Longxi Commandery ( Chinese: trad. , simp. , ''Lǒngxījùn'') was a commandery of

imperial China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...

in present-day

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

, named due to its location west of Mount Long (the southern portion of Mount Liupan).

Qin dynasty

Established by Shi Huangdi, it originally covered the entire territory of the Qin Empire west of Mount Long with its

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

at Didao (present-day Taoyang in

Lintao County Lintao County () is administratively under the control of Dingxi, Gansu province, China. History Pottery from the Majiayao culture (3300 to 2000 BC) has been found in Lintao. Until the 20th century, Lintao was known as Didao (). The Battle of ...

). This area included most of the upper Wei valley. Its principal route of communication was the Long Road (named for the mountain), which probably passed along the course of the modern railroad west from

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

although much of the area nearest the river was then marshland. The territory was used as a staging ground for campaigns up the

Tao The Tao or Dao is the natural way of the universe, primarily as conceived in East Asian philosophy and religion. This seeing of life cannot be grasped as a concept. Rather, it is seen through actual living experience of one's everyday being. T ...

and the upper

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 ...

.De Crespigny, Rafe.
The Government and Geography of the Northern Frontier of Late Han
!--sic-->". Australian National University, 2004. A revised version of "Northern Frontier: the Policies and Strategy of the Later Han Empire", ''Asian Studies Monographs'' New Series, No. 4, 1984. ISBN 0-86784-410-8. Accessed 12 Dec 2013. The first governor was Li Chong (), considered the originator of an important

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

of the Li family.

Han dynasty

The Emperor Wu of 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 ...

, as part of his expeditions into the

Tarim Basin The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Xinjiang, Northwestern China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, Ch ...

, established Tianshui Commandery to control the Wei valley immediately to the west of Mount Long. The southern parts of the old commandery controlling the Han and Bailong were reörganized as

Wudu ''Wuduʾ'' ( ) is the Islamic procedure for cleansing parts of the body, a type of ritual purification, or ablution. The steps of wudu are washing the hands, rinsing the mouth and nose, washing the face, then the forearms, then wiping the head, ...

. The remnant of Longxi controlled eleven

counties 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 ...

in the far west of the Wei and the Tao valley. The Long Road into the territory was militarized: garrisons and arsenals were maintained and patrols organized. The entry to the lower Wei was removed from the valley itself to the then-forested

loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

foothills north of Mount Long. The narrowest pointthe Long Passwas fortified. From the time of the Empress Lü ( BC), the area was repeatedly attacked by the

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 ...

.Olberding, Garret. ''Dubious Facts: The Evidence of Early Chinese Historiography''
pp. 183 ff.
SUNY Press, 2012. Accessed 12 Dec 2013.

Jin dynasty

By the time of the Western Jin, the commandery had only four counties under its jurisdiction.

Sui dynasty

Under the Sui, it increased to five.

Tang dynasty

Under the Tang, the commandery was folded into Wei Prefecture (). Its name was carried on by Longxi County.

References

{{Han dynasty provinces Commanderies of the Sui dynasty Commanderies of the Han dynasty Commanderies of the Qin dynasty Commanderies of the Jin dynasty (266–420)