How is Jiangnan divided?

The Eastern Zhou Dynasty was the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River where the vassal states of wuyue were located, that is, the areas south of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, such as Shanghai, Zhejiang, southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, eastern Jiangxi and northwestern Jiangxi (from the CCTV documentary Where is Jiangnan).

From the end of the Tang Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, the two towns of western Zhejiang and eastern Zhejiang were either divided or merged, collectively known as "two Zhejiang". This area constitutes the core area of "Jiangnan" in the Song Dynasty, which is generally in line with our cognitive scope of Jiangnan today.

Especially after the Song Dynasty moved south, "Jiangnan" became the name of Jiangnan regime again. The so-called "13th year of Zhiyuan" in yuan dynasty history was true, and the core of Southern Song Dynasty's rule was in the two Zhejiang regions with Hangzhou as the center. At this time, "Jiangnan" is often synonymous with "two Zhejiang".

Extended data

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the western part of Zhejiang was divided, Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou and Zhenjiang were placed under Nanjing, and Yuhang, Jiajia and Lake were under the jurisdiction of the Chief Secretary of Zhejiang, which formally laid the boundary between Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces today.

After the Qing Dynasty conquered Nanjing, it cancelled Nanjing's capital status and added jiangnan province to the area under the jurisdiction of the former Zhili Nanjing, which is equivalent to the sum of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces today. This is also the word "Jiangnan", which last existed in the official administrative division.

However, the division of western Zhejiang in the Ming Dynasty was not enough to separate the links between different parts of the south of the Yangtze River. The establishment of jiangnan province in Qing Dynasty could not bring the north of the Yangtze River into "Jiangnan". The core scope of "Jiangnan" in the context of Ming and Qing Dynasties generally includes Jiangsu, Songsong, Changzhou, Zhen, Hangzhou, Jia, Hu, Yingtian (Jiangning) and Taicang Zhili, which was later separated from Suzhou.

These eight prefectures and one state, whether in Jiangsu or Zhejiang, have already surpassed the isolation of administrative divisions. "Jiangnan" in a broad sense also includes Huizhou in Anhui, Shaoxing in Zhejiang, Ningbo and other places, which overlaps with the concept of "Wu dialect area" today and has unique economic and cultural symbolic significance.

Baidu encyclopedia-Jiangnan