Jiangnan

Jiangnan or Jiang Nan (Chinese: 江南; pinyin: Jiāngnán; Wade–Giles: Chiang nan; sometimes spelled Kiang-nan) is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of the Yangtze Delta. This region is largely Wu-speaking.

The word Jiangnan is based on the Chinese name for the Yangtze, Cháng Jiāng, and nán meaning "south." The region encompasses the Shanghai Municipality, the southern part of Jiangsu Province, the southern part of Anhui Province, the northern part of Jiangxi Province, and the northern part of Zhejiang Province. The most important cities in the area are Shanghai, Nanjing, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Shaoxing.

Jiangnan has been a leading region of China for at least 1000 years, with its strong economy and human resources. Although only constituting 5% of area in China, it has been historically responsible for a significant amount of the Chinese GDP. The intellectual life of Jiangnan has been highly distinguished throughout Chinese history and greatly influenced Chinese culture as a whole.

In the last 15 years, manufacturing, including automobiles (General Motors, Volkswagen), electronics and textiles industries, are concentrated in this area, taking advantage of cheap labor and convenient transportation. Jiangnan industries play an important role in China's export trade and produce much of the consumer goods used around the world.

History of Jiangnan

The earliest archaeological evidences were of the Majiabang and of the Hemudu cultures. The later Liangzhu culture, from around 2600-2000 BC, created complex and beautiful jade artifacts. Their economy was based on rice cultivation, fishing and constructed houses on stilts over rivers or lakes. During the Zhou Dynasty, the Wu and Yue peoples inhabited the area and lived similarly to the Liangzhu, with heavy aquaculture and stilt houses, but became increasingly sinicized through contact with northern Chinese states. They adopted the Chinese writing system and created excellent bronze swords. The Chu state from the west (in Hubei) expanded into this area and defeated the Yue state. After Chu was conquered by Qin, China was unified. It was not until the fall of Western Jin during the early 4th century AD that northern Chinese moved to Jiangnan in significant numbers. The Yellow River valley was becoming barren due to flooding (lack of trees after intensive logging to create farmland) and constant harassment and invasion by the Wu Hu nomads.

A stone tortoise with a tablet commemorating Kangxi's visit to Nanjing in 1684

Although Chinese civilization originated in the North China Plain around the Yellow River, natural climate change and continuous harassment from nomadic enemies damaged North China's agricultural productivity throughout the 1st millennium AD. Many people settled in South China, where the Jiangnan area's warm and wet climate were ideal for supporting agriculture and allowed highly sophisticated cities to arise. As early as the East Han period (circa 2nd century AD), Jiangnan areas became one of the more economically prominent areas of China. Other than rice, Jiangnan produced highly profitable trade products such as tea, silk, and celadon porcelain (from Shangyu). Convenient transportation - the Grand Canal to the north, the Yangtze River to the west, and seaports such as Yangzhou - contributed greatly to local trade and also trade between ancient China and other nations.

Several Chinese Dynasties were based in Jiangnan. During the Three Kingdoms period, Jianye (modern-day Nanjing) was the capital of the Kingdom of Wu. In the 3rd century, many northern Chinese moved here after Turkic nomads controlled the north. After the Jurchen completely overran northern China in the 1120s, the exiled Song Dynasty government retreated south, establishing the new Southern Song capital at Hangzhou in 1127.

During the last years of the Yuan Dynasty Jiangnan was fought for by two major rebel states: Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming, based in Nanjing, and the Suzhou-centered Wu led by Zhang Shicheng. A ten-year rivalry ended with Zhu's capture of Suzhou in 1367; having thus reunified Jiangnan, Zhu proclaimed himself the first emperor of the new Ming Dynasty on the Chinese New Year Day (20 January) of 1368, and a few month later expelled the Mongols from Northern China as well. Nanjing remained the capital of the Ming Dynasty until the early 15th century, when the third Ming Emperor, Yongle, moved the capital to Beijing.

The Qing Dynasty Qianlong Emperor made many visits to Jiang Nan (Chinese: 乾隆下江南; pinyin: Qiánlóng Xià Jiāngnán), which have been the popular subject of numerous Chinese operas and television dramas. The Kangxi Emperor visited the region as well.

During the 19th century Taiping Rebellion, the rebel Taiping state occupied much of Jiangnan and eventually made Nanjing its capital, though the area also suffered much damage as the Rebellion was quelled and Manchurian rule restored.

After the fall of the Qing monarchy in 1911, and Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition, the Republic of China, following the wishes of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, made Nanjing the national capital. From the late 1920s until the Second World War, the Jiangnan area was the focus of Chinese economic development. Much of the Kuomintang's ruling elite and the ROC's economic elite hailed from the Jiangnan area.

History of Jiangnan

See also