Ancient times Jixi was ruled by the
Jurchen and
Goguryeo people. By the
Shang dynasty, dwellers here had begun to communicate with people in the Central Plain. It was in the
Han dynasty that primitive agriculture in this region had made great progress. During the
Tang dynasty, Jixi was under the control of the
Balhae. As the
Manchus conquered the territories occupied by the
Ming dynasty in 1644, the basin of the
Amur River was blocked in order to protect the Manchu people's place of origin. In this period, the population of the Jixi region experienced a sharp decrease. In 1662, the
Kangxi Emperor ordered the general of
Ninguta to dominate the territory. Since a large number of people engaged in reclaiming wasteland and collecting
ginseng, Jixi and the whole
Ussuri River basin gradually became the base for medicinal materials.
Early modern period In the second half of the 19th century, as
Czarist Russia advanced through
Siberia and reached the
Sea of Okhotsk, the Qing officials like General Tepuqin () made a proposal to open Manchuria for farming in order to oppose the conquest of Russia, and so the
Qing government forsook the policy of blockading on the Northeast region of China. A large number of the
Han Chinese, especially from the
Shandong Peninsula and
Zhili, migrated into
Manchuria. The Qing government set up
Mishan Prefecture in this territory in 1908.
Coal resources were discovered constantly in Jixi during this period. In September 1914, a merchant named Yuan Dazhang () from
Mukden was approved to set up the Mixi Coal Mine Company, which represents the regular production of coal in Jixi. However, construction of
Chinese Eastern Railway one of the provisions brought a nucleus of Russian Jews to northern Manchuria. In January 1924, Muling Coal Mine Corporation was operated jointly by the Jewish businessman Solomon L. Skidelsky and the Jilin Province government. The headquarters of the company was located on Ashihe Street, Nangang District, Harbin. The output of Muling Colliery has reached 1.6 million tons in 1931. Since The
Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 19, 1931, the whole of Manchuria was seized by Japan following the Mukden Incident, and in 1932, a sympathetic government,
Manchukuo, was established. The Jixi region then became a colony of the
Japanese. On December 15, 1935, Jixi Railway Station's construction was completed by
South Manchuria Railway(SMR). On September 1, 1941, the
Manchukuo government established Jining County (). The first mayor of the county was Kubota Yutaka (). The Japanese settlers brutally slaughtered more than 100 thousand miners in the Jixi mining area, leaving several mass graves in Didao. On August 9, 1945, Togashi Ichiro (), the conductor of
Didao Colliery, ordered the destruction of the coalpits in
Hengshan,
Didao and Muling as the
Soviet Red Army closed in.
Modern era On August 12, 1945, the Soviet Army captured Jining County, and the Military Headquarters commanded the Jixi mining area to resume production. On October 18, 1947, Jixi Mining Bureau was founded in order to control the collieries and the Coal Mine Machinery Factory. On July 30, 1949, the Northeast Executive Committee allowed Jining County to change its name to Jixi County, which was administered by
Songjiang Province. On June 19, 1954, Jixi County was administered by
Heilongjiang Province as the Songjiang Province became part of Heilongjiang province. During the First
Five-Year Plan of China, several industrial projects including Chengzihe No.9 subvertical and the Chengzihe Coal Washery were constructed. By 1956, the population of Jixi had reached 234,154, and the output of coal rose to 5 million tons per year. On December 18, 1956,
the State Council of China decided to set up Jixi City (Prefectural-Level) instead of Jixi County, administering 5 districts including
Jiguan,
Didao,
Mashan,
Hengshan and
Lishu. On March 7, Jixi City was formally established. In 1970, Chengzihe District was established. In 1983,
Jidong County was put under Jixi's administration. The coal-mining industry was developing rapidly during the 1970s and 1980s. By 1991, the total coal output of Jixi ranked second in the
Chinese Mainland. In the 1980s, Mishan and
Hulin were incorporated into Jixi's jurisdiction. Jixi has reached its current domain. ==Geography==