Gaoyao was located on the south bank of the
Xi River, named for its district's principal feature: the river's
Lingyang Gorge (then known as "Gaoyao"). In the late 6th and early 7th centuries, the administration was relocated to
Duanzhou on the opposite bank of the river, which became an important administrative and military center of the southern
Sui Empire. The was built in Duanzhou during the reign of
Emperor Renzong of Song (1022–1063). When the
Portuguese arrived in the 16th century, Zhaoqing was still an important center, serving as the seat of the
Viceroy of Liangguang (
Guangdong and
Guangxi).
Matteo Ricci's
On the Christian Expedition among the Sinae tells of the early visits of
Macanese-based Europeans to Zhaoqing. The Viceroy
Chen Rui () summoned Macao's
governor and
bishop in the early 1580s, but the town sent its auditor
Mattia Penella and the
Italian Jesuit Michele Ruggieri in their place in 1582. After several false starts, Ruggieri and
Matteo Ricci were allowed to establish their residence in the city, the first Jesuit mission house on
mainland China, after Zhaoqing's governor
Wang Pan learned of Ricci's skill as a mathematician and cartographer. Ricci drew the first modern Chinese map of the world in Zhaoqing in 1584. Ruggieri left for Rome in 1588 but Ricci remained until the next year, when a new viceroy expelled him from the city and obliged the Jesuits to relocate to Shaozhou (now
Shaoguan). During the
Fall of the Ming in the mid-17th century, Zhaoqing served as the capital of the
Prince of Gui's
Southern Ming resistance, with the prince styling himself the Yongli Emperor. The town fell in 1650 and the prince relocated to
Guilin and then various locations in
Guangxi,
Yunnan, and
Kokang. The Jesuits
Andreas Wolfgang Koffler and, later,
Michał Boym stayed for some time at his court. The Qing viceroy of Liangguang relocated to
Guangzhou but Zhaoqing remained a
commandery seat, overseeing the counties of
Gaoyao,
Guangning,
Deqing,
Sihui, and
Kaijian and
Fengchuan (since combined into
Fengkai);
Gaoming (now part of
Foshan);
Xinxing (now part of
Yunfu);
Heshan,
Kaiping, and
Enping (now part of
Jiangmen); and
Yangchun and
Yangjiang (now part of Yangjiang's separate prefecture). ==Geography==