Li County or Lixian is an

administrative division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

of the

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China' ...

Longnan Longnan () is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of Gansu province in China. It borders Sichuan on its south and Shaanxi on its east. As of the 2020 Chinese census, the population of the prefecture-level city was 2,855,555. Geography an ...

in southeastern Gansu, a northwestern

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

of China. The

2010 Chinese census The 2010 Chinese census, officially the Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (中華人民共和國第六次全國人口普查), was conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China w ...

found a population of 458,237, a decline of around 25,000 from the year 2000 but still placing it second in size within its prefecture.

National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China The National Bureau of Statistics (), abbreviated as NBS, is an deputy-cabinet level agency directly under the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It is responsible for collection, investigation, research and publication of statis ...

. Cited in ''Geohive''.
China – Gansu Sheng
". 2013. Accessed 5 December 2013. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

is also known as Lixian, formerly

romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing writ ...

as Li Hsien. It is located at the confluence of the

Western Han The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...

and Yanzi

rivers A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wat ...

, tributaries of the Jialing and

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flow ...

watersheds. Commanding a valley connecting the

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In ...

and

river systems, it was an important outpost of the

Shang The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and f ...

and Zhou

dynasties A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

and was the initial seat of the

Ying Ying may refer to: People * Yíng (嬴), a Chinese surname, the ancestral name of Qin Shi Huang, first Emperor of China in the Qin Dynasty, and some contemporary rival royal families such as the Zhaos * Yīng (应), a Chinese surname from the ...

family who later established the kingdom and

empire of Qin The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), the ...

Geography

Lixian is bordered within Longnan by the

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

of Xihe to the east,

Wudu Wuḍūʾ ( ar, الوضوء ' ) is the Islamic procedure for cleansing parts of the body, a type of ritual purification, or ablution. The 4 Fardh (Mandatory) acts of ''Wudu'' consists of washing the face, arms, then wiping the head and the fe ...

to the south, and

Tanchang Tanchang (), also pronounced Dàngchāng, is a county in the south of Gansu province, China. It is the westernmost county-level division of the prefecture-level city of Longnan. In 2017 its population was 319,400 people. Administrative divisions ...

to the west. The

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

Dingxi Dingxi (), also known as Longyou () is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of Gansu province, People's Republic of China. As of the 2020 census, its population was 2,524,097 inhabitants, of which 422,383 lived in the built-up (or metro) area ...

and

Tianshui Tianshui is the second-largest city in Gansu Province, China. The city is located in the southeast of the province, along the upper reaches of the Wei River and at the boundary of the Loess Plateau and the Qinling Mountains. As of the 2020 cen ...

lie to the northwest and northeast, respectively. Sir Eric Teichman, the British diplomat and orientalist, described the territory in 1916 before its modern development:

...the path
rom Tianshui Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...
crosses the Tsin-ling Shan, and passes from the basin of the Huang Ho into that of the Yang-tse by an easy pass. The south-eastern corner of Kan-su, south of the Tsin-ling Shan range, differs greatly from the rest of the province. The bare loess hills of Central Kan-su with their waterless valleys give way to jungle-covered mountains with abundance of water, and
coolie A coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, khuli, khulie, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a term for a low-wage labourer, typically of South Asian or East Asian descent. The word ''coolie'' was first popularized in the 16th century by European traders acros ...
transport takes the place of
camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. ...
s, carts, and mules. The people are in close touch with Sechuan.

The Liba gold deposit () lies within the county limits.

Climate

Agriculture

Huaniu apples are a speciality agricultural product of the region.

History

Scientists from Lanzhou University have established that widespread agriculture began in Li County around 6,400

years ago A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hour ...

as part of the

Banpo phase Banpo is an archaeological site discovered in 1953 by Shi Xingbang, and located in the Yellow River Valley just east of Xi'an, China. It contains the remains of several well organized Neolithic settlements, like Jiangzhai, carbon dated ...

of the

Yangshao culture The Yangshao culture (仰韶文化, pinyin: Yǎngsháo wénhuà) was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after the Yangs ...

of the

Wei River The Wei River () is a major river in west-central China's Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. It is the largest tributary of the Yellow River and very important in the early development of Chinese civilization. The source of the Wei River is close ...

