Prehistory Kuahuqiao culture was an early Neolithic settlement in the Hangzhou area extant in 6000–5000 BC. Zhejiang was the site of the
Neolithic cultures of the
Hemudu (starting in 5500 BC) and
Liangzhu (starting in 3400 BC).
Ancient history The area of modern Zhejiang was outside the major sphere of influence of
Shang civilization during the second millennium BC. Instead, this area was populated by peoples collectively known as Dongyue. The
kingdom of Yue began to appear in the chronicles and records written during the
Spring and Autumn period. According to the chronicles, the kingdom of Yue was in Northern Zhejiang.
Shiji claims that its leaders were descended from the
Xia founder
Yu the Great. The "
Song of the Yue Boatman" () was transliterated into Chinese and recorded by authors in North China or inland China of Hebei and Henan around 528 BC. The song shows that the Yue people spoke
a language that was mutually unintelligible with the dialects spoken in north and inland China. The
Sword of Goujian bears
bird-worm seal script.
Yuenü () was a swordswoman from the state of Yue. To check the growth of the
kingdom of Wu,
Chu pursued a policy of strengthening Yue. Under
King Goujian, Yue recovered from its early reverses and fully annexed the lands of its rival in . The Yue kings then moved their capital center from their original home around
Mount Kuaiji in present-day
Shaoxing to the former Wu capital at present-day
Suzhou. With no southern power to turn against Yue, Chu opposed it directly and, in 333 BC, succeeded in destroying it. Yue's former lands were annexed by the
Qin Empire in 222 BC and organized into a
commandery named for Kuaiji in Zhejiang but initially headquartered in
Wu in
Jiangsu.
Han empire and the Three Kingdoms Kuaiji Commandery was the initial power base for
Xiang Liang and
Xiang Yu's rebellion against the
Qin Empire which initially succeeded in restoring the kingdom of Chu but
eventually fell to the
Han. Under the
Later Han, control of the area returned to the settlement below
Mount Kuaiji but authority over the
Minyue hinterland was nominal at best and its Yue inhabitants largely retained their own political and social structures. After the Han empire ended, Zhejiang was home to the warlords
Yan Baihu and
Wang Lang prior to their defeat by
Sun Ce and
Sun Quan, who eventually established the
Kingdom of Wu. Despite the removal of their court from Kuaiji to
Jianye (present-day
Nanjing) and they continued development of the region and benefitted from influxes of refugees fleeing the turmoil in northern China. Industrial kilns were established and trade reached as far as
Manchuria and
Funan (southern
Mainland Southeast Asia). Zhejiang was part of the
Wu during the
Three Kingdoms. Wu (229–280), commonly known as Eastern Wu or Sun Wu, had been the economically most developed state among the
Three Kingdoms (220–280). The historical novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms records that Zhejiang had the best-equipped naval force. The story depicts how the states of
Wei () and
Shu (), lack of material resources, avoided direct confrontation with the Wu. In armed military conflicts with Wu, the two states relied intensively on tactics of camouflage and deception to steal Wu's military resources including arrows and bows.
Six Dynasties Despite the continuing prominence of
Nanjing (then known as Jiankang), the settlement of Qiantang, the former name of Hangzhou, remained one of the three major metropolitan centers in the south to provide major tax revenue to the imperial centers in the north China. The other two centers in the south were Jiankang and
Chengdu. In 589, Qiantang was raised in status and renamed Hangzhou. Following the fall of
Wu and the turmoil of the
Wu Hu uprising against the
Jin dynasty (266–420), most of elite Chinese families had collaborated with the non-Chinese rulers and military conquerors in the north. Some may have lost social privilege and took refuge in areas south of the Yangtze River. Some of the Chinese refugees from North China might have resided in areas near Hangzhou. For example, the clan of
Zhuge Liang (181–234), a chancellor of the kingdom of
Shu Han from
Central Plain in north China, gathered together at the suburb of Hangzhou prefecture, forming an exclusive, closed village
Zhuge Village (Zhege Cun), consisting of villagers all with family name "Zhuge." The village has intentionally isolated itself from the surrounding communities for centuries to this day and only recently came to be known in public. It suggests that a small number of powerful, elite Chinese refugees from the
Central Plain might have taken refuge south of the Yangtze River. However, considering the mountainous geography and relative lack of agrarian lands in Zhejiang, most of these refugees might have resided in some areas in South China beyond Zhejiang, where fertile agrarian lands and metropolitan resources were available, mainly Southern
Jiangsu, Eastern
Fujian,
Jiangxi,
Hunan,
Anhui and provinces where less cohesive, organized regional governments had been in place. Some refugees from North China might have found residence in South China depending on their social status and military power in the north. The
rump Jin kingdom or the
Southern dynasties vied against some Han elites from the
Central Plain and south of the Yangtze River.
