A History of Zhejiang

• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The Dawn of Civilization: The Hemudu and Liangzhu Cultures
• Chapter 2 The Kingdom of Yue: Power and Rivalry in the Spring and Autumn Period
• Chapter 3 Qin and Han Administration: Integrating the Southeast into the Empire
• Chapter 4 The Three Kingdoms: Zhejiang as the Heart of the Eastern Wu
• Chapter 5 Migration and Development: The Six Dynasties Period
• Chapter 6 The Sui Dynasty and the Impact of the Grand Canal
• Chapter 7 Tang Dynasty Prosperity: Agriculture, Poetry, and the Silk Trade
• Chapter 8 The Wuyue Kingdom: Peace and Stability in a Fragmented China
• Chapter 9 The Northern Song: Economic Expansion and Infrastructure
• Chapter 10 The Southern Song Capital: Lin’an and the Height of Imperial Splendor
• Chapter 11 Under the Mongol Yoke: Zhejiang during the Yuan Dynasty
• Chapter 12 Ming Dynasty Foundations: Governance and the Rise of the Gentry
• Chapter 13 The Wokou Crisis: Maritime Defense and Coastal Conflict
• Chapter 14 The Qing Conquest: Resistance and Reconstruction
• Chapter 15 Cultural Zenith: Literature, Philosophy, and Art in the High Qing
• Chapter 16 The Opium Wars and the Opening of Ningbo
• Chapter 17 The Taiping Rebellion: Catastrophe and Social Change
• Chapter 18 Late Qing Modernization: Early Industry and Educational Reform
• Chapter 19 Revolution and the Fall of the Empire: Zhejiang’s 1911 Contribution
• Chapter 20 The Republican Era: Political Power and the Rise of the Kuomintang
• Chapter 21 The War of Resistance: Japanese Occupation and Local Defiance
• Chapter 22 The Path to 1949: The Civil War and Communist Victory
• Chapter 23 The Maoist Transformation: Collectivization and Industrialization
• Chapter 24 The Reform Era: The Emergence of the Zhejiang Economic Model
• Chapter 25 The Digital Frontier: Zhejiang in the 21st Century Global Economy

Zhejiang, a province situated along the eastern coast of China, has long served as a vital cultural, economic, and political artery for the Middle Kingdom. Bordered by the East China Sea to the east and characterized by a diverse landscape of rugged mountains and fertile river deltas, the region has fostered a unique identity that distinguishes it from its northern and inland neighbors. Often referred to as the 'Land of Fish and Rice,' Zhejiang’s geography has played a deterministic role in its history, providing the resources necessary for a dense population and the maritime access required for international commerce.

The history of Zhejiang is not merely a regional narrative but a microcosm of the Chinese imperial experience. From the Neolithic innovations of the Hemudu people to the sophisticated jade artistry of the Liangzhu culture, the province was a cradle of civilization long before the formal unification of China. During the Spring and Autumn period, the Kingdom of Yue emerged as a formidable power, embodying a spirit of resilience and strategic patience that remains a point of pride for the local population today. As the imperial center of gravity shifted southward over the centuries, Zhejiang transitioned from a frontier zone to the very heart of Chinese civilization.

Perhaps the most defining era in the province's history was the Southern Song Dynasty, when the city of Hangzhou (then known as Lin’an) served as the imperial capital. During this time, Zhejiang became the most advanced region on Earth, witnessing unprecedented breakthroughs in printing, gunpowder, and maritime trade. The arrival of the Grand Canal further solidified the province’s importance, linking the southern grain baskets to the northern political centers and ensuring that Zhejiang remained indispensable to the survival of the empire. This period established a tradition of high culture and intellectual rigor that would produce some of China’s greatest poets, painters, and philosophers.

In the modern era, Zhejiang has faced the dual challenges of foreign encroachment and internal upheaval. The opening of treaty ports like Ningbo following the Opium Wars brought the region into direct contact with Western industrial powers, sparking a complex process of modernization. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the province was a battleground for competing ideologies, from the devastating Taiping Rebellion to the fierce resistance against Japanese occupation. It was also the ancestral home of many of the most influential figures in Republican China, shaping the political destiny of the nation during a period of profound transition.

