"), the 9th provincial map of the
Chinese Empire in
Martino Martini and
Joan Blaeu's 1655 The earliest evidences of archeology were of the
Majiabang and of the
Hemudu cultures. The later
Liangzhu culture, from around 2600–2000 BC, created complex and beautiful
jade artifacts. Their economy was based on rice cultivation, fishing and constructed houses on stilts over rivers or lakes. During the
Zhou dynasty, the
Wu and
Baiyue 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. The
Chu state from the west (in
Hubei) expanded into this area and defeated the
Yue state. After Chu was conquered by the
Qin state, China was unified. It was not until the fall of the
Western 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 the
upheaval of the Five Barbarians. Although Chinese civilization originated in the
North China Plain around the
Yellow 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 the
Eastern 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, and
celadon porcelain (from
Shangyu). Convenient transportation – the
Grand Canal to the north, the Yangtze River to the west, and seaports such as
Yangzhou – contributed greatly to local trade and also trade between ancient China and other nations. Several Chinese dynasties were based in Jiangnan. After the
Qin dynasty fell, the insurgent state of
Chu took control. Its ruler,
Xiang Yu, was born here. During the
Three Kingdoms period, Jianye (present-day
Nanjing) was the capital of
Eastern 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 by
Qian Liu who made a lasting cultural impact on Jiangnan and its people to this day. After the
Jurchen completely overran northern China in the
Jin–Song war of the 1120s, the exiled
Song dynasty government retreated south, establishing the new Southern Song capital at
Hangzhou in 1127. with a tablet commemorating the
Kangxi Emperor's visit to Nanjing in 1684 During the last years of the
Yuan dynasty, Jiangnan was fought for by two major rebel states:
Zhu Yuanzhang's
Ming faction, based in Nanjing, and the
Suzhou-centered Wu faction led by
Zhang 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 the
Ming 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, the
Yongle Emperor, moved the capital to
Beijing. When the
Qing dynasty first took over China, they renamed the "
Southern Directly-Controlled Area" around the Ming's southern capital
Nanjing to be their
Jiangnan Province, which was later divided into the separate provinces of
Jiangsu and
Anhui overseen by the
Viceroy of Liangjiang. Besides assisting the
Southern Ming as long as possible, Jiangnan's gentry offered initial resistance to the
Manchu Qing by interrupting tax collection in the area. The
Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty made many visits to Jiangnan (), which have been the popular subject of numerous
Chinese operas and television dramas. Earlier, the
Kangxi Emperor visited the region as well. Jiangnan, specifically
Shaoxing, was actually the southern terminus of Kangxi's so-called Southern Inspection Tour. During the 19th century
Taiping Rebellion, the
regime established by the Taiping rebels occupied much of Jiangnan and eventually made
Nanjing 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, and
Chiang Kai-shek's
Northern Expedition, the
Republic of China (ROC), following the wishes of
Sun Yat-sen, made Nanjing the national capital. From the late 1920s until the
Second World War, the Jiangnan area was the focus of Chinese economic development. Much of the
Kuomintang's ruling elite and the ROC's economic elite hailed from the Jiangnan area.
Geographical identity Dialect has also been used as a tool for regional identity and politics in the
Jiangbei and Jiangnan regions. While the city of
Yangzhou 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 the
Yangtze River. Once
Yangzhou'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, the
Yangzhou massacre during the transition from
Ming to
Qing dynasty has resulted in drastic decline of
Wu speaking population in the city and the demographic change eventually made
Taihu Wu dialects extinct in Yangzhou, while
Jianghuai 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 of
Wu fought for the position of the prestige dialect. ==Notable cities==