Editing Zhejiang (section)

==History==
===Prehistory===
[[Kuahuqiao site|Kuahuqiao]] culture was an early Neolithic settlement in the Hangzhou area extant in 6000–5000&nbsp;BC.<ref>Leping Jiang & Li Liu, [http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/liu305/ The discovery of an 8000-year-old dugout canoe at Kuahuqiao in the Lower Yangzi River, China.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160927125855/http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/liu305/|date=27 September 2016}} antiquity.ac.uk</ref><ref name="YangZheng2014">{{cite journal|last1=Yang|first1=Xiaoyan|last2=Zheng|first2=Yunfei|last3=Crawford|first3=Gary W.|last4=Chen|first4=Xugao|title=Archaeological Evidence for Peach (Prunus persica) Cultivation and Domestication in China|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=9|issue=9|year=2014|pages=e106595|issn=1932-6203|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0106595|pmid=25192436|pmc=4156326|bibcode=2014PLoSO...9j6595Z|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Zhejiang was the site of the [[Chinese Neolithic|Neolithic cultures]] of the [[Hemudu culture|Hemudu]] (starting in 5500&nbsp;BC) and [[Liangzhu culture|Liangzhu]] (starting in 3400&nbsp;BC).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub1/entry-5375.html|title=HEMUDU, LIANGZHU AND MAJIABANG: CHINA'S LOWER YANGTZE NEOLITHIC CULTURES {{!}} Facts and Details|last=Hays|first=Jeffrey|website=factsanddetails.com|language=en|access-date=2018-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128075309/http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub1/entry-5375.html|archive-date=28 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Ancient history===
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The area of modern Zhejiang was outside the major sphere of influence of [[Shang dynasty|Shang civilization]] during the second millennium BC. Instead, this area was populated by peoples collectively known as Dongyue.

The [[Yue (state)|kingdom of Yue]] began to appear in the chronicles and records written during the [[Spring and Autumn period]]. According to the chronicles, the kingdom of Yue was in Northern Zhejiang. [[Shiji]] claims that its leaders were descended from the [[Xia dynasty|Xia]] founder [[Yu the Great]]. The "[[Song of the Yue Boatman]]" ({{lang-zh|c=越人歌|p=Yuèrén Gē|l=Song of the man of Yue}}) was transliterated into Chinese and recorded by authors in North China or inland China of Hebei and Henan around 528 BC. The song shows that the Yue people spoke [[Old Yue language|a language]] that was mutually unintelligible with the dialects spoken in north and inland China. The [[Sword of Goujian]] bears [[bird-worm seal script]]. [[Yuenü]] ({{lang-zh|c=越女|p=Yuènǚ|w=Yüeh-nü|l=the Lady of Yue|links=no}}) was a swordswoman from the state of Yue. To check the growth of the [[Wu (state)|kingdom of Wu]], [[Chu (state)|Chu]] pursued a policy of strengthening Yue.

Under [[Goujian|King Goujian]], Yue recovered from its early reverses and fully annexed the lands of its rival in {{nowrap|473 BC}}. The Yue kings then moved their capital center from their original home around [[Mount Kuaiji]] in present-day [[Shaoxing]] to the former Wu capital at present-day [[Suzhou]]. With no southern power to turn against Yue, Chu opposed it directly and, in 333&nbsp;BC, succeeded in destroying it. Yue's former lands were annexed by the [[Qin Empire]] in 222&nbsp;BC and organized into a [[commandery (China)|commandery]] named for Kuaiji in Zhejiang but initially headquartered in [[Wu County|Wu]] in [[Jiangsu]].

===Han and the Three Kingdoms===
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[[Kuaiji Commandery]] was the initial power base for [[Xiang Liang]] and [[Xiang Yu]]'s rebellion against the [[Qin Empire]] which initially succeeded in restoring the kingdom of Chu but [[Chu-Han contention|eventually fell]] to the [[Han dynasty|Han]]. Under the [[Eastern Han|Later Han]], control of the area returned to the settlement below [[Mount Kuaiji]] but authority over the [[Minyue]] hinterland was nominal at best and its Yue inhabitants largely retained their own political and social structures.

At the beginning of the [[Three Kingdoms]] era (AD 220–280), Zhejiang was home to the warlords [[Yan Baihu]] and [[Wang Lang (Cao Wei)|Wang Lang]] prior to their defeat by [[Sun Ce]] and [[Sun Quan]], who eventually established the [[Eastern Wu|Kingdom of Wu]]. Despite the removal of their court from Kuaiji to [[Jiankang|Jianye]] (present-day [[Nanjing]]) and they continued development of the region and benefitted from influxes of refugees fleeing the turmoil in northern China. Industrial kilns were established and trade reached as far as [[Manchuria]] and [[Kingdom of Funan|Funan]] (southern [[Mainland Southeast Asia]]).

Zhejiang was part of the [[Eastern Wu|Wu]] during the [[Three Kingdoms]]. Wu (229–280), commonly known as Eastern Wu or Sun Wu, had been the economically most developed state among the [[Three Kingdoms]] (220–280). The historical novel [[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]] records that Zhejiang had the best-equipped naval force. The story depicts how the states of [[Wei (state)|Wei]] ({{lang|zh|魏}}) and [[Shu (state)|Shu]] ({{lang|zh|蜀}}), lack of material resources, avoided direct confrontation with the Wu. In armed military conflicts with Wu, the two states relied intensively on tactics of camouflage and deception to steal Wu's military resources including arrows and bows.

===Six Dynasties===
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Despite the continuing prominence of [[Nanjing]] (then known as Jiankang), the settlement of Qiantang, the former name of Hangzhou, remained one of the three major metropolitan centers in the south to provide major tax revenue to the imperial centers in the north China. The other two centers in the south were Jiankang and [[Chengdu]]. In 589, Qiantang was raised in status and renamed Hangzhou.

Following the fall of [[Eastern Wu|Wu]] and the turmoil of the [[Wu Hu uprising]] against the [[Jin dynasty (266–420)]], most of elite Chinese families had collaborated with the non-Chinese rulers and military conquerors in the north. Some may have lost social privilege and took refuge in areas south of the Yangtze River. Some of the Chinese refugees from North China might have resided in areas near Hangzhou. For example, the clan of [[Zhuge Liang]] (181–234), a chancellor of the state of [[Shu Han]] from [[Central Plain (China)|Central Plain]] in north China during the [[Three Kingdoms]] period, gathered together at the suburb of Hangzhou, forming an exclusive, closed village [[Zhuge Village]] (Zhege Cun), consisting of villagers all with family name "Zhuge." The village has intentionally isolated itself from the surrounding communities for centuries to this day and only recently came to be known in public. It suggests that a small number of powerful, elite Chinese refugees from the [[Central Plain (China)|Central Plain]] might have taken refuge south of the Yangtze River. However, considering the mountainous geography and relative lack of agrarian lands in Zhejiang, most of these refugees might have resided in some areas in South China beyond Zhejiang, where fertile agrarian lands and metropolitan resources were available,  mainly Southern [[Jiangsu]], Eastern [[Fujian]], [[Jiangxi]], [[Hunan]], [[Anhui]] and provinces where less cohesive, organized regional governments had been in place. Metropolitan areas of [[Sichuan]] was another hub for refugees, given that the state of [[Shu (state)|Shu]] had long been founded and ruled by political and military elites from the Central Plain and North China. Some refugees from North China might have found residence in South China depending on their social status and military power in the north. The [[Eastern Jin|rump Jin state]] or the [[Southern dynasties]] vied against some elite Chinese from the [[Central Plain (China)|Central Plain]] and south of the Yangtze River.

===Sui and Tang eras===
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Zhejiang, as the heartland of the [[Jiangnan]] (Yangtze River Delta), remained the wealthiest area during the [[Six Dynasties]] (220 or 222–589), Sui and Tang. After being incorporated into the [[Sui dynasty]], its economic richness was used for the [[Sui dynasty]]'s ambitions to expand north and south, particularly into [[Goguryeo–Sui War|Korea]] and Vietnam. The plan led the [[Sui dynasty]] to restore and expand the network which became the [[Grand Canal of China]]. The Canal regularly transported grains and resources from Zhejiang, through its metropolitan center Hangzhou (and its hinterland along both the [[Zhe River]] and the shores of [[Hangzhou Bay]]) and from [[Suzhou]] and thence to the [[North China Plain]]. The débâcle of the Korean war led to Sui's overthrow by the [[Tang dynasty|Tang]], who then presided over a centuries-long golden age for the country. Zhejiang was an important economic center of the empire's [[Jiangnan]] East Circuit and was considered particularly prosperous. Throughout the [[Tang dynasty]], The Grand Canal had remained effective, transporting grains and material resources to [[North China plain]] and metropolitan centers of the empire. As the Tang dynasty disintegrated, Zhejiang constituted most of the territory of the regional kingdom of [[Wuyue]].

