Taiyuan (Taiyuan Jin: ) is the capital of Shanxi, China. It is the political, economic, cultural, and international exchange center of the province, containing an industrial base focusing on energy and heavy chemicals. Throughout its long history, Taiyuan was the capital or provisional capital of many dynasties in China, hence the name ().
As of 2021, the city governed six districts and three counties, with a total area of 6,988 square kilometers and a permanent population of 5,390,957.
Taiyuan is located roughly in the centre of Shanxi, with the Fen River flowing through the centre of the city.
Etymology and names The two Chinese characters of the city's name are (, "great") and (, "plain"), referring to the location where the Fen River leaves the mountains and enters a relatively flat plain. Throughout its long history, the city had various names, including () (from which its abbreviated single-character name () is derived), (), and ().
During the Tang and subsequent Five Dynasties, the status of the city of Taiyuan was elevated to be the northern capital, hence the names () and (, different from present-day Beijing).
History Taiyuan is an ancient city with more than 2,500 years of urban history, dating back to 497 BC. It was the capital or secondary capital (, ) of Zhao, Former Qin, Eastern Wei, Northern Qi, Northern Jin, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Northern Han. Its strategic location and rich history make Taiyuan one of the economic, political, military, and cultural centers of northern China.
Pre-Qin dynasty history From about 859 BC, the area around modern-day Taiyuan was occupied by the Rong people. In 662 BC, these were driven out by the Di people.
In 497 BC, the first ancient city of Jinyang was built around the southern Jinyuan district of present-day Taiyuan by Dong Anyu (), who was a steward of (), an upper-level official of the state of Jin.
During the Battle of Jinyang in 453 BC, Zhi Yao diverted the flow of the Fen River to inundate the city of Jinyang, causing significant damage to the Zhao. Later, Zhao Xiangzi alerted the Wei and Han, who both decided to ally with the Zhao. On the night of 8 May 453 BC, Zhao troops broke the dams of the Fen River and let the river flood the Zhi armies, which they eventually annihilated, with help from the Wei and Han.Sima Qian vol. 43 司马迁 史记 卷43
The partition of Jin happened in 403 BC, when the state of Jin, then a strong power in northern China, was divided into the three smaller states of Han, Zhao, and Wei. This event is the watershed between the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods in Chinese history.
Qin dynasty In 248 BC, the state of Qin attacked Zhao under General Meng'ao and obtained the area around Jinyang. Qin set up the Commandery of Taiyuan (), with the city of Jinyang as its administrative center. Although the name "Taiyuan" had appeared in historic records before, potentially referring to different regions in present-day southern and central Shanxi, this was the first time the name was officially used to refer to what is today Taiyuan.
Between 229 and 228 BC, the Qin general Li Xin led two armies from the cities of Taiyuan and Yunzhong to attack Zhao's northern commandery of Dai. Three months after General Li Mu's death, Wang Jian, Li Xin, and Qiang Lei conquered Zhao.
In 221 BC, Qin conquered the rest of China and officially started the nation's first imperial dynasty. Qin established 36 commanderies on its territory, and Taiyuan was one of them, with Jinyang as its capital.
Jin dynasty and Sixteen Kingdoms During the Jin dynasty, Taiyuan was again transformed into a vassal state. Following the ending of the Jin dynasty, ethnic minority peoples settled a series of short-lived sovereign states in northern China, commonly referred to as Sixteen Kingdoms. Taiyuan was part of Former Zhao, Later Zhao, Former Qin, Former Yan, Former Qin again, Western Yan, and Later Yan, chronologically.
In 304, Liu Yuan founded the Xiongnu state of Former Zhao, whose army raided the area around Taiyuan for years and eventually conquered it in 316. In 319, Taiyuan became part of Later Zhao, founded by Shi Le. It was then obtained by Former Yan in 358 and by Former Qin in 370.
Fu Jian died in 384. His son Fu Pi declared himself an emperor in 385, with Jinyang as his capital. The following year, he was defeated by the Western Yan prince Murong Yong, and Taiyuan became part of Western Yan.
Southern and Northern Dynasties
In 386, Tuoba Gui founded Northern Wei. In 396, it expanded to Taiyuan. In 534, Eastern Wei was founded by Gao Huan, with its capital in the city of Ye, and Taiyuan as the alternative capital (), where the mansion of the "Great Chancellor" Gao Huan () was located. In 577, Taiyuan was conquered and became part of Northern Zhou.
Sui dynasty
In 581, Emperor Wen of Sui founded the Sui dynasty. Jinyang was first the administrative center of Bing Zhou (), which was transformed into the Taiyuan Commandery.
Tang dynasty In 618, Li Yuan founded the Tang dynasty, which is generally considered to have been a golden age of Chinese civilization. Taiyuan expanded significantly, partly as it was the military base of the founding emperors Li Yuan and Li Shimin.
In 690, Wu Zetian made Taiyuan the Northern Capital, (), one of three in the nation, along with Chang'an and Luoyang, as described in a poem by Li Bai: "The king of heaven has three capitals, the Northern capital is one of them". (""). In 742, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang changed the Northern Capital's name to Beijing ().