valley. The warm, humid climate of the mid-

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

made the area productive for

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets ...

prior to the drier conditions which began about 2000 BC.An C.B. & al. "Lanzhou University: Evolution of prehistoric agriculture in central Gansu Province, China: A case study in Qin'an and Li County", ''Chinese Science Bulletin'', Vol. 55, No. 18, pp. 1925 ff. (2010), excerpted in ''Issues in General Science and Scientific Theory and Method'', 2011 ed.
p. 641
By the time of ancient China, Lixian was part of the territory of Xichui (lit. "the Western March").Li Feng. ''Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou, 1045–771 BC''
pp. 264 ff
Cambridge University Press (

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

), 2006. Accessed 3 December 2013. During the

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Dynasties in Chinese history, Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally suc ...

, Zhongjue and his son

Feilian Feilian (), also known as Xie Feng is the Chinese god of the wind, or Feng Bo. He is a winged dragon with the head of a deer and the tail of a snake. He carries wind with him in a bag and stirs up trouble. Feilian is kept in check by Houyi, the h ...

controlled Xichui from the midst of the area's Rong tribes. Feilian's son Elai served

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...

Zhou as his bodyguard and was killed when King Wu overthrew him and founded the

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by ...

. Sima Qian. ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

'', Annals of Qin"br>Guoxue
Accessed 29 April 2012. Under the Zhou, however, Elai's familythe

House of Ying This is a family tree of Chinese monarchs during the Warring States period. Warring States period In 771 BC, a coalition of feudal lords and the Western Rong tribes overthrew King You and drove the Zhou out of the Wei valley. During ...

continued to control the area. His great-great-grandson was Daluo who had two sons by different mothers in the early 9th century BC. Cheng, his son by the daughter of the Marquis of Shen, inherited Xichui and the other son, Feizi, initially went without and served as his brother's

horse breeder Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in ...

.Han Zhaoqi. ''Annotated Shiji'', "Annals of Qin", pp. 345–346. Zhonghua Book Co., 2010. ISBN 978-7-101-07272-3. His reputation grew to the point that King Xiao charged him with breeding and providing the imperial cavalry. He proved so successful that, when the Marquis of Shen blocked his inheritance of Daluo's estate, King Xiao created him lord of nearby Qin (present-day Zhangjiachuan, Gansu). During the 842 BC Compatriots Rebellion, the Zhou king Li was overthrown at Hao and forced into a prolonged exile; the Rong took the occasion to attack and massacre Cheng's clan at Xichui. King

Xuan Xuan () may refer to: * Xuancheng, formerly Xuan Prefecture (Xuanzhou), Anhui, China ** Xuanzhou District, seat of Xuancheng and Xuan Prefecture ** Xuan paper, from Xuan Prefecture * Xuan (surname), Chinese surname * Xuan (given name) Chinese ...

named Feizi's great-grandson

Qin Zhong Qin Zhong or Zhong of Qin (, died 822 BC) was the fourth ruler of the state of Qin (r. 844 to 822 BC) during China's Zhou dynasty. Qin at the time was a small fief that had been granted to his great-grandfather Feizi for his work breeding horses ...

commander over the Zhou expeditions against the Rong around 827 BC but the Rong killed him at Qin in 822. His son Zhuang and his four younger brothers successfully invaded the Rong lands with 7,000 Zhou soldiers and recovered both Qin and Xichui. At some point during

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 770 to 476 BC (or according to some authorities until 403 BC) which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou period. The period's name derives fr ...

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley ...

and

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeolog ...

were introduced into the area in addition to its traditional millet. Created a

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, t ...

over Xichui, Zhuang moved his family's capital to the site, establishing the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be de ...

of Quanqiu. When Zhuang died in 778 BC, his eldest son Shifu () refused to inherit official duties but chose instead to live a life on his

chariot A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000&nb ...

, fighting the Rong in revenge for his grandfather's death. His younger brother Xiang opted to marry his sister Mu Ying to King

Feng Feng may refer to: *Feng (surname), one of several Chinese surnames in Mandarin: **Féng (surname) ( wikt:冯 féng 2nd tone "gallop"), very common Chinese surname **Fèng (surname) ( wikt:鳳 fèng 4th tone "phoenix"), relatively common Chinese fa ...

of the Rong () and, the next year in 776 BC, he moved his capital from Quanqiu to Qian (, present-day Longxian in

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), Ning ...

