, other_name = , nickname = , settlement_type = , total_type = , motto = , image_skyline = BaifoShan Park.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_flag = , flag_size = , image_seal = , seal_size = , image_shield = , shield_size = , image_blank_emblem = , blank_emblem_type = , blank_emblem_size = , image_map =File:ChinaTaianDongping.png , mapsize = , map_caption =Location in Tai'an , image_map1 = , mapsize1 = , map_caption1 = , image_dot_map = , dot_mapsize = , dot_map_caption = , dot_x = , dot_y = , coordinates = , pushpin_map = China Shandong , pushpin_label = