Han dynasty Jingzhou (ancient China)

map of chinese provinces in prelude of 3 kingdoms period.

(in late eastern han dynasty, 189 ce).

in 106 bce, during reign of emperor wu in western han dynasty (206 bce – 9 ce), china divided 13 administrative divisions (excluding area under central government s control), each governed inspector (刺史). jingzhou 1 of 13, , land area 1 of largest, covering modern provinces of hubei , hunan, city of nanyang in henan province @ north frontier. however, jingzhou did not have provincial capital , administrative division in name.

from 188 ce onwards, during reign of emperor ling in eastern han dynasty (25–220 ce), jingzhou officially became administrative division. book of han mentioned jingzhou had 7 commanderies – nanyang (南陽; present-day southwestern henan), nan (南; present-day western hubei), jiangxia (江夏; present-day eastern hubei), changsha (長沙; present-day northeastern hunan), guiyang (桂陽; present-day southeastern hunan), wuling (武陵; present-day northwestern hunan) , lingling (零陵; present-day southwestern hunan) – under jurisdiction.

before liu biao became governor (州牧) of jingzhou during reign of emperor xian, jingzhou s provincial capital in hanshou county (漢壽縣; present-day hanshou county, changde, hunan). however, remnants of yellow turban rebels still active in southern jingzhou, capital moved north xiangyang (襄陽; present-day xiangyang, hubei).

liu biao died in 208 , succeeded younger son, liu cong, governor of jingzhou, latter surrendered , ceded province warlord cao cao in same year. after battle of red cliffs in winter of 208/209, cao cao managed retain nanyang , nan commanderies in northern jingzhou, while central , southern jingzhou divided between warlords sun quan , liu bei. cao cao subsequently partitioned xiangyang (襄陽) , nanxiang (南鄉) commanderies 2 controlled – nanyang , nan. commanderies in jingzhou split between 3 contending warlords: nan, lingling , wuling liu bei; jiangxia, guiyang , changsha sun quan; nanyang, xiangyang , nanxiang cao cao. believed term 9 commanderies of jing , xiang (荊襄九郡) originated division of jingzhou between 3 powers, since each controlled 3 commanderies, making 9 in total.

in 219, sun quan s general lü meng attacked , seized liu bei s lands in jingzhou, defended liu s general guan yu. triggered subsequent battle of xiaoting (or battle of yiling) of 221–222, concluded liu bei being defeated sun quan s general lu xun. since then, state of shu (founded liu bei) had never laid claims on jingzhou; jingzhou divided between states of wu (founded sun quan) , wei (founded cao cao s successor, cao pi).