During the
Spring and Autumn period and the
Warring States period, the area belonged to the independent state of
Chu. In the
Three Kingdoms period, the area of present-day Qianjiang was part of the
Eastern Wu. Portions of present-day Qianjiang were ruled by the
Sui dynasty as part of . Part of Qianjiang was incorporated into the
Tang dynasty as Jiangling County (). In 857 CE, the area was placed under the . During the
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the area belonged to the independent kingdom of
Jingnan. Qianjiang County () was first organized in 965 CE, during the
Song dynasty. In 1293, during the Yuan dynasty, local flooding prompted officials to move the county center to present-day .
Republic of China and World War II In 1913, when the
Republic of China introduced
circuit system, the area was placed under the jurisdiction of . In 1925, circuits were abolished, and the area was directly administered by the province. From the spring of 1930 to the winter of 1932, Qianjiang belonged to the
Hunan–Hubei–Jiangxi Soviet. In 1932, the area was organized by the Republic of China under the new system, belonging to the province's Seventh Administrative Inspectorate. In 1934, the area was placed under the Sixth Administrative Inspectorate. Qianjiang was occupied by the Japanese during the
Sino-Japanese War from May 1939 to August 1945. The Japanese primarily used prominent local Chinese to run the "puppet" government, notably many members of the Zhang family. From the spring of 1942 to the autumn of 1945, the area hosted a number of regional resistance governments.
People's Republic of China The area was captured by the
People's Liberation Army in December 1947. Upon the foundation of the
People's Republic of China in 1949, the area was placed under . The communists from 1949 to early 1980s constructed a pharmaceutical plant, a textile factory, a book-printing factory, a large oil-and-gas drilling field, and other industrial installations in the Qianjiang area. As the national economic reform took force beginning in the late 1970s many of these state-run businesses went under. During the period from 1959 to 1962, the largest "Cadre Camp" in China, or in the world as people at that time liked to call it, was established in Qianjiang. The camp was established due to fears of a potential war between the
Soviet Union and China following the
Sino-Soviet split. As a result of these fears, the Chinese government dispersed people and resources throughout the country. Many young college graduates were sent to local Cadre Camps to train and entrench. This was the so-called "Priority 1 Order" given by Vice Chairman
Lin Biao and planned by
Chairman Mao. The young cadres in Qianjiang worked to improve the agricultural situation, such as draining hundreds of acres of a local lake to be used as farmland. However, this action caused damage to the local ecosystem. Qianjiang was well known for abundant local produces. Prominent local produces include duck eggs and lily seeds. They were so abundant that the produces were often sold at a nominal price. However, around the year of 1960, Qianjiang didn't escape the fate of most Chinese towns and was swept by an extended famine that was grossly caused by the political destruction of the fundamental aspects of the economy (production, supply-chain, and ownership). Many in Qianjiang were starved to death. People from Qianjiang and surrounding areas, compared with people from the rest of the Hubei Province, have a reputation for being generous, gentle, and sincere. Prior to the modern days, Qianjiang demonstrated traditional, agriculture-based, Chinese ethos. E.g., if the farmers consider a water buffalo has been hard-working and loyal they would not slaughter it. But rather they would wait until it ages and dies. Then they would bury it and then build it a tomb. There was a labor camp during the communist era in the Qianjiang area. The conditions at the camp were harsh. People would often sneak out to seek additional food. However, they never attempted to escape because it was impossible to hide in any place during those decades. Every town was tightly controlled and monitored by the government. No one would provide a stranger shelter and would only report him immediately to the local government. In 1970, the area was reorganized as . On May 25, 1988, Qianjiang County was abolished, and was replaced with a
county-level city. In October 1994, Qianjiang was re-organized as a
sub-prefectural city. ==Geography==