Since the late 20th century, Zhejiang has once again reinvented itself, this time as a pioneer of private enterprise and technological innovation. The 'Zhejiang Model' of economic development, characterized by small-scale entrepreneurship and global trade networks, has transformed once-impoverished rural areas into international manufacturing hubs. From the bustling markets of Yiwu to the high-tech corridors of Hangzhou, the province exemplifies China’s rapid ascent in the global order. The contemporary spirit of Zhejiang is one of pragmatism and bold experimentation, rooted in a deep historical consciousness.

This book aims to provide a comprehensive survey of Zhejiang’s long and storied past. By examining the interplay between geography, politics, and culture, we will explore how this province evolved from a prehistoric marshland into a modern economic powerhouse. Through twenty-five chapters, we will trace the lineage of the people who shaped this land, seeking to understand the enduring legacy of a region that continues to define the pulse of modern China. History here is not a static record of the past, but a living force that continues to propel the province toward a dynamic future.

The story of Zhejiang begins not with emperors or grand armies, but with the subtle yet revolutionary act of cultivating a single grain of rice. Long before the first dynasty unified the lands that would become China, the marshy plains of the lower Yangtze River Delta were home to sophisticated Neolithic societies. These early inhabitants, whose lives are pieced together from fragments of pottery, polished stones, and the foundations of their homes, laid the cultural and agricultural groundwork for a region that would one day become one of the most prosperous in the world. Two cultures, in particular, stand out from this prehistoric dawn: the Hemudu and the Liangzhu. Though separated by millennia, they represent a continuous thread of innovation, from the first tentative steps toward agriculture to the creation of a complex, state-level society.

The first of these, the Hemudu culture, emerged around 5500 BC, flourishing for over two millennia in the area just south of Hangzhou Bay. For centuries, their existence was entirely unknown, buried under layers of earth and the accumulated history of later dynasties. It was not until 1973 that their world was accidentally rediscovered. During the construction of a drainage facility in the town of Hemudu, within the modern city of Yuyao, workers stumbled upon an unusual collection of pottery shards and animal bones. This chance discovery prompted a full-scale archaeological investigation, which soon revealed the remains of a large, well-preserved Neolithic settlement. The waterlogged soil, which had been a nuisance to the construction workers, proved to be an archaeological blessing, preserving organic materials like wood, bone, and even ancient grains of rice in remarkable condition.

The environment of the Hemudu people was vastly different from the cultivated landscapes of modern Zhejiang. Seven thousand years ago, the region was a subtropical marshland, characterized by high temperatures and abundant rainfall. It was a world of dense forests teeming with wild animals like deer and water buffalo, and vast wetlands dotted with lakes where lotus and water caltrop grew. This environment profoundly shaped the Hemudu way of life, particularly their architecture. To cope with the damp, frequently flooded ground, they constructed long, stilt-supported houses. These elevated wooden structures, built with sophisticated mortise-and-tenon joints, kept their living quarters dry and safe from the marshy terrain below. This style of building, known as ganlan, was a remarkable adaptation to the local geography and stands in stark contrast to the semi-subterranean pit houses favored by Neolithic cultures in the arid north of China.

At the heart of the Hemudu economy was the cultivation of rice. While they also engaged in extensive hunting, fishing, and foraging for wild plants, the discovery of vast quantities of domesticated rice grains, husks, and stalks at Hemudu sites like Tianluoshan demonstrates that rice farming was a central and established practice. They used farming implements fashioned from animal bones, such as hoes and spades made from the shoulder blades of water buffalo, to tend their paddies. The Hemudu were among the world's earliest rice farmers, and their success in domesticating this vital crop provided the stable food source necessary for settled village life to flourish. This agricultural revolution on the Yangtze Delta was a pivotal moment, establishing a tradition of rice cultivation that would define the region for millennia to come.

The material culture of the Hemudu people was both practical and artistic. They produced a distinctive type of thick, black pottery, often made with charcoal powder, which gave it its characteristic color. These vessels were frequently decorated with incised geometric patterns or images of plants, and some were cord-marked for texture. Beyond pottery, the Hemudu were skilled artisans in other media. They carved ornaments from jade and ivory, and fashioned tools and harpoons from bone. Perhaps most impressively, they were pioneers in the art of lacquerware. A red lacquered wooden bowl, dated to between 4000 and 5000 BC, is believed to be one of the earliest examples of such an object found anywhere in the world. This artifact, along with unearthed spinning wheels and bone needles that suggest a knowledge of weaving, paints a picture of a resourceful and creative society. After flourishing for over two thousand years, the Hemudu settlements were eventually abandoned. Evidence suggests that two major floods altered the course of the nearby Yaojiang River, salinating the soil and making rice cultivation impossible, forcing the inhabitants to move elsewhere.

