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Jiangnan is a geographic area inChina referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of theYangtze River, including the southern part of itsdelta. The region encompasses the city ofShanghai, the southern part ofJiangsu Province, the southeastern part ofAnhui Province, the northern part ofJiangxi Province andZhejiang Province. The most important cities in the area includeAnqing,Changzhou,Hangzhou,Nanjing,Ningbo,Shaoxing,Suzhou,Wuxi,Wenzhou,Yangzhou andZhenjiang.
Jiangnan has long been regarded as one of the most prosperous regions in China due to its wealth in trade and very highhuman development.[1] Most people of the region speakWu Chinese dialects as their native languages.
The name Jiangnan is thepinyinromanization of theStandard Mandarin pronunciation of江南, meaning "[Lands] South of the[Yangtze] River".[2] Althoughjiang (江) is now the common Chinese word for anylarge river, it was historically used inAncient Chinese to refer specifically to the Yangtze River, which defines the Jiangnan region.[3]
In older and non-standard romanization systems, Jiangnan was historically written asChiang-nan,[4]Kiangnan,[5] andKeang-nan[6] in English and other European languages.
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The earliest archaeological evidences were of theMajiabang and of theHemudu cultures. The laterLiangzhu culture, from around 2600–2000 BC, created complex and beautifuljade artifacts. Their economy was based on rice cultivation, fishing and constructed houses on stilts over rivers or lakes. During theZhou dynasty, theWu andBaiyue peoples inhabited the area 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. TheChu state from the west (inHubei) expanded into this area and defeated theYue state. After Chu was conquered by theQin state, China was unified. It was not until the fall of theWestern Jin dynasty 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 warfare during theupheaval of the Five Barbarians.
Although Chinese civilization originated in theNorth China Plain around theYellow 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 theEastern Han dynasty (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, andceladon porcelain (fromShangyu). Convenient transportation – theGrand Canal to the north, the Yangtze River to the west, and seaports such asYangzhou – contributed greatly to local trade and also trade between ancient China and other nations.
Several Chinese dynasties were based in Jiangnan. After theQin dynasty fell, the insurgent state ofChu took control. Its ruler,Xiang Yu, was born here. During theThree Kingdoms period, Jianye (present-dayNanjing) was the capital ofEastern Wu. In the 3rd century, many northern Chinese moved here after nomadic groups controlled the north. In the 10th century,Wuyue was a small coastal kingdom founded byQian Liu who made a lasting cultural impact on Jiangnan and its people to this day. After theJurchencompletely overran northern China in theJin–Song war of the 1120s, the exiledSong dynasty government retreated south, establishing the new Southern Song capital atHangzhou in 1127.
During the last years of theYuan dynasty, Jiangnan was fought for by two major rebel states:Zhu Yuanzhang'sMing faction, based in Nanjing, and theSuzhou-centered Wu faction led byZhang 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 theMing dynasty on Chinese New Year's Day (20 January) of 1368, and a few months 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 ruler, theYongle Emperor, moved the capital toBeijing.
When theQing dynasty first took over China, they renamed the "Southern Directly-Controlled Area" around the Ming's southern capitalNanjing to be theirJiangnan Province, which was later divided into the separate provinces ofJiangsu andAnhui overseen by theViceroy of Liangjiang. Besides assisting theSouthern Ming as long as possible, Jiangnan's gentry offered initial resistance to theManchu Qing by interrupting tax collection in the area.[7]
TheQianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty made many visits to Jiangnan (Chinese:乾隆下江南;pinyin:Qiánlóng Xià Jiāngnán), which have been the popular subject of numerousChinese operas and television dramas. Earlier, theKangxi Emperor visited the region as well. Jiangnan, specificallyShaoxing, was actually the southern terminus of Kangxi's so-called Southern Inspection Tour.[8]
During the 19th centuryTaiping Rebellion, theregime established by the Taiping rebels occupied much of Jiangnan and eventually madeNanjing its capital. The area suffered much damage as the rebellion was quelled and Qing imperial rule restored.
After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, andChiang Kai-shek'sNorthern Expedition, theRepublic of China (ROC), following the wishes ofSun Yat-sen, made Nanjing the national capital. From the late 1920s until theSecond World War, the Jiangnan area was the focus of Chinese economic development. Much of theKuomintang's ruling elite and the ROC's economic elite hailed from the Jiangnan area.
Dialect has also been used as a tool for regional identity and politics in theJiangbei and Jiangnan regions. While the city ofYangzhou was a flourishing and prosperous centre of trade, it was considered part of Jiangnan (south of the river), which was known to be wealthy, even though Yangzhou was north of theYangtze River. OnceYangzhou's wealth and prosperity began to wane, it was then considered to be part of Jiangbei (literally "north of the river"), the "backwater".
In Yangzhou, theYangzhou massacre during the transition fromMing toQing dynasty has resulted in drastic decline ofWu speaking population in the city and the demographic change eventually madeTaihu Wu dialects extinct in Yangzhou, whileJianghuai Mandarin becomes the more prominent dialect since then. This also made Yangzhou no longer perceived as part of Jiang Nan by some of the Wu speaking population. In the Jiangnan region itself, multiple subdialects ofWu fought for the position of the prestige dialect.[9]
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Historically, Jiangnan exportedsilk andgreen tea.[6]
With the exclusion of Yangzhou came the denigration of its dialect, a variant of Jianghuai "Mandarin" (guanhua). The various Wu dialects from the Lake Tai area became the spoken language of choice, to the point of replacing guanhua...
