History of Shanxi
History
Shanxi was the location of the powerful state of Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period , which underwent a three-way split into the states of Han, Zhao and Wei in 403 BC, the traditional date taken as the start of the Warring States Period. By 221 BC all of these states had fallen to the state of Qin, which established the Qin Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty ruled Shanxi as the province of Bingzhou. During the Tang Dynasty and after, the area was called Hedong,, or "east of the (Yellow) river".
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, Shi Jingtang, founder of the Later Jin Dynasty, the third of the Five Dynasties, ceded a large slice of northern China to the Khitans in return for military assistance. This territory, called The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, included a part of northern Shanxi.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the sixteen ceded prefectures continued to be an area of hot contention between Song China and the Liao Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty that came after abandoned all of North China to the Jurchen Jin Dynasty in 1127, including Shanxi.
The Yuan Dynasty divided China into provinces but did not establish Shanxi as a province. Shanxi was formally established with its present name and approximate borders by the Ming Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, Shanxi was extended northwards beyond the Great Wall to include parts of Inner Mongolia, including what is now the city of Hohhot, and overlapped with the jurisdiction of the Eight Banners and the Guihua Tümed banner in that area.
After the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, Shanxi was held by warlord Yan Xishan. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japan occupied much of the province after defeating China in the Battle of Taiyuan. Shanxi was also a major battlefield between the Japanese and the Chinese communist guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army during the war.
After the defeat of Japan, much of the Shanxi countryside became important bases for the People’s Liberation Army in the ensuing Chinese Civil War. Yan had incorporated thousands of former Japanese soldiers among his own forces, and these soldiers became part of his failed defense of Taiyuan against the People’s Liberation Army in early 1949.
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