Qichun County () is a county of eastern

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of

Huanggang Huanggang is a prefecture-level city in easternmost Hubei, Hubei Province, China. It is situated to the north of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and is bounded in the north by the Dabie Mountains and is named after Mount Huanggang, Huang ...

City. Qichun County has been a major historical center of

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...

. It is known in China as the "Professor County" (), due to the high amount of professors and other academic experts hailing from the county.

Toponymy

Qichun County is named after the abundant ''qicai'' (), a variety of

Chinese celery Leaf celery (''Apium graveolens'' Secalinum Group or ''Apium graveolens'' var. ''secalinum''), also called Chinese celery or Nan Ling celery, is a group of cultivars of ''Apium graveolens'' cultivated in East Asian countries for their edible, ...

, in the area.

History

Inkstone with three legs and a bird cover

The area of present-day Qichun County has been inhabited since the

Neolithic age The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wid ...

. In 224 BCE, Qin forces pursued the beaten and retreating

Chu Chu or CHU may refer to: Chinese history * Chu (state) (c. 1030 BC–223 BC), a state during the Zhou dynasty * Western Chu (206 BC–202 BC), a state founded and ruled by Xiang Yu * Chu Kingdom (Han dynasty) (201 BC–70 AD), a kingdom of the H ...

forces to Qinan (蕲南; northwest of present-day Qichun in

) and general Xiang Yan, grandfather of future hegemonic king

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 ...

, was either killed in the action or committed suicide following his decisive defeat. Qichun County was first established during 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 ...

, possibly as early as 201 BCE. Due to its strategic location, in history Qichun was referred to as “The Key Point of Jingchu” (Jingchu is another name of the ancient state of Chu and the region belonged to it).

Three Kingdoms period

During the

Three Kingdoms period 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 Western Jin dynasty. Academically, the ...

, Qichun was made a

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 ...

(). In the summer of 223 CE,

Eastern Wu Wu (Chinese language, Chinese: 吳; pinyin: ''Wú''; Middle Chinese *''ŋuo'' < Eastern Han Chinese: ''*ŋuɑ''), known in historiography as Eastern Wu or Sun Wu, was a Dynasties of China, dynastic state of China and one of the three major sta ...

general

He Qi He Qi (died 227), courtesy name Gongmiao, was a military general serving under the warlords Sun Ce and Sun Quan during the late Eastern Han dynasty, and later in the state of Eastern Wu during the early Three Kingdoms period of China. He was es ...

attacked and eliminated an outpost of

Cao Wei Wei () was one of the major Dynasties in Chinese history, dynastic states in China during the Three Kingdoms period. The state was established in 220 by Cao Pi based upon the foundations laid by his father Cao Cao during the end of the Han dy ...

in the new commandery territory of Qichun, on the southern slopes of the Dabie Shan mountains. But for the next twelve months the northern front remained quiet. The Grand Administrator of Qichun was Jin Zong, a former officer of

Sun Quan Sun Quan (; 182 – 21 May 252), courtesy name Zhongmou (), posthumous name, posthumously known as Emperor Da of Wu, was the founder of Eastern Wu, one of the Three Kingdoms of China. He inherited control of the warlord regime established by hi ...

who had deserted and joined Cao Wei. It appears he was given the commandery appointment at this time, in the hill country of the Dabie Shan on the border region between Lujiang and Jiangxia, so that he could disturb the communications routes along the Yangtze and across that river to the south. There is evidence that the Qichun commandery had been established a few years earlier, evidently on the basis of the county of that name in

Jiangxia Commandery Jiangxia Commandery ( zh, 江夏郡) was a Chinese commandery that existed from Han dynasty to Tang dynasty. Its territories were located in present-day eastern Hubei province. History Jiangxia Commandery was established during the reign of Emper ...

of Later Han, but the territory had been abandoned by

Cao Cao Cao Cao (; ; ; 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde, was a Chinese statesman, warlord, and poet who rose to power during the end of the Han dynasty (), ultimately taking effective control of the Han central government. He laid the foundation f ...

at the time of his withdrawal in 213 CE. From this time, after the defeat of Jin Zong's infiltration, the territory was held by Wu. One of the subordinate commanders in He Qi's attack on Qichun was

Mi Fang Mi Fang (died 223), courtesy name Zifang, was a Chinese military general and politician serving under the warlord Liu Bei in the late Eastern Han dynasty. He was also the younger brother of Mi Zhu, who also served Liu Bei. In 219, Mi Fang surre ...

, the erstwhile officer of

Guan Yu Guan Yu (; ), courtesy name Yunchang, was a Chinese military general serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Along with Zhang Fei, he shared a brotherly relationship with Liu Bei and accompanied him on ...

who had surrendered Jiangling to

Lü Meng Lü Meng () (178 – January or February 220), courtesy name Ziming, was a Chinese military general and politician who served under the warlord Sun Quan during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Early in his career, he fought in several ba ...

in 219 AD. Qichun also was evidently a proving ground for renegades.

