Taiyuan Commandery ( zh, 太原郡) was 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 ...

of China from 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 ...

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 ...

. It was located in modern central

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

province. The commandery was established by 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 ...

in 248 BC, after Qin general Meng Ao attacked Taiyuan, then part of the

State of Zhao Zhao () was one of the seven major states during the Warring States period of ancient China. It emerged from the tripartite division of Jin, along with Han and Wei, in the 5th century BC. Zhao gained considerable strength from the military ...

, and annexed 37 Zhao cities including Yuci (榆次), Xincheng (新城) and Langmeng (狼孟). The seat was Jinyang (晉陽, near modern

Taiyuan Taiyuan; Mandarin pronunciation: (Jin Chinese, Taiyuan Jin: /tʰai˦˥ ye˩˩/) is the capital of Shanxi, China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. It is an industrial base foc ...

city), a former capital of Zhao. In early Western Han dynasty, the territory was successively part of the Han Kingdom of King Xin, and the kingdoms of Dai and Taiyuan. In 114 BC, Taiyuan was once again administered directly as a commandery. In 2 AD, the commandery administered 21 counties, namely Jinyang, Junren (葰人),

Jiexiu Jiexiu is a county-level city in the central part of Shanxi Province, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Jinzhong and is located in the latter's western confines. Notable sites in and around Jiexiu include ...

(界休),

Yuci Yuci District () is a district in Jinzhong, Shanxi, China. Administrative Divisions Subdistricts: * Beiguan Subdistrict (), Jinlun Subdistrict (), Xinhua Subdistrict (), Xinan Subdistrict (), Luxi Subdistrict (), Anning Subdistrict (), Jin ...

(榆次), Zhongdu (中都), Yuli (于離), Cishi (茲氏), Langmeng (狼孟), Wu (鄔), Yu (盂), Pingtao (平陶),

Fenyang Fenyang (), formerly as Fenyang County () before 1996, is a county-level city under the administration of Lüliang prefecture-level city, in Shanxi Province, China. Fenyang is located in the wide valley of the Fen River, some 20-plus kilometers we ...

(汾陽), Jingling (京陵), Yangqu (陽曲), Daling (大陵), Yuanping (原平), Qi (祁), Shang'ai (上艾), Lüchi (慮虒), Yangyi (陽邑), and Guangwu (廣武). The population was 680,488, or 169,863 households. By 140 AD, the number of counties had decreased to 16, and the population to 200,124, or 30,902 households. In 280 AD, after the unification of

Western Jin Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that ...

, the commandery had 13 counties (Jinyang, Yangqu, Yuci, Yuli, Yu, Langmeng, Yangyi, Daling, Qi, Pingtao, Jingling, Zhongdu, Wu) and 14,000 households. The commandery was abolished in 583 during early

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

. In Sui and Tang dynasties, Taiyuan Commandery became an alternative name of

Bing Prefecture Bingzhou or Bing Prefecture was a ''Zhou (country subdivision), zhou'' (prefecture) in history of China, imperial China, centering on modern Taiyuan, Shanxi, China. It existed (intermittently) from the Tang dynasty until 723 and from 979 until 10 ...

(并州), and later, Taiyuan Prefecture (太原府). In 742 AD, the commandery had a population of 778,278, or 128,905 households in 13 counties.''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

'', Chapter 39.

References

Commanderies of the Han dynasty Commanderies of the Jin dynasty (266–420) Commanderies of the Northern dynasties Commanderies of the Sui dynasty {{China-stub