Prehistory , located to the east of the walled city of Nanjing, was the origin of the city's name of Jinling. The water in the front is
Xuanwu Lake. The 1993 discovery of "
Nanjing Man" in Hulu Cave in
Jiangning District established that reached eastern China around 600,000
years ago, hundreds of thousands of years earlier than previously thought. Following the advent of in China and the end of the
Last Glacial Period, the area around Nanjing was home to
Neolithic settlements intermediate between societies along the
Yellow River such as the
Dawenkou culture and those around
Lake Tai and
Hangzhou Bay such as the
Majiabang and
Songze cultures.
Agriculture was being practiced in
Qixia District by 5000 BC, and the local Beiyinyangying culture (, ) possessed , a kind of
rice wine vessel, by about 3000 BC. About 2000 BC, the Qinhuai River Basin was the home of the dense
Bronze Age settlements of the Hushu culture (, ). The earliest cities in Nanjing were formed around these settlements. Connecting the development of these ruins,
Zhou-era
burial mounds, and
Chinese legends concerning the
Zhou ancestors, some
Chinese archaeologists have argued for Nanjing as the site of
Taibo's original settlement of
Wu as the
Shang and Zhou encroached southward from the
Central Plains around the 12th century BC.
Ancient history In 571 BC, the
state of
Chu established Tangyi in Liuhe. This is the oldest extant administrative establishment in Nanjing. In 541 BC,
Wuby then centered on
Suzhoubuilt Laizhu Town in Gaochun or Gucheng. The Wu king
Fuchai fortified Yecheng in Nanjing in 495BC. Wu was conquered by
Yue in 473 BC, and the city was rebuilt at the mouth of the Qinhuai River the following year. Later Yuecheng was established on the outskirts of the present-day
Zhonghua Gate, which was the beginning of the construction of the main city of Nanjing. In 333 BC, Chu defeated Yue and built Jinlingyi in the western part of Nanjing. It was the earliest administrative construction in the main city of Nanjing. In 210 BC, the
First Emperor of
Qin visited the east and changed Jinling City to Moling. The area was successively part of the
Kuaiji,
Zhang, and
Danyang prefectures under the Qin and
Han dynasties. It was part of the
Yangzhou region which was established by
Han Wudi in Yuanfeng 5 (106 BC). Nanjing was later made the seat of Danyang Prefecture and served as the chief city in the Yangzhou region for about 400 years from the late Han to the early
Tang.
Capital of the Six Dynasties '' sculpture at
Xiao Xiu's tomb (AD518).
Stone sculptures of the Southern Dynasty mausoleums continue to be used as an icon of the city. The
Six Dynasties is a collective term for six
Chinese dynasties that all maintained national capitals at Jiankang. The six dynasties were the
Eastern Wu (AD222–280), the
Eastern Jin (317–420), and the
four Southern Dynasties of the
Liu Song,
Southern Qi,
Liang, and
Chen (420–589). At the
end of the Eastern Han dynasty, the warlord
Sun Quan, who ruled
Jiangdong, moved his ruling office to Moling in 211. The following year, he built the
Stone City at the site of Jinlingyi, and renamed Moling to Jianye. After Sun Quan proclaimed himself emperor in 229, Jianye served as the capital of his
Eastern Wu dynasty through the
Three Kingdoms period. This marked the first time a Chinese dynastic capital was moved from the north to
southern China, as the north came under the rule of the
Sixteen Kingdoms.
pagoda in
Qixia Temple. It was built in AD601 and rebuilt in the 10th century. Jiankang was the center of administration in the south for more than two and a half centuries, even as China entered the
Northern and Southern dynasties period. After the Eastern Jin fell in 420, it continued to serve as the capital for the
Southern dynasties of
Liu Song,
Southern Qi,
Liang and
Chen. During this time, Jiankang was the international hub of East Asia. Based on historical documents, the city had 280,000 registered households. Assuming an average Nanjing household consisted of about 5.1 people, the city had more than 1.4 million residents. Possibly the best preserved of them is the ensemble of the Tomb of
Xiao Xiu (475–518), a brother of
Emperor Wu of Liang.
Destruction and revival The period of division ended when the
Sui dynasty reunified China and almost destroyed the entire city, turning it into a small town. The city was razed after the Sui took it over. It was renamed Shengzhou under the
Tang dynasty and revived during the late Tang. It was chosen as the capital and again called Jinling under the
Southern Tang (937–976), which succeeded the state of
Yang Wu. It was renamed Jiangning in the
Northern Song and again renamed Jiankang in the
Southern Song. Jiankang's textile industry burgeoned and thrived during the Song despite the constant threat of
invasions from the north by the
Jurchen-led
Jin dynasty. The court of
Da Chu, a short-lived puppet state established by the Jurchens, and the court of Song were once in the city. In Jianyan 3 (1129), Jiankang became the temporary capital (, ) of the Song, being set as Eastern Capital (, ). Although people like
Yue Fei argued for maintaining the imperial court being in the city, in Shaoxing 8 (1139) it withdrew from Jiankang to Lin'an (present
Hangzhou) and Jiankang relegated to the "preserving capital" (, ). The Southern Song were eventually destroyed by the
Mongols. During the Mongols' rule as the
Yuan dynasty, the city's status as a hub of the
textile industry was further consolidated. According to
Odoric of Pordenone, the
prefectural capital of Jinling ("Chilenfu") had 360 stone bridges, which were finer than anywhere else in the world. It was well populated and had a large craft industry. In 1239, Jiankang was renamed Jiqing (集庆).
