Imperial Era During the Han Dynasty, Lou () County was established, named after the Lou River (present-day Liu River: ) which flowed from west to east through the region. It was briefly renamed Louzhi () during the Xin Dynasty under Wang Mang. In 220 AD,
Zhang Zhao of Eastern Wu, was enfeoffed as the Marquess of Lou, making the county a marquessate. Following several administrative transitions, it was renamed Xinyi () in the 5th century, with the administrative seat eventually relocating near Mount Kun (Kunshan). During the
Wu-Yue period, polder fields were actively expanded in low-lying areas. However, from the late 10th to the mid-11th century, hydraulic management deteriorated; the area remained sparsely populated with unrestricted land occupation, while the peripheral marshlands served as hideouts for fugitives and salt smugglers. By the late 11th century, extensive land reclamation led by local magnates—particularly around
Dianshan Lake—began to obstruct irrigation and drainage systems. The weakening flow of the
Wusong River further impeded flood discharge—an environmental crisis that persisted until the mid-12th century. In 1217, the eastern higher-lying areas of Kunshan County, being geographically remote and marked by tax evasion, were partitioned to form
Jiading county. The region's strategic importance grew during the Yuan dynasty with the rise of maritime grain transport. In 1296, Kunshan was elevated to a subprefecture, and in 1315 its administrative seat was relocated to present-day Taicang, until
Zhang Shicheng seized control of the region. The era was marked by the emergence of notably wealthy individuals, including
Shen Wansan. Concurrently, a vibrant cultural scene developed, supported by patrons such as Gu Ying, whose "Yushan Grass Hall" became an important gathering place for artists like
Ni Zan. Following the establishment of the Taicang Guard in 1367, Taicang Subprefecture was formally created in 1497 from the elevated portions of Kunshan, Changshu, and Jiading. In the 16th century, Wei Liangfu reformed the local Southern songs into the more sophisticated Kunshan melody, favored by the literati. Kunshan native Liang Chenyu subsequently authored
Washing Silk (Huan Sha Ji), the first play composed specifically for this melody. Known as
Kunqu, the genre became the dominant form of elite theatre in China proper until the mid-19th century Taiping Rebellion. In 1645, Kunshan suffered a massacre by Qing forces, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. Notable local Ming loyalists include
Gu Yanwu and Zhu Yongchun, both of whom remained active until the late 17th century.
Xu Qianxue established a large private library: Chuanshi lou (Pavilion for the Transmission of the Truth) in the county. In 1724, due to its dense population, Kunshan was split into two counties: Kunshan and Xinyang () to share a same walled city. By the mid-Qing period, market towns such as Siqiao, Shipu, Qiuxu, and Penglang rose to prominence.
Modern Period Following
Humphrey Marshall's 1853 meeting in Kunshan, his successor
Robert M. McLane also met with Governor-General Yiliang there in 1854, formally requesting the opening of the Yangtze River. In 1860, the Taiping Army captured Kunshan. In 1863,
Charles George Gordon moved the headquarters of the
Ever Victorious Army from Songjiang to Kunshan. The rebellion caused significant destruction and population loss in both counties. The post-rebellion destruction of hydraulic systems forced a shift from rice to
reed farming. By the 1920s, reeds occupied 10% of Kunshan's farmland, while rice dropped to 25%. This environmental change fostered habitats for snail intermediate hosts, making
schistosomiasis highly prevalent in the area. In 1912, Xinyang County was merged back into Kunshan. During 1911-2, 130 local villages formed an alliance to protest rents. A 1920s survey indicated intensifying social polarization as landownership became more concentrated. The proportion of landless tenant farmers rose from 57% in 1905 to 77% by 1924, with 66.4% of them indebted to their landlords. Additionally, 65.9% of landlords were absentees residing in cities like Suzhou and Shanghai. In 1926, National Association of Vocational Education of China selected Xugongqiao of Kunshan as an experimental zone for rural reconstruction. Despite its intellectual legacy,
Liang Shuming criticized the experiment for its over-reliance on gentry elites and failing to mobilize the broader peasantry, leading to a very low actual participation rate. The integration of Kunshan into the Shanghai metropolitan area began to emerge in the early 20th century. Following the opening of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway and the establishment of Kunshan Station, the Zikawei Observatory was forced to relocate its terrestrial magnetism station to Lujiabang (Lukiapang) in southeastern Kunshan, due to electromagnetic interference from Shanghai's trams. This regional connectivity was further strengthened in 1935 with the construction of the Shanghai-Suzhou cinder road passing through the county. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Nanking-Shanghai Garrison Command relocated to Kunshan on August 23, 1937. On November 15, Japanese forces occupied the city, maintaining control until August 1945. In 1948, the local government implemented rent reductions to curb Communist expansion. The county's first comprehensive census in 1970 recorded an infection rate of 47.5%. Reed-clearing campaigns in the 1950s met local opposition due to dependence on the crop. In the late 20th century, Kunshan pivoted toward an export-oriented economy by establishing a development zone through self-raised funds. In September 1989, Kunshan was officially upgraded from a county to a county-level city. Town and village-level industries, once the most important enterprises in Kunshan comprised 69.8 percent of the 2,205 industrial enterprises and 58.5 percent of the gross value of industrial output in 1996. Prior to China mainland's accession to the WTO in 2001, over 900 Taiwanese enterprises had settled in the city, with contracted investment exceeding $5.4 billion USD, representing approximately one-tenth of the total contracted Taiwanese investment in mainland China at the time. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Kunshan has been granted exceptional administrative powers for its economy. In 2012, Kunshan was selected to pilot the reform that places counties directly under Jiangsu provincial administration. == Administration ==