Sui and Tang empires Zhejiang, as the heartland of the
Jiangnan (Yangtze River Delta), remained the wealthiest area during the
Six Dynasties (220 or 222–589), Sui and Tang. After being incorporated into the
Sui dynasty, its economic richness was used for the
Sui dynasty's ambitions to expand north and south, particularly into
Korea and Vietnam. The plan led the
Sui dynasty to restore and expand the network which became the
Grand Canal of China. The Canal regularly transported grains and resources from Zhejiang, through its metropolitan center Hangzhou (and its hinterland along both the
Zhe River and the shores of
Hangzhou Bay) and from
Suzhou and thence to the
North China Plain. The débâcle of the Korean war led to Sui's overthrow by the
Tang, who then presided over a centuries-long golden age for the country. Zhejiang was an important economic center of the empire's
Jiangnan East Circuit and was considered particularly prosperous. Throughout the
Tang dynasty, The Grand Canal had remained effective, transporting grains and material resources to
North China plain and metropolitan centers of the empire. As the Tang dynasty disintegrated, Zhejiang constituted most of the territory of the regional kingdom of
Wuyue.
Wuyue kingdom After the collapse of the Tang dynasty in 907, the entire area of what is now Zhejiang fell under the control of the kingdom
Wuyue established by King
Qian Liu, who selected
Hangzhou (a city in the modern day area of Zhejiang) as his kingdom's capital. Despite being under Wuyue rule for a relatively short period of time, Zhejiang underwent a long period of financial and cultural prosperity which continued even after the kingdom fell. , the King of
Wuyue, by
Ming dynasty painter. After Wuyue was conquered during the reunification of China, many shrines were erected across the former territories of Wuyue, mainly in Zhejiang, where the kings of Wuyue were memorialised, and sometimes, worshipped as being able to dictate weather and agriculture. Many of these shrines, known as "Shrine of the Qian King" or "Temple to the Qian King", still remain today, with the most popularly visited example being that near
West Lake in Hangzhou. China's province of Zhejiang during the 940s was also the place of origin of the
Hú family (Hồ in Vietnamese) from which the founder of the
Hồ dynasty who ruled Vietnam, Emperor
Hồ Quý Ly, came from.
Song empire era (1223) city gate in
Shaoxing The Uyue kingdom was
annexed by
Song dynasty thus it re-established unity around 960. Under the Song empire, the prosperity of South China began to overtake that of North China. In 1127, Hangzhou became the capital of the Song dynasty under the name
Lin'an, which was renowned for its prosperity and beauty, it was suspected to have been the largest city in the world at the time. From then on, northern Zhejiang and neighboring southern Jiangsu have been synonymous with luxury and opulence in Chinese culture. The
Mongol conquest and the establishment of the Yuan state in 1279 ended Hangzhou's political clout, but its economy continued to prosper. The famous
Venetian traveler Marco Polo visited the city, which he called "Kinsay" (after the Chinese
Jingshi, meaning "Capital City") claiming it was "the finest and noblest city in the world." Greenware ceramics made from
celadon had been made in the area since the 3rd-century
Jin dynasty, but it returned to prominence—particularly in
Longquan—during the Southern Song and Yuan. Longquan greenware is characterized by a thick unctuous glaze of a particular bluish-green tint over an otherwise undecorated light-grey porcellaneous body that is delicately potted. Yuan Longquan celadons feature a thinner, greener glaze on larger vessels with decoration and shapes derived from Middle Eastern ceramic and metalwares. These were produced in large quantities for the Chinese export trade to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and (during the Ming dynasty) Europe. By the Ming, however, production was notably deficient in quality. It is in this period that the Longquan kilns declined, to be eventually replaced in popularity and ceramic production by the kilns of
Jingdezhen in
Jiangxi.