). Shifu led the defense of Quanqiu against the Rong who subsequently invaded. Overcome, he was captured and lived among the Rong for a year before being released. When the

Quanrong The Quanrong () or Dog Rong were an ethnic group, classified by the ancient Chinese as " Qiang", active in the northwestern part of China during and after the Zhou dynasty (1046–221 BCE). Their language or languages are considered to have been me ...

overcame Hao in 771 and ended the Western period of the Zhou, Xiang was granted a

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

by King Ping and no longer suffered subordinate status. Under the Qin and Han

, it was part of Longxi Commandery, headquartered at Didao (present-day Taoyang in

Lintao County Lintao County ) is administratively under the control of Dingxi, Gansu province. History Until the 20th century, Lintao was known as Didao (). The Battle of Didao was fought in the area in 255 CE, during the Three Kingdoms era. In the 8th c ...

). During the

Northern Wei dynasty Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei (), Tuoba Wei (), Yuan Wei () and Later Wei (), was founded by the Tuoba (Tabgach) clan of the Xianbei. The first of the Northern dynasties, it ruled northern China from 386 to 535 during th ...

, it was part of Hanyang Commandery, headquartered at Hanyang (present-day

). Under the

Western Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Western Wei (), was an imperial dynasty of China that followed the disintegration of the Northern Wei. One of the Northern dynasties during the era of the Northern and Southern dynasties, it ruled the west ...

, this was changed to Hanyang County. During the Tang, Lixian was known as Changdao (, ) and was part of

Qinzhou Qinzhou ( postal: Yamchow, , Jyutping: ''Jam1 zau1'' (Canton) /''Ham1 zau1'' ( Local) ) is a prefecture-level city in south-central Guangxi, southern China, lying on the Gulf of Tonkin and having a total population of 3,302,238 as of the 2020 ...

(), a province centered variously at Shanggui (present-day Tianshui) and Chengji (present-day

Qin'an Qin'an County () is a county in the east of Gansu province of the People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Tianshui. Its postal code is 741600, and in 1999 its population was 567,553 people. As of 2 ...

).Dudbridge, Glen. ''A Portrait of Five Dynasties China: From the Memoirs of Wang Renyu (880–956)''
pp. 8 ff.
Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Accessed 14 Dec 2013. The area was the home of the noted 10th-century memoirist

Wang Renhui Wang may refer to: Names * Wang (surname) (王), a common Chinese surname * Wāng (汪), a less common Chinese surname * Titles in Chinese nobility * A title in Korean nobility * A title in Mongolian nobility Places * Wang River in Thaila ...

(). Li County was separated from Tianshui's jurisdiction during the ninth year of Chenghua (AD 1473) during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

. Li County's loess is prone to erosion and landslides. Amid the increasing collectivization of agriculture from 1964 to 1978, just seven flows damaged of farmland, destroyed 17,544 homes, and killed 1,142 people. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated go ...

, the area received a bit of local notoriety for its flagging grain production. The "experiences of Li County" were used by regional officials to caution against implementation of Tachai-style collectivism in the mid-1970s. The collective farms in the area saw decreasing year-on-year yields of grain until, by 1976, all 29 of the county's

communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

were consuming more grain than they produced. This provoked official action, which denounced the complaints as "sabotage" and "poison", in the period between the fall of the

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The ...

and the rise of

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. Aft ...

economic reforms An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...

.The Monitoring Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Summary of World Broadcasts: Far East
', Vol. 3. "A Grain-deficient County in Kansu". BBC, 1977. The area is also subject to

earthquakes An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

, with 25 recorded as having a magnitude of 5.0 or higher. The largest recorded was an 8.0-magnitude quake that struck on July 21, 1654; most recently, a 6.6-magnitude quake struck on July 22, 2013.

Administrative divisions

Present-day, Li County includes 22

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and 6

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

: ;Towns -Towns are upgraded from Township. -Towns are established newly. -Former Towns are merged to other. ;Townships -Former Townships are merged to other.

External links

Official website

References

{{authority control County-level divisions of Gansu Longnan

Geography

Climate

Agriculture

History

Administrative divisions

See also

External links

References