Ningbo is one of China's oldest cities, with a history dating back to the
Hemudu culture in 4800 BC. Once known as Mingzhou (明州), Ningbo was known as a trade city on the
Silk Road at least two thousand years ago, and then as a major port, along with
Yangzhou and
Guangzhou in the
Tang dynasty; thereafter, the major ports for foreign trade in the
Song dynasty.
Eastern Jin dynasty Ningbo was the source of
Sun En's revolt against the
Eastern Jin dynasty. Sun led the "Five Bushels of Rice" (Wudou Midao), a Daoist cult. They were called "armies of demons" and utilized "boats with decks".
Zhoushan served as their main base, but they were defeated in the end in 402.
Tang and Song dynasty Since the
Tang dynasty Ningbo was an important commercial port. Arab merchants lived in Ningbo during the
Song dynasty when it was known as Mingzhou, due to the fact that the oceangoing trade passages took precedence over land trade during this time. The
Jin dynasty (1115–1234) invaded the Song dynasty in the 12th century. Before he fled to
Wenzhou, Ningbo served as a refuge for
Emperor Gaozong of Song. In 1130 the Jin army reached Ningbo. But heavy resistance and the geography of the area halted the Jin advance, and they retreated and withdrew.
Ming dynasty The city of Ningbo was known in Europe for a long time under the name of Liampó. This is the usual spelling used e.g. in the standard Portuguese history,
João de Barros's
Décadas da Ásia, although Barros explained that Liampó was a Portuguese "corruption" of the more correct Nimpó.; the spelling Liampó is also attested in the
Peregrination (
Peregrinação) by
Fernão Mendes Pinto, a (so-called) autobiography written in Portuguese during the 16th century. For the mid-16th-century Portuguese, the nearby promontory, which they called the cape of Liampó, after the nearby "illustrious city" was the easternmost known point of the mainland Asia. Ningbo, therefore, was the destination of many Japanese embassies during this period. After going into Ningbo they then went to other cities in China. In 1523, two rival embassies were sent to Ningbo by Japan, then in a state of civil war known as the
Sengoku period. One of the emissaries was a Chinese,
Song Suqing, who had moved to Japan earlier. Song Suqing became involved in a disagreement with a rival Japanese trade delegation, which led to the
Ningbo incident where the Japanese pillaged and plundered in the vicinity of Ningbo before escaping in stolen ships, defeating a Ming pursuing flotilla on the way. As a result of the incident, the port of Ningbo was closed to the Japanese – only two more Japanese missions were received (in 1540 and 1549) until the end of the Ming dynasty. Ningbo was one of the places where the Portuguese first encountered the Japanese.
Qing dynasty Ningbo was one of the five Chinese
treaty ports opened by the
Treaty of Nanjing (signed in 1842) at the end of the
First Opium War between
Britain and China. During the war, British forces took possession of the walled city of Ningbo briefly after storming the fortified town of
Zhenhai at the mouth of the Yong River on October 10, 1841. The British repulsed a Chinese attempt to retake the city in the
Battle of Ningpo on March 10, 1842. In 1864, the forces of the
Taiping Rebellion held the town for six months. In March 1885, during the
Sino-French War, Admiral Courbet's naval squadron blockaded several Chinese warships in Zhenhai Bay and exchanged fire with the shore defences. Ningbo was once famed for traditional Chinese furniture production. During the
Qing dynasty, western encyclopedias described Ningbo as a center of craftsmanship and industry- "The gold and silversmiths of Ningpo are noted for the delicacy and tastefulness of their work, and Ningpo confectionery is celebrated all over China. The specialty of the place, however, is its elegantly carved and inlaid furniture. Silk-culture is extensively carried on in the surrounding country, and silk-weaving is an important industry. In 1893 498 piculs of silk piece-goods were exported. The development of manufacturing interests in Japan has given a groat impetus to cotton-culture, and in 1893 the steam cotton-ginning establishments of Ningpo cleaned over 60,000 piculs of raw cotton."
Massacre of Portuguese pirates During the
Qing dynasty, in the 19th century, the Ningbo authorities contracted Cantonese pirates to exterminate and massacre Portuguese pirates who raided Cantonese shipping around Ningbo. The massacre was "successful", with 40 Portuguese dead and only 2 Chinese dead, being dubbed "The
Ningpo Massacre" by an English correspondent, who noted that the Portuguese pirates had behaved savagely towards the Chinese, and that the Portuguese authorities at Macau should have reigned in the pirates. Portuguese pirates who raided Cantonese shipping in the early 19th century were exterminated by Cantonese forces around Ningbo. According to Daniel Barenblatt, Prince
Tsuneyoshi Takeda received, with
Prince Mikasa, a special screening by
Shirō Ishii of a film showing imperial planes loading germ bombs for bubonic dissemination over Ningbo in 1940. :"It has been said of the Ningbo fishermen that, 'no people in the world apparently made so great an advance in the art of fishing; and for centuries past no people have made so little further progress.'" ==References==