Editing Jiangsu (section)

==History==
{{More citations needed section|date=November 2024}}
During the earliest Chinese dynasties, the area that is now Jiangsu was far away from the center of Chinese civilization, which was in the northwest [[Henan]]; it was home of the Huai barbarians ({{lang|zh|淮夷}}), an ancient ethnic group. During the [[Zhou dynasty]] more contact was made, and eventually the [[state of Wu]] appeared in southern Jiangsu, one of the many hundreds of states that existed across northern and central China at that time. Near the end of the [[Spring and Autumn period]], Wu became a great power under [[King Helu of Wu]], and defeated in 484&nbsp;BC the [[state of Qi]], a major power in the north in modern-day [[Shandong]] [[province]], and contest for the position of overlord over all states of China. The state of Wu was subjugated in 473&nbsp;BC by the [[state of Yue]], another state that had emerged to the south in modern-day [[Zhejiang]] province. Yue was in turn subjugated by the powerful [[state of Chu]] from the west in 333 BC. Eventually the [[state of Qin]] swept away all the other states, and unified China in 221 BC.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/317225/Jiangsu/71208/Cultural-life |title=Jiangsu - province, China |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=22 January 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140514011237/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/317225/Jiangsu/71208/Cultural-life/ |archive-date=14 May 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Xiao Dan - turtle in the tower - P1070634.JPG|thumb|left|One of the [[bixi (tortoise)|tortoise stelae]] of Xiao Dan (478–522), a member of the [[Liang dynasty|Liang]] royal family. Ganjiaxiang, [[Qixia District]], near Nanjing]]

Under the reign of the [[Han dynasty]] (206 BC to 220 AD), Jiangsu was removed from the centers of civilization in the [[North China Plain]], and was administered under two ''[[zhou (political division)|zhou]]'' (provinces): [[Xuzhou (ancient China)|Xu]] Province in the north, and [[Yangzhou (ancient China)|Yang]] Province in the south. During the [[Three Kingdoms]] period, southern Jiangsu became the base of the [[Eastern Wu]] (222 to 280), whose capital, [[Jiankang|Jianye]] (later renamed to Jiankang), is modern [[Nanjing]]. When nomadic invasions overran northern China in the 4th century, the imperial court of the [[Jin dynasty (265–420)|Jin dynasty]] moved to Jiankang. Cities in southern and central Jiangsu swelled with the influx of migrants from the north. Jiankang remained as the capital for four successive [[Southern dynasties]] and became the largest commercial and cultural center in China.<ref>{{cite web |language=zh-hans |url=http://dfz.nanjing.gov.cn/17557/17560/200906/t20090624_984387.html |script-title=zh:管玉春, 六代繁华帝王都 东晋、南朝的都城——建康 |date=2009-06-24 |access-date=2015-01-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104202205/http://dfz.nanjing.gov.cn/17557/17560/200906/t20090624_984387.html |archive-date=2015-01-04 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Tiger hill.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Huqiu Tower]] of [[Tiger Hill, Suzhou|Tiger Hill]], Suzhou, built in 961]]

After the Sui dynasty united the country in 581, the political center of the country shifted back to the north, but the Grand Canal was built through Jiangsu to link the Central Plains with the prosperous Yangtze Delta. The [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907) relied on southern Jiangsu for annual deliveries of grain. It was during the [[Song dynasty]] (960–1279), which saw the development of a wealthy mercantile class and emergent [[market economy]] in China, that [[Jiangnan]] (southern Jiangsu, [[Shanghai]], and adjacent areas) emerged as a center of [[trade]]. From then onwards, major cities like [[Suzhou]] or [[Yangzhou]], would be synonymous with opulence and luxury in China. Today the region remains one of the richest parts of China.