Later history

During the

Southern and Northern dynasties The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as ...

, the area became administered under the . 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 ...

, the area was reorganized as a fu. Qichun would later be reverted to a

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 ...

. During the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

, Qichun County was home to an extraordinarily large market for

, which poet

Lu You Lu You ( zh, s=陆游, t=陸游, first=t; 1125–1210) was a Chinese historian and List of Chinese language poets, poet of the Southern Song Dynasty (南宋). Career Early life and marriage Lu You was born on a boat floating in the Wei River e ...

described as 40 ''li'' long. Prince Jing's Mansion () was constructed in Qichun County during 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 ...

People's Republic of China

In 1949, Qichun County was placed under Huanggang Prefecture. In 1995, Huanggang was changed from a

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin word, "''praefectura"'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain inter ...

to a

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 ...

Geography

Qichun County is located in the east of

, along the northern banks of the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

, and at the southern foot of the

Dabie Mountains The Dabie Mountains () are a major mountain range located in central China. Running northwest-to-southeast, they form the main watershed between the Huai River, Huai and Yangtze rivers. The range also marks the boundary between Hubei Province (n ...

. To its east is the province of

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

. The county's government, seated in the town of , is located from the center of

, and from the center of

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

, capital of Hubei. The total geographic area of Qichun County is . Of this, are arable. Water covers (there are hundreds of lakes in Qichun County, almost all used for aquaculture). Forested areas cover . (Note: While not stated in government data, unless there is a statistical error, the remaining must be hills/mountains, in the northern part of the county, or simply unusable land). Qichun County's area is topographically diverse, with

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as Mountain, mountains. Hills ...

s, and

plain In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and ...

s. The elevation decreases gradually from mountains of northeast to the lowlands of southwest. The is located within the county. Apart from the Yangtze, major bodies of water in Qichun County include the Qi River (), , and .

Climate

The local climate is classed as "subtropical mainland monsoon," with distinct seasons and abundant rainfall (average 134 centimeters per year). When the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

floods, Qichun County also experiences some flooding.

Administrative divisions

Qichun County administers the following 13

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

, 1

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

, and 5 other

township-level divisions The administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since 1412, due to mainland China's large population and geographical area. In the People's Republic of China, the constitution provides for three levels of government. Ho ...

Government

The county's government is seated in the

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

of . The government buildings for the County and the Town are adjacent to each other.

Demographics

The

2020 Chinese census The Seventh National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (), also referred to as the 2020 Chinese Census, was the seventh National Population Census of the People's Republic of China, national census conducted by the National Bure ...

put Qichun County's population at 792,101. The

2010 Chinese census The 2010 Chinese census, officially the Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国第六次全国人口普查), was conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China wi ...

put Qichun County's population at 727,805. A 2004 estimate approximated Qichun County's population at 951,391. The

2000 Chinese census The 2000 Chinese census, officially the Fifth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (), was conducted by the government of the People's Republic of China with 1 November 2000 as its zero hour. The total population was calcul ...

put Qichun County's population at 949,479. A 1996 estimate put Qichun County's population at about 921,000. Qichun Town's population was 162,000, of whom 71,000 were engaged in agriculture (fisheries, crops, and herbs are the main agricultural sectors) and the remainder non-agriculture (which includes minerals and manufacturing of various kinds). About 40% of all the farmers of Qichun County are engaged in growing herbs.

Culture

Qichun County is the birthplace of famous herbalist

Li Shizhen Li Shizhen (July 3, 1518 – 1593), courtesy name Dongbi, was a Chinese acupuncturist, herbalist, naturalist, pharmacologist, physician, and writer of the Ming dynasty. He is the author of a 27-year work, the '' Compendium of Materia ...

, who was born and lived in Qizhou town, and has been a major historical center of

for hundreds of years. Qichun County is often nicknamed "Professor County" () due to the high amount of professors and other academic experts hailing from the county.

Transportation

Qichun is reasonably well-served by rail, bus, and road transportation; there is no airport. The

Beijing–Kowloon railway The Beijing–Kowloon railway, also known as the Jingjiu railway () is a dual track railway connecting Beijing West railway station in Beijing to Shenzhen railway station in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. It was previously connected with Hon ...

runs through Qichun County. The main

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

rail line passes through Qichun, and there are local trains, west to the

provincial capital of

and south-east into

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

province. There is a local bus service and also frequent express buses into

via the new inter-provincial expressway running east–west across the province. A journey by express bus to

takes less than three hours; by car the journey is less than 2.5 hours. Major expressways in Qichun County include the Huangshi-Huanggang portion of the

G70 Fuzhou–Yinchuan Expressway The Fuzhou–Yinchuan Expressway (), designated as G70 and commonly referred to as the Fuyin Expressway () is an expressway that connects the cities of Fuzhou, Fujian, China, and Yinchuan Yinchuan is the capital of the Ningxia, Ningxia Hui A ...

