Hunan

:Not to be confused with the unrelated provinces of Hainan and Henan

History

Hunan entered the written history of China around 350 BC, when under the kings of the Zhou dynasty it became part of the State of Chu. Until then Hunan was a land of primeval forests, occupied by the ancestors of the modern Miao, Tujia, Dong and Yao peoples, but starting at this time and for hundreds of years thereafter it was a magnet for migration of Han Chinese from the north, who cleared most of the forests and began farming rice in the valleys and plains. To this day, many of the small villages in Hunan are named after the Han families which originally settled there. Migration from the north was especially prevalent during the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties Periods, when nomadic invaders overran the north.

Related Topics:
China - Zhou dynasty - State of Chu - Miao - Tujia - Dong - Yao people - Han Chinese - Eastern Jin Dynasty - Southern and Northern Dynasties

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During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, Hunan was home to its own independent regime, Ma Chu.

Related Topics:
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms - Ma Chu

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Hunan, was, together with Hubei, a part of the province of Huguang (湖廣) till the Qing dynasty.

Related Topics:
Hubei - Huguang - Qing dynasty

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Hunan became an important communications center from its position on the Yangzi River (Changjiang) and on the Imperial Highway constructed between northern and southern China. Its land produced grain so abundantly that it fed many parts of China with its surpluses. The population continued to climb until, by the 19th century, Hunan was overcrowded and prone to peasant uprisings.

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The Taiping Rebellion which began to the south in Guangxi Province in 1850 spread into Hunan and then further eastward along the Yangzi River valley, but ultimately it was a Hunanese army under Zeng Guofan which marched to Nanjing and put down the uprising in 1864. Hunan was relatively quiet until 1910 when there were uprisings against the crumbling Qing dynasty, which were followed by the Communist's Autumn Harvest Uprising of 1927 led by Hunanese native Mao Zedong. The Communists maintained a guerilla army in the mountains along the Hunan-Jiangxi border until 1934, when under pressure from the Nationalist (Kuomintang, KMT) forces they began the famous Long March to bases in Shaanxi Province. After the departure of the Communists, the KMT army fought against the Japanese in the second Sino-Japanese war, defending the capital Changsha until it fell in 1944, when Japan launched Operation Ichigo to control the railroad from Wuchang to Guangzhou (Guanghan Railway). Hunan was relatively unscathed by the civil war that followed the defeat of the Japanese in 1945, and in 1949 the Communists returned once more as the Nationalists retreated southward.

Related Topics:
Taiping Rebellion - Guangxi - 1850 - Zeng Guofan - Nanjing - Autumn Harvest Uprising - Mao Zedong - Jiangxi - Kuomintang - Long March - Shaanxi - Second Sino-Japanese war - Operation Ichigo - Wuchang - Guangzhou - Guanghan Railway

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Being Mao Zedong's home province, Hunan supported the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976, and was slower than most provinces in adopting the reforms implemented by Deng Xiaoping in the years that followed Mao's death in 1976.

Related Topics:
Mao Zedong's - Cultural Revolution - Deng Xiaoping

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Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji is also Hunanese.

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