===Wuyue era===
After the collapse of the Tang dynasty in 907, the entire area of what is now Zhejiang fell under the control of the kingdom [[Wuyue]] established by King [[Qian Liu]], who selected [[Hangzhou]] (a city in the modern day area of Zhejiang) as his kingdom's capital. Despite being under Wuyue rule for a relatively short period of time, Zhejiang underwent a long period of financial and cultural prosperity which continued even after the kingdom fell.
[[File:Qian Liu (King Wusu of Wuyue).jpg|thumb|150px|left|Portrait of [[Qian Liu]], the King of [[Wuyue]], by [[Ming dynasty]] painter.]]

After Wuyue was conquered during the reunification of China, many shrines were erected across the former territories of Wuyue, mainly in Zhejiang, where the kings of Wuyue were memorialised, and sometimes, worshipped as being able to dictate weather and agriculture. Many of these shrines, known as "Shrine of the Qian King" or "Temple to the Qian King", still remain today, with the most popularly visited example being that near [[West Lake]] in Hangzhou.

China's province of Zhejiang during the 940s was also the place of origin of the [[Hu (surname)|Hú]] family (Hồ in Vietnamese) from which the founder of the [[Hồ dynasty]] who ruled Vietnam, Emperor [[Hồ Quý Ly]], came from.<ref name="Taylor2013">{{cite book|author=K. W. Taylor|title=A History of the Vietnamese|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P2HP31kOSA4C&q=Ho+quy+ly+zhejiang6&pg=PA166|date=9 May 2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-87586-8|pages=166–|access-date=29 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224060556/https://books.google.com/books?id=P2HP31kOSA4C&pg=PA166&dq=Ho+quy+ly+zhejiang&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6Lv2UcKvNNHD4AOo6ICwBA&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Ho%20quy%20ly%20zhejiang&f=false6|archive-date=24 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Hall2008">{{cite book|author=Kenneth R. Hall|title=Secondary Cities and Urban Networking in the Indian Ocean Realm, C. 1400-1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gyPjBevBHxcC&q=Ho+quy+ly+zhejiang&pg=PA161|year=2008|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-2835-0|pages=161–|access-date=29 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170504080657/https://books.google.com/books?id=gyPjBevBHxcC&pg=PA161&dq=Ho+quy+ly+zhejiang&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6Lv2UcKvNNHD4AOo6ICwBA&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Ho%20quy%20ly%20zhejiang&f=false|archive-date=4 May 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Song era===
[[File:Ying%27en_Gate_in_Shaoxing_04_2012-07.JPG|thumb|300px|left|[[Song dynasty]] era (1223) city gate in [[Shaoxing]]]]
The [[Song dynasty]] re-established unity around 960. Under the Song, the prosperity of South China began to overtake that of North China. After the north was lost to the [[Jurchen people|Jurchen]] [[Jurchen Jin|Jin dynasty]] in 1127 following the [[Jingkang Incident]], Hangzhou became the capital of the Song dynasty under the name [[Hangzhou|Lin'an]], which was renowned for its prosperity and beauty, it was suspected to have been the largest city in the world at the time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm |title=Largest Cities Through History|publisher=Geography.about.com|date=2013-07-19|access-date=2013-09-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050527095609/http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm|archive-date=27 May 2005|url-status=live}}</ref>

From then on, northern Zhejiang and neighboring southern Jiangsu have been synonymous with luxury and opulence in Chinese culture. The [[Mongols|Mongol]] conquest and the establishment of the [[Yuan dynasty]] in 1279 ended Hangzhou's political clout, but its economy continued to prosper. The famous traveler [[Marco Polo]] visited the city, which he called "Kinsay" (after the Chinese ''Jingshi'', meaning "Capital City") claiming it was "the finest and noblest city in the world."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/polo-kinsay.asp|title=Internet History Sourcebooks Project|website=sourcebooks.fordham.edu|access-date=13 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413201403/https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/polo-kinsay.asp|archive-date=13 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

