Fengyang County

Fengyang County is a county of Anhui Province, China. It is under the administration of Chuzhou, a prefecture-level city.

Administrative divisions

As most counties in China, Fengyang County is divided into towns (zhen) and townships (xiang). The county seat is in Fucheng Town.

Towns:

• Banqiao (板桥镇), Damiao (大庙镇), Fucheng (府城镇), Guantang (官塘镇), Hongxin (红心镇), Liufu (刘府镇), Wudian (武店镇), Xiquan (西泉镇), Linhuaiguan (临淮关镇), Zaoxiang (枣巷镇), Yinjian (殷涧镇), Zongpu (总铺镇), Xiaoxihe (小溪河镇), Daxihe (大溪河镇), Mentaizi(门台子镇)

The only township is Huangwan Township (黄湾乡)

Some maps (maps.sogou.com) also show Xiangxi and Xiangnan townships just to the west and south of the county seat, respectively.

Historical sites

During the Xia, Shang and early Zhou dynasties, the Dongyi peoples inhabited this area and were collectively known as the Huaiyi after the Huai River. During the late Western Zhou Period and the early Spring and Autumn period, the Dongyi became increasingly sinicized and formed their own states. During the late Spring and Autumn period, the once-powerful Dongyi state of Xu was pressured from all directions and destroyed through a series of wars with its neighbors, such as the Chu State and the Wu State. Another Dongyi State was the small Zhongli State, which was a part of the Huaiyi Confederation led by the State of Xu. Tombs belonging to the royalty of the Zhongli State were discovered in excavations between 2005 and 2008 near Fengyang. Eventually, the Huaiyi peoples were either pushed south or assimilated.

Fengyang's best known historical site is linked with the name of the county's most famous native, Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398). Although coming from a poor family, he became an important rebel leader and, later, the founder of China's Ming Dynasty. Once entrenched as the Hongwu Emperor in the nearby Nanjing, he honored the memory of his father, Zhu Wusi (d. 1344), and his mother, Lady Chen, by posthumously raising them to imperial dignity, and building for them an imperial-style mausoleum, known as Ming Huangling (明皇陵, literally, "Ming Imperial Mausoleum").^[1] The emperor even started building the new imperial capital, named Zhongdu (中都, "The Central Capital") near his childhood hometown, but the project was eventually abandoned.^[1]

The stone figures of the Huangling Mausoleum have survived, and have been re-erected at the original location, some 7 km south of the county seat ((32°48′50″N 117°31′10″E / 32.81389°N 117.51944°E / 32.81389; 117.51944)).^[2]

The mausoleum statuary and the remains of the capital-building project are protected as a national historic site known as "Zhongdu Imperial City of the Ming and the Imperial Mausoleum's Statuary" (明中都皇故城及皇陵石刻).^[3]

References