The Jurchen [[Jin dynasty, 1115–1234|Jin dynasty]] [[Jingkang Incident|gained control]] of [[North China]] in 1127 during the [[Jin campaigns against the Song dynasty|Jin-Song wars]], and [[Huai River]], which used to cut through north Jiangsu to reach the [[Yellow Sea]], was the border between the north, under the Jin, and the south, under the [[Southern Song dynasty]]. The Mongols took control of China in the thirteenth century. The [[Ming dynasty]], which was established in 1368 after driving out the [[Mongols]] who had occupied China, initially put its capital in [[Nanjing]]. Regions surrounding Nanjing, corresponding to Jiangsu and Anhui today, were designated as [[Nanzhili]] province (literally "southern directly governed"). Following a coup by Zhu Di (later, the [[Yongle Emperor]]), however, the capital was moved to [[Beijing]], far to the north, although Nanjing kept its status as the southern capital. In late Ming, Jiangnan continued to be an important center of trade in China; some historians see in the flourishing [[textiles]] industry at the time incipient [[industrialization]] and [[capitalism]], a trend that was however aborted.

[[File:SuzhouNorthTemplePagoda.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The {{convert|76|m|abbr=on}} tall [[Beisi Pagoda]] of [[Suzhou]], built between 1131 and 1162 during the [[Song dynasty]]]]

The [[Qing dynasty]] converted Nanzhili to "Jiangnan province"; in 1666 Jiangsu and Anhui were split apart as separate provinces. Jiangsu's borders have been for the most part stable since then.

With the start of Western incursion into China in the 1840s, the rich and mercantile [[Yangtze Delta|Yangtze River Delta]] was increasingly exposed to Western influence; [[Shanghai]], originally an unremarkable little town of Jiangsu, quickly developed into a metropolis of trade, banking, and cosmopolitanism, and was split out later as an independent municipality. Jiangnan also figures strongly in the [[Taiping Rebellion]] (1851{{spaced ndash}}1864), a massive and deadly rebellion that attempted to set up a [[Christianity|Christian]] [[theocracy]] in China; it started far to the south, in [[Guangdong]] province, swept through much of South China, and by 1853, had established Nanjing as its capital, renamed as Tianjing ({{lang|zh|天京}} "Heavenly Capital").

The [[Republic of China (1912–49)|Republic of China]] was established in 1912,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.cultural-china.com/en/183History6971.html|title=Republic of China (1912 AD－1949 AD) - China culture|work=cultural-china.com|access-date=22 January 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018062336/http://history.cultural-china.com/en/183History6971.html|archive-date=18 October 2016}}</ref> and China was soon torn apart by warlords. Jiangsu changed hands several times, but in April 1927, [[Chiang Kai-shek]] established a government at [[Nanjing]]; he was soon able to bring most of China under his control. This was however interrupted by the [[second Sino-Japanese War]], which began full-scale in 1937; on December 13, 1937, Nanjing fell, and the combined atrocities of the occupying Japanese for the next three months would come to be known as the [[Rape of Nanjing]], after which it became the seat of the [[Wang Jingwei regime|collaborationist government of East China]] under [[Wang Jingwei]], and most of Jiangsu remained under Japanese occupation until the end of the war in 1945.

After the war, Nanjing was once again the capital of the Republic of China, though now the [[Chinese Civil War]] had broken out between the [[Kuomintang]] government and [[Chinese Communist Party|Communist forces]], based further north, mostly in [[Northeast China]]. The decisive [[Huaihai Campaign]] was fought in northern Jiangsu; it resulted in Kuomintang defeat, and the communists were soon able to cross the [[Yangtze River]] and take Nanjing. The Kuomintang fled southward and eventually ended up in [[Taipei]], from which the Republic of China government continues to administer [[Taiwan]], [[Penghu|Pescadores]], and its neighboring islands, though it also continues to claim (technically, at least) Nanjing as its rightful ''de jure'' capital.

After the communist takeover, [[Beijing]] (formerly Peiping) was made capital of the People's Republic, and Nanjing was demoted to be the provincial capital of Jiangsu. The [[Chinese economic reform|economic reforms]] of [[Deng Xiaoping]] initially focused on the south coast of China, in [[Guangdong]] province, which soon left Jiangsu behind; starting from the 1990s they were applied more evenly to the rest of China. [[Suzhou]] and [[Wuxi]], two southern cities of Jiangsu in close proximity to neighboring [[Shanghai]], have since become particularly prosperous, being among the top 10 cities in China in terms of [[gross domestic product]] and outstripping the provincial capital of Nanjing. The income disparity between northern and southern Jiangsu however remains large.