, which runs through the southwest of Qichun County. the G42 Shanghai–Chengdu Expressway, and the

G50 Shanghai–Chongqing Expressway The Shanghai–Chongqing Expressway (), designated as G50 and commonly referred to as the Huyu Expressway () is an east-west bound expressway that connects the cities of Shanghai, China in Yangtze River Delta, and Chongqing in western China. The e ...

. National Highway 318 also runs through Qichun County. The , the Qi-Cao Highway (), and the Qi-Tai Highway () all run through Qichun County. Other major roads include the Huang-Biao Highway (), and the Dabie Mountains Red Tourism Highway (). Numerous future expressways are planned.

Economy

Mineral resources in Qichun County include

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

, serpentine, dolomite,

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

, and black

jade Jade is an umbrella term for two different types of decorative rocks used for jewelry or Ornament (art), ornaments. Jade is often referred to by either of two different silicate mineral names: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in t ...

. Qichun County has long played an outsized role in

, and was historically home to large markets for medicinal ingredients. Medicinal markets remain central to Qichun County, which hosts the Hubei Lishizhen Traditional Chinese Medicine Professional Market (). The majority of the entries in the ''

Bencao Gangmu The ''Bencao gangmu'', known in English as the ''Compendium of Materia Medica'' or ''Great Pharmacopoeia'', is an encyclopedic gathering of medicine, natural history, and Chinese herbology compiled and edited by Li Shizhen and published in the ...

'', an encyclopedia of traditional Chinese medicine ingredients, can be found in Qichun County. According to the county government, there is more than 200,000 ''mu'' of cropland devoted to growing medicinal ingredients. The herbal industry, centered on Qizhou, is the biggest component of the Qichun County economy. Some 200,000 herb farmers live in Qichun County. They produce more than 700 varieties. The local herb wholesale market is the third largest in China, with more than 800 million yuan (US$100 million, as of 2006) of annual trading volume. There is only one hotel of any significance in Qichun. But it is a new hotel, built around 2001.

Social welfare

Qichun County has its own Social Welfare Institute (SWI) to accommodate elderly people, handicapped persons, the homeless, and orphans. The Social Welfare Institute constructed a new building in 2004, designed mainly for the elderly and handicapped children and adults. Children which are abandoned or orphaned, and are awaiting adoption either domestically or internationally, are placed with local foster families. But they visit the SWI weekly for medical checks and group playtime activities. About 400 orphans have been adopted internationally from Qichun County SWI. These children now live with families all over the world: in Canada and the US, in Australasia, and in most countries of Western Europe.

Notable people

Qichun County was a historical center for education and

, as well as an economic and cultural center within eastern

. The

has produced many important historical figures in this field, including herbalist

. Other notable figures from Qichun County during dynastic China include the following: * Gu Jingxing (1621–1687), a prolific author of hundreds of books, and an Imperial scholar from a long hereditary line of scholars going back several generations of the Gu family. * , a

writer. * , a famous warrior from the

. More-recent famous people from Qichun include: * Wu Shu (writer and Communist revolutionary, 1902–1985); *

Hu Feng Hu Feng (, November 2, 1902 – June 8, 1985) was a Chinese Marxist writer, poet and literary theorist. He was a prominent member of the League of Left-Wing Writers. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Hu Feng became a member ...

(literary theorist, 1902–1985); *

Huang Kan Huang Kan ( Chinese: 黃侃; 1886 – 8 October 1935), courtesy name Jigang (季剛), born into a family of Hubei ancestry in Chengdu, Sichuan province, was a Chinese phonologist, philologist and revolutionary. As a teen, he tested into Wuchang ...

(Professor, newspaper founder, 1886–1935); * Zhan Dabei (KMT leftist, 1887–1927); * (1879–1930, author and Minister of Internal Affairs in the revolutionary government of Sun Yatsen); * Dong Yuhua (; leader of student movement and military commander, 1907–1939); *

Yuan Shu Yuan Shu () (155 – 199), courtesy name Gonglu, was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty. He rose to prominence following the collapse of the Han central government in 189. He decla ...

(government Minister, started Chinese Communist Party intelligence system, 1911–1987); * Gao Huiyuan (born 1922) medical scientist and doctor to Premier

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...

; * Yu Xiaozhong () (born 1965) poet.

References

External links

*''"Hubei Sheng: Qichun Xian difang zhibian zuan wei yuan hui bian zuan."'' ("History of Qichun County in Hubei Province" in Chinese), published at Wuhan, by "Hubei kexue jishu chuban she" in 1997. (ISBN C47267C56)
Huanggang Government website
(bilingual, Chinese-English) {{authority control Huanggang Counties of Hubei