Early modern era was found in Zhejiang. It is housed in the
Smithsonian in
Washington, D.C. Zhejiang was finally occupied by the Mongols in the late 13th century who merged it with neighbouring provinces. In 1368, the present day province was established. As in other coastal provinces, number of fortresses were constructed along the Zhejiang coast during the early Ming empire to defend the land against
pirate incursions. Some of them have been preserved or restored, such as Pucheng in the south of the province (
Cangnan County). Under the late Ming dynasty and the Qing regime that followed it, Zhejiang's ports were important centers of international trade. "In 1727 the to-min or 'idle people' of Cheh Kiang province (a
Ningpo name still existing), the yoh-hu or 'music people' of
Shanxi province, the si-min or 'small people' of Kiang Su (Jiangsu) province and the
Tanka people or 'egg-people' of
Canton (to this day the boat population there), were all freed from their social disabilities and allowed to count as free men." "Cheh Kiang" is another romanization for Zhejiang. The Duomin () are a caste of
outcasts used to make up most of the populace of Zhejiang. During the
First Opium War, the
British navy defeated the Qing state at
Ningbo and
Dinghai. Under the terms of the
Treaty of Nanking, signed in 1843, Ningbo became one of the five Chinese
treaty ports opened to virtually unrestricted foreign trade. Much of western Zhejiang came under the control of the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom during, which resulted in a considerable immigration and loss of life as rebels killed all foreigners, sparing the rest of Zhejiang from. In 1876,
Wenzhou became Zhejiang's second treaty port.
Republican era In 1912, the
Qing dynasty was
overthrown, and the
Republic of China (ROC) assumed control of the province. During
World War II, much of Zhejiang was occupied by the
Reorganized National Government of China. Following the
Doolittle Raid, most of the B-25 American crews that came down in China eventually made it to safety with the help of anti-Japanese locals. The
Imperial Japanese Army began the
Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign to intimidate the Chinese out of helping downed American airmen. At least 10,000 civilians died in Jiangxi while searching for Doolittle's men. After the ROC
retreated to Taiwan near the end of the
Chinese Civil War, the PRC captured the majority of the province. However, the ROC continued to control some coastal islands, including
Yushan,
Toumenshan,
Yijiangshan,
Dachen,
Pishan and
Nanji. The ROC carried out raids on PRC-controlled Zhejiang and occasionally areas near
Shanghai. The province was organized into seven
counties:
Wenling,
Linhai,
Huangyan,
Pinyang,
Sanmen,
Yueqing and
Yuhuan. ROC
President Chiang Kai-shek appointed General
Hu Zongnan to establish a provincial government on the
Dachen Islands in September 1951 to fight the PRC. In 1952, Zhejiang was reorganized into four counties: Wenling, Linhai, Pinyang and Yuhuan. Sanmen became the
Yushan Administrative Bureau. The
Zhuyu Administrative Bureau was also established. The administrative bureaus were intended to manage
trade with Mainland China. In 1953, the administrative bureaus were abolished and the provincial government relocated to
Taiwan in 1953. In 1955, the PRC captured the remainder of Zheijiang during the
First Taiwan Strait Crisis. The PRC
captured Yijiangshan in January. The ROC
evacuated the Dachens in February, with the PRC occupying the Dachens by the end of the month, finally bring the entire province under its control.
People's Republic era During the
Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Zhejiang was in chaos and disunity and its economy was stagnant, especially during the high tide (1966–69) of the revolution. The agricultural policy favoring grain production at the expense of industrial and cash crops intensified economic hardships in the province. Mao's self-reliance policy and the reduction in maritime trade cut off the lifelines of the port cities of Ningbo and Wenzhou. While Mao invested heavily in railroads in interior China, no major railroads were built in South Zhejiang, where transportation remained poor. Zhejiang benefited less from central government investment than some other provinces due to its lack of natural resources, a location vulnerable to potential flooding from the sea and an economic base at the national average. Zhejiang, however, has been an epicenter of capitalist development in China and has led the nation in the development of a market economy and private enterprises. Northeast Zhejiang, as part of the Yangtze Delta, is flat, more developed and industrial. ==Geography==