Over a thousand years after the Hemudu culture faded, a new and even more advanced civilization rose in the same region. The Liangzhu culture, which lasted from roughly 3300 to 2300 BC, represents the last and most spectacular flourishing of Neolithic jade culture in the Yangtze River Delta. While the Hemudu people lived in relatively modest villages, the Liangzhu built a massive, planned urban center—a testament to their highly organized and complex society. This great settlement, now known as the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City, is located in the Yuhang District of modern Hangzhou and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, a recognition of its profound importance to the origins of Chinese civilization.

First discovered in 1936, the true scale and significance of the Liangzhu site were only revealed through decades of painstaking excavation. Archaeologists uncovered a vast city, complete with a palace complex, ceremonial altars, residential areas, workshops, and protective earthen walls. It was a society that had moved beyond simple subsistence and was capable of mobilizing immense labor for monumental construction projects. This indicates a highly developed social structure with a clear hierarchy, where a powerful elite presided over the general populace. This social stratification is most starkly illustrated in their burial customs. Tombs of the elite were filled with hundreds of exquisite artifacts made from jade, silk, ivory, and lacquer, while the graves of common people contained only simple pottery.

The most defining feature of the Liangzhu culture was its mastery of jade. While the Hemudu had carved simple jade ornaments, the Liangzhu transformed the hard, lustrous stone into objects of breathtaking complexity and symbolic power. Working with nephrite jade, they used advanced techniques to craft items that served as ritual implements and status symbols. Two forms are particularly iconic: the cong and the bi. The cong is a tube-like object, square on the outside and circular on the inside, whose corners are typically decorated with intricate face patterns that may represent deities or spirits. The bi is a flat, circular disc with a hole in the center. Later Chinese traditions would associate the square cong with the Earth and the circular bi with Heaven. The precise meaning these objects held for the Liangzhu people remains a mystery, but their consistent presence in elite tombs, often in large numbers, suggests they were central to their religious beliefs and political power. One high-status tomb, for instance, contained 33 cong and 25 bi, carefully arranged around the body of the deceased.

The Liangzhu people were not only master artisans but also brilliant engineers. To support their large population and thriving rice-based economy, they constructed one of the world's oldest and most extensive water management systems. This massive hydraulic enterprise, built around 5,100 years ago, included a network of high dams, low dams, and levees that created vast reservoirs and canals. This system served multiple purposes: it controlled seasonal flooding from the region's monsoonal rains, irrigated rice paddies during dry spells, and provided a transportation network for moving people and goods. The scale of this project was immense; it is estimated that the construction of a single large dam would have required 3,000 people working for eight years. The existence of such a sophisticated infrastructure demonstrates a centralized authority capable of planning and executing complex, long-term public works, a key hallmark of an early state society.

The influence of the Liangzhu culture was extensive, reaching far beyond its heartland in Zhejiang. Its distinctive jade artifacts and pottery styles have been found in sites as far north as Shanxi and as far south as Guangdong, indicating a wide-reaching network of trade and cultural exchange. For a time, around 2500 BC, Liangzhu was arguably the most advanced civilization in East Asia. Yet, after a millennium of extraordinary achievement, this powerful culture vanished. The great city was abandoned, and for centuries, the area showed little sign of human occupation.

The reason for this sudden collapse has long been a subject of debate among historians and archaeologists, with theories ranging from warfare to disease. However, recent scientific research points overwhelmingly to a climatic catastrophe. Studies of ancient geological and climate data, including evidence from cave stalagmites, indicate that around 4,300 years ago, the region experienced a period of abnormally intense and prolonged monsoon rains. This resulted in massive, persistent flooding of the Yangtze River and its tributaries. It appears that even the sophisticated dams and canals of the Liangzhu were no match for the deluge. The floodwaters would have inundated the low-lying rice paddies, destroying the agricultural base of the civilization, and overwhelmed the city itself, forcing a mass exodus. This dramatic environmental shift brought an abrupt end to a remarkable chapter in Zhejiang's history, leaving behind a magnificent lost city and enigmatic jade treasures as silent witnesses to its former glory.