Greenware ceramics made from [[celadon]] had been made in the area since the 3rd-century [[Sima Jin|Jin dynasty]], but it returned to prominence&mdash;particularly in [[Longquan]]&mdash;during the Southern Song and Yuan. Longquan greenware is characterized by a thick unctuous glaze of a particular bluish-green tint over an otherwise undecorated light-grey porcellaneous body that is delicately potted. Yuan Longquan celadons feature a thinner, greener glaze on larger vessels with decoration and shapes derived from Middle Eastern ceramic and metalwares. These were produced in large quantities for the Chinese export trade to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and (during the [[Ming dynasty|Ming]]) Europe. By the Ming, however, production was notably deficient in quality. It is in this period that the Longquan kilns declined, to be eventually replaced in popularity and ceramic production by the kilns of [[Jingdezhen]] in [[Jiangxi]].<ref>Vainker, Shelaugh. <u>Chinese Pottery and Porcelain.</u> London: British Museum Press, 1991.</ref>

===Yuan and Ming eras===
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[[File:Ceramic planter from the Ming Dynasty.jpg|thumb|This tripod planter from the [[Ming dynasty]] was found in Zhejiang province. It is housed in the [[Smithsonian]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
Zhejiang was finally [[Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty|conquered by the Mongols]] in the late 13th century who later established the short lived [[Yuan dynasty]]. Zhejiang became part of the much larger [[Jiangzhe Province]].

The [[Ming dynasty]], which drove out the Mongols in 1368, finally established the present day province of Zhejiang with its borders having little changes since this establishment.

As in other coastal provinces, number of fortresses were constructed along the Zhejiang coast during the early Ming to defend the land against [[wokou|pirate]] incursions. Some of them have been preserved or restored, such as Pucheng in the south of the province ([[Cangnan County]]).

===Qing era===
[[File:Dayu Bay - Shitang Cun - P1210531.JPG|thumb|left|A restored Qing era (1891) bridge on a coastal road]]
Under the late Ming dynasty and the [[Qing dynasty]] that followed it, Zhejiang's ports were important centers of international trade.

"In 1727 the to-min or 'idle people' of Cheh Kiang province (a [[Ningbo|Ningpo]] name still existing), the yoh-hu or 'music people' of [[Shanxi|Shanxi province]], the si-min or 'small people' of Kiang Su (Jiangsu) province and the [[Tanka people]] or 'egg-people' of [[Guangdong|Canton]] (to this day the boat population there), were all freed from their social disabilities and allowed to count as free men."<ref>{{cite book|quote=the lot of both Manchu and Chinese bondsmen. In 1727 the to-min or "idle people " of Cheh Kiang province (a Ningpo name still existing), the yoh-hu or " music people " of Shan Si province, the si-min or "small people " of Kiang Su province, and the tan-ka or "egg-people" of Canton (to this day the boat population there), were all freed from their social disabilities, and allowed to count as free men. So far as my own observations go, after residing for a quarter of a century in half the provinces of China, north, south, east, and west, I should be inclined to describe slavery in China as totally invisible to the naked eye; personal liberty is absolute where feebleness or ignorance do not expose the subject to the rapacity of mandarins, relatives, or speculators. Even savages and foreigners are welcomed as equals, so long as they conform unreservedly to Chinese custom. On the other hand, the oldfashioned social disabilities of policemen, barbers, and playactors still exist in the eyes of the law, though any idea of caste is totally absent therefrom, and "unofficially" these individuals are as good as any other free men. Having now taken a cursory view of Chinese slavery from its historical aspect, let us see what it is in practice. Though the penal code forbids and annuls the sale into slavery of free persons, even by a husband, father, or grandfather, yet the number of free persons who are sold or sell themselves to escape starvation and misery is considerable. It is nominally a punishable offence to keep a free man or lost child as a slave; also for parents to sell their children without the consent of the latter, or to drown their girls; but in practice the law is in both cases ignored, and scarcely ever enforced; ''a fortiori'' the minor offence of selling children, even with their consent. Indeed, sales of girls for secondary wives is of daily occurrence, and, as we have seen, the Emperors Yung-cheng and K'ien-lung explicitly recognized the right of parents to sell children in times of famine, whilst the missionaries unanimously bear witness to the fact that the public sale of children in the streets—for instance, of Tientsin—was frequently witnessed during recent times of dearth. But slave markets and public sales are unknown in a general way. Occasionally old parents sell their children in order to purchase coffins for themselves. Only a few years ago a governor and a censor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0bkNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA404|title=China, past and present|author=Edward Harper Parker|year=1903|publisher=Chapman and Hall, ld.|location=London|page=404|access-date=2012-02-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603164245/http://books.google.com/books?id=0bkNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA404|archive-date=3 June 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> "Cheh Kiang" is another romanization for Zhejiang. The Duomin ({{lang-zh|s=惰民|hp=duò mín|w=to-min|links=no}}) are a caste of [[Untouchability|outcasts]] in this province.

During the [[First Opium War]], the British navy defeated [[Eight Banners]] forces at [[Ningbo]] and [[Dinghai]]. Under the terms of the [[Treaty of Nanking]], signed in 1843, Ningbo became one of the five Chinese [[treaty ports]] opened to virtually unrestricted foreign trade. Much of Zhejiang came under the control of the [[Taiping Heavenly Kingdom]] during the [[Taiping Rebellion]], which resulted in a considerable loss of life in the north-western and central parts of the province, sparing the rest of Zhejiang from the disastrous depopulation that occurred. In 1876, [[Wenzhou]] became Zhejiang's second treaty port. [[Lower Yangtze Mandarin|Jianghuai Mandarin]] speakers later came to settle in these depopulated regions of northern Zhejiang.

===Republican era===
{{See also|Chekiang Province, Republic of China}}
During the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], which led into [[World War II]], much of Zhejiang was occupied by Japan and placed under the control of the Japanese puppet state known as the [[Reorganized National Government of China]]. Following the [[Doolittle Raid]], most of the B-25 American crews that came down in China eventually made it to safety with the help of Chinese civilians and soldiers. The Chinese people who helped them, however, paid dearly for sheltering the Americans. The [[Imperial Japanese Army]] began the [[Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign|Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign]] to intimidate the Chinese out of helping downed American airmen. Imperial Japanese forces killed an estimated 250,000 Chinese civilians from the area of Hangzhou to [[Nanchang]] and also [[Zhuzhou]] while searching for Doolittle's men.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/ |title=PBS Perilous Flight |publisher=Pbs.org |access-date=2013-09-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910035849/http://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/ |archive-date=10 September 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===People's Republic era===
After the People's Republic of China took control of [[Mainland China]] in 1949, the [[Taiwan|Republic of China]] government based in [[Taiwan]] continued to control the [[Dachen Islands]] off the coast of Zhejiang until 1955, even establishing a rival Zhejiang provincial government there. During the [[Cultural Revolution]] (1966–76), Zhejiang was in chaos and disunity and its economy was stagnant, especially during the high tide (1966–69) of the revolution. The agricultural policy favoring grain production at the expense of industrial and cash crops intensified economic hardships in the province. Mao's self-reliance policy and the reduction in maritime trade cut off the lifelines of the port cities of Ningbo and Wenzhou. While Mao invested heavily in railroads in interior China, no major railroads were built in South Zhejiang, where transportation remained poor.<ref name=wiley>{{cite journal|url=http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/118764017/PDFSTART|title=Regional Inequality in China: A Case Study of Zhejiang Province|doi=10.1111/j.0040-747X.2004.00292.x|date=2004-02-16|access-date=2013-09-10|volume=95|journal=Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie|pages=44–60|last1=Wei|first1=Yehua Dennis|last2=Ye|first2=Xinyue}}{{dead link|date=February 2019|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Zhejiang benefited less from central government investment than some other provinces due to its lack of natural resources, a location vulnerable to potential flooding from the sea and an economic base at the national average. Zhejiang, however, has been an epicenter of capitalist development in China and has led the nation in the development of a market economy and private enterprises.<ref name=wiley/> Northeast Zhejiang, as part of the Yangtze Delta, is flat, more developed and industrial.<ref name=wiley/>