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms In 923, Li Cunxu, son of Li Keyong, founded Later Tang, with the capital of Daming, and soon conquered most of northern China, ending Later Liang. Li Cunxu moved the capital from Daming to Luoyang, and Taiyuan was set as a provisional capital, under the name Beidu (北都, literally 'northern capital').Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 275.
In 936, Shi Jingtang established Later Jin in Taiyuan, with help from the Khitan Liao dynasty. The next year, Shi Jingtang moved the capital to Luoyang and then to Kaifeng, and Taiyuan became a provisional northern capital (Beijing) again.
Song dynasty
Zhao Kuangyin (Emperor Taizu) established the Song dynasty and embarked on a campaign of Chinese re-unification. Using a power struggle at the Northern Han court, he moved against it in late 968.A. D. Levine, The Reigns of Hui-tsung (1100–1126) and Ch'in-tsung (1126–1127) and the Fall of the Northern Sung, in P. J. Smith (ed.), The Cambridge History of China, vol. 5, Part One: The Sung Dynasty and Its Precursors, 907–1279, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994), Ch. 7. By early 969, his armies encircled Taiyuan and defeated the reinforcements sent by the Khitan. However, an attempt to flood the city failed. The siege was lifted after three months, as heavy rains caused diseases within the besieging army, the supplies were running low, and another Khitan relief force was advancing towards the city.
Taizu launched the second invasion of Northern Han in September 969, but the armies were recalled after his death on 14 November.
Taizu's brother Emperor Taizong of Song subjugated the last independent kingdoms in the south of China by 978 and in 979 launched the third campaign against the Northern Han and its overlord, the Khitan state of Liao. Using the northwestern route instead of the southern (used in the previous campaigns), Taizong's armies defeated a major Liao force. Isolated, the Northern Han resisted for only fifteen days before surrendering. In contrast to the mild policies of his brother, Taizong dealt harshly with the city. He ordered the flooding of Taiyuan by releasing the Fen River and set the city on fire. The former capital was subsequently downgraded from prefecture to county town status.
It was not until 982 that a new city was founded on the banks of the Fen River. The oldest existing building in Taiyuan today is the Temple of the Goddess (), inside the Jinci complex. It was originally built in 1023 and reconstructed in 1102.
From 1027, one of two private markets for Tangut goods, particularly salt, operated in Taiyuan.R. Dunnel, The Hia Hia, in D. Twitchet and J. K. Fairbank (eds.), The Cambridge History of China, vol. 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994), p. 178 During the Song period, many people, including the family of the chancellor Wang Anshi, migrated south.P. J. Smith, Shen-tsung's Reign and the New Policies of Wang An-shih, 1067–1085, in P. J. Smith (ed.), The Cambridge History of China, vol. 5, Part One: The Sung Dynasty and Its Precursors, 907–1279, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994), p. 357.
Yuan state
The Mongol Empire emerged in 1206 under the leadership of Genghis Khan, and it expanded quickly. In 1218, Taiyuan was conquered by the Mongol army led by General Muqali. Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty in 1271, and the administrative area of Taiyuan Lu () was expanded.
The Taoist Longshan Grottoes were built during the early Yuan dynasty.
Ming dynasty
In 1368, the Hongwu Emperor established the Ming dynasty, and Taiyuan was obtained from Yuan by General Xu Da. The Ming dynasty installed the Nine Military Garrisons to defend the northern territory during the reign of the Hongzhi Emperor, which included the garrison of Taiyuan ().
Shanxi merchants became prominent in Chinese business history from the beginning of the Ming dynasty, thanks to the logistical requirements of the military around the borders of northern Shanxi to defend against the remnant Mongol Northern Yuan dynasty.
Qing Throughout the Qing dynasty, international trade with Russia, especially of tea, and the creation and development of so-called draft banks, or piaohao, boosted the central Shanxi basin to become the financial center of Qing China. Even though most piaohao were based in the neighboring counties of Qi, Taigu, and Yuci, Taiyuan became a significant trading center, due to its political and economic status in Shanxi.History of banking in China
In 1900, the Taiyuan massacre occurred, during which angry Chinese killed European children and their missionary parents.
Republican era
The warlord Yan Xishan retained control of Shanxi from the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 to the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Taiyuan consequently flourished as the center of his comparatively progressive province and experienced extensive industrial development. It was linked by rail both to the far southwest of Shanxi and to Datong in the north. Until 1949, Yan's arsenal in Taiyuan was the only factory in China sufficiently advanced to produce field artillery. In 1923, Yan facilitated the construction of the province's first airport, Taiyuan Chengbei Airport, which allowed him to further develop a small air force. Because Yan succeeded in keeping Shanxi uninvolved in most of the major battles between rival warlords that occurred in China during the 1910s and 1920s, Taiyuan was never taken from Yan by an invading army until the Japanese occupied it in 1937.Gillin, Donald G. "Portrait of a Warlord: Yen Hsi-shan in Shansi Province, 1911–1930." The Journal of Asian Studies. Vol. 19, No. 3, May 1960. Retrieved 23 February 2011. pp.289–294