Gaoping () is a
county-level city
A county-level city () is a County-level divisions of China, county-level administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China. County-level cities have judiciary, judicial but no legislature, legislative rights over their own local or ...
in the southeast of
Shanxi Province
Shanxi; formerly romanised as Shansi is a province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi and Datong. Its one-character abbreviation is ( ...
, China, under the administration of the
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 ...
of
Jincheng. It has a history stretching back to the
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 ...
(403–221 BCE). Part of the city was formerly known as Changping where
a noted battle took place in 260 BCE between forces from the rival States of
Qin and
Zhao.
Gaoping is also famed as the birthplace of
Lord Yan, a legendary figure who was an early leader (or series of leaders) among the ancient
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...
.
Gaoping (along with several other locations in China) was traditionally identified as Yan's hometown. Not until the late 20th and early 21st century was Gaoping widely accepted as Yan's birthplace by the global scholarly community.
The hilly area around Gaoping is known as the Sheep's Head Mountains (), and it is this area that preserves the most concrete evidences of Yan's habitation there. A local temple to a female river spirit has been identified as portraying Yan's daughter Nüwa () - not to be confused with the goddess
Nüwa
Nüwa, also read Nügua, is a mother goddess, culture hero, and/or member of the Three Sovereigns of Chinese mythology. She is a goddess in Chinese folk religion, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. She is credited with creating humani ...
() - since the
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 ...
. Ancient sources, such as the
Guo Yu, record that Yan and his posterity flourished in the area around a river called the "Giang
iangWater". The river is believed by scholars to be the Giang River of old is now called the Jiang River () or the Jiang Water (), and is located in
Tunliu County, whence it flows east into the
Zhang River
The Zhang River is a tributary of the Wei River in China. The river commences at the confluence of the rivers Qingzhang (or Clear Zhang, 清漳河) and Zhuozhang (or Turbid Zhang, 浊漳河), where between She county of Hebei and Linzhou of ...
.
[''Yan Di Wen Hua'', 4.]
Climate
References
*''Yan Di Wen Hua'' 炎帝文化, edited by Wang Shuxin 王树新 and Meng Shikai 孟世凯. Zhonghua Bookstore (Beijing): 2005.
Cities in Shanxi
County-level divisions of Shanxi
{{Shanxi-geo-stub