Southern capital of the Ming dynasty , established as a
garden by the
Hongwu Emperor , mausoleum of the
Hongwu Emperor, founder of the
Ming dynasty In 1365，
Zhu Yuanzhang captured Ziqing Circuit and changed its name to Yingtian Prefecture (應天府). In 1364, he was enthroned as the King of Wu and established at Yingtian the capital. He rebuilt and expand the city of Jiankang. In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang
overthrew the Yuan and enthroned as the Hongwu Emperor of the
Ming dynasty, he renamed the city Nanjing and made it the southern capital in 1368 (a central capital or
Zhongdu was being planned in Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown
Fengyang). In 1379, the Zhongdu project was abandoned and Nanjing became the capital of the Ming dynasty, called Jingshi (京师 "
The Capital"). The Hongwu Emperor constructed a long
city wall around Nanjing, as well as a new
Ming Palace complex, and government halls. It took 200,000 laborers 21 years to finish the wall, which was intended to defend the city and its surrounding region from coastal pirates. The present-day
City Wall of Nanjing was mainly built during that time and today it remains in good condition and has been well preserved. It is among the longest surviving
city walls in China. The
Jianwen Emperor ruled from Yingtian from 1398 to 1402. It is believed that Nanjing was the largest city in the world from 1358 to 1425 with a population of 487,000 in 1400. Having usurped power from his nephew and uncertain of the loyalty of the region's officials, the
Yongle Emperor relocated the capital in 1421 to Beiping, where he had long served as the regional governor as the Prince of
Yan. Because the new status of Yingtian was included in the Hongwu Emperor's "
ancestral injunctions" for his dynasty, however, the Yongle Emperor
was obliged to preserve its special status, at least in name. The "northern capital" came to be known as Beijing and the 'southern capital' as Nanjing. Both controlled territories that were "directly administered" by the emperor and his staff,
Beizhili in the north and
Nanzhili in the south. , the "Forbidden City of Nanjing", was home to the first two Ming emperors The
Hongxi Emperor wanted to restore Nanjing as the sole imperial capital and undertook preparations to do so. On February 24, 1425, he appointed Admiral
Zheng He as the defender of Nanjing and ordered him to continue his command over the
Ming treasure fleet for the city's defense. The succeeding
Xuande Emperor preferred to remain in Beijing, leaving it the primary and
de facto capital Owing to the continuing importance of the
ancestral injunctions, however, Nanjing was designated in official documents as the actual capital and Beijing as a temporary capital from 1425 to 1441. In 1441, the
Yingzong Emperor ordered the "provisional" or "temporary" (, ) prefix removed from Beijing's government seals and further ordered that the southern imperial administration would henceforth be required to prefix "Nanjing" to their own seals to distinguish them. Besides the city wall, other Ming-era structures in the city included the famous
Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum and
Porcelain Tower, although the latter was destroyed by the
Taipings in the 19th century either to prevent a hostile faction from using it to observe and shell the city or from superstitious fear of its
geomantic properties. A gigantic
stele, cut on the orders of the Yongle Emperor, lies abandoned in the
Yangshan Quarry some east of the walled city. As the center of the empire, early-Ming Nanjing had worldwide connections. It was home of the admiral
Zheng He, who went to
sail the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and it was visited by foreign dignitaries, such as a king from Borneo who died during his visit to China in 1408. The
Tomb of the King of Boni, with a
spirit way and a
tortoise stele, was discovered south of the walled city in
Yuhuatai District in 1958 and has been restored. Nanjing briefly again became the capital of the
Southern Ming emperor from 1644 to 1645. After the fall of Beijing to
Li Zicheng's rebel forces and then to the
Manchu-led
Qing dynasty in the spring of 1644, the Ming prince
Zhu Yousong was enthroned in Nanjing in June 1644 as the Hongguang Emperor. His short reign was described by later historians as the first reign of the so-called
Southern Ming dynasty. Beset by factional conflicts, his regime could not offer effective resistance to Qing forces, when the Qing army, led by the Manchu prince
Dodo approached
Jiangnan the next spring. Days after
Yangzhou fell to the Manchus in late May 1645, the Hongguang Emperor fled Nanjing, and the imperial Ming Palace was looted by local residents. On June 6, Dodo's troops approached Nanjing, and the commander of the city's garrison, Zhao the Earl of Xincheng, promptly surrendered the city to them. The Manchus soon ordered all male residents of the city to shave their heads in the
Manchu queue way. They requisitioned a large section of the city for the
bannermen's cantonment, and occupied the former imperial
Ming Palace, but otherwise the city was spared the mass murders and destruction that
befell Yangzhou. near Xuanwumen Gate
Qing dynasty and Taiping Rebellion in
Martino Martini and
Joan Blaeu's 1655 Under the
Qing, Nanjing continued to oversee the territory of Ming
Nanzhili as
Jiangnan until its division into the provinces of
Jiangsu and
Anhui. Under the
Qing dynasty from 1645 to 1911, Nanjing returned to its previous name Jiangning although it continued to be referenced as Nanking in foreign sources. At first, it continued to administer the territory of Nanzhili under the name
