, Shaanxi Former counties of China Baota District History of Shaanxi