Jiangnan ("Area South of the Yangtze") but this administration was soon broken up into "Right" and "Left" governments based in Suzhou and Jiangning respectively. After a series of reorganizations, at some point under the
Qianlong Emperor, Jiangnan was fully divided into the present provinces of
Anhui and Jiangsu. Separately, however, these provinces were reunited under the supervision of a new
Viceroy of Liangjiang after 1723, whose seat was based in Jiangning. It was the site of a
Qing Army garrison. It had been visited by the
Kangxi and
Qianlong emperors a number of times on their tours of the southern provinces. The 1842
Treaty of Nanking, ending the
First Opium War, was signed in the city harbor on
Royal Navy warships. The
Taiping Rebellion secured the city in the mid-19th century, taking it as their capital under the name Tianjing. The rebellion destroyed most of the former Ming imperial buildings in the city, including the
Porcelain Tower, considered up to that time as one of the wonders of the world. Both the Qing viceroy and the Taiping king resided in buildings that would later be known as the
Presidential Palace. When Qing forces led by
Zeng Guofan retook the city in 1864, a massive slaughter occurred in the city with over 100,000 estimated to have committed suicide or fought to the death. Since the Taiping Rebellion began, Qing forces allowed no rebels speaking its dialect to surrender and systematically slaughtered civilians within the city. The New York Methodist Mission Society's superintendent Virgil Hart arrived in Nanjing in 1881. After some time, he succeeded in buying land near the city's Southern Gate and Confucian Temple to build the city's first Methodist church, Western hospital and boys' school. The hospital would later be unified with the Drum Tower Hospital and the boys' school would be expanded by later missionaries to become the
University of Nanking and Medical School. The old mission property became the No. 13 Middle School, the oldest continually-used school grounds in the city.
Capital of the Republic and Nanjing Massacre of the National Government of the Republic of China in Nanjing, 1927 The
Xinhai Revolution led to the founding of the
Republic of China in January 1912 with
Sun Yat-sen as the first provisional president and Nanjing was selected as its new capital. However, the Qing Empire controlled large regions to the north, so the revolutionaries asked
Yuan Shikai to replace Sun as president in exchange for the abdication of
Puyi, the last emperor. Yuan demanded the capital be moved to Beijing (closer to his power base). In March 1927, after the capture of Nanjing by the
National Revolutionary Army (NRA) in their
Northern Expedition,
foreign warships bombarded the city to defend foreign residents against rioting and looting. The
Kuomintang (KMT; Nationalist Party) under Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek again established Nanjing as the capital of the Republic of China, and this became internationally recognized once KMT forces took
Beijing in 1928. The following decade is known as the
Nanjing decade. During this decade, Nanjing was of symbolic and strategic importance. The Ming dynasty had made Nanjing a capital, the republic had been established there in 1912, and
Sun Yat-sen's provisional government had been there. Sun's body was brought and placed in a
grand mausoleum to cement Chiang's legitimacy. Chiang was born in the neighboring province of
Zhejiang and the general area had strong popular support for him. In 1927, the Nationalist government proposed a comprehensive proposal, the Capital Plan (), to reconstruct the war-torn city of Nanjing into a modern capital. It was a decade of extraordinary growth with an enormous amount of construction. A lot of government buildings, residential houses, and modern public infrastructures were built. During this boom, Nanjing reputedly became one of the most modern cities in China. In 1937, the
Empire of Japan started a full-scale invasion of China after invading Manchuria in 1931, beginning the
Second Sino-Japanese War (often considered a theater of
World War II). Their troops occupied Nanjing in December and carried out the systematic and brutal
Nanjing Massacre (the "Rape of Nanjing"). The total death toll, including estimates made by the
International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the
Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal after the atomic bombings, was between 300,000 and 350,000. The city itself was also severely damaged during the massacre. In 1946, after the
Surrender of Japan, the KMT relocated its central government back to Nanjing. is the tomb of
Sun Yat-sen, the first president of the
Republic of China People's Republic In April 1949, Communist forces crossed the
Yangtze River and the Communist
People's Liberation Army (PLA) captured Nanjing. The KMT government retreated to Canton (
Guangzhou) until October 15, Chongqing until November 25, and then
Chengdu before retreating to the
island of Taiwan on December 10 where
Taipei was proclaimed the
temporary capital of the Republic of China. By late 1949, the PLA was pursuing remnants of KMT forces southwards in southern China, and only
Tibet and
Hainan Island were left. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, Nanjing was initially a
province-level municipality, but it was soon merged into Jiangsu and again became the provincial capital by replacing
Zhenjiang which was transferred in 1928, and retains that status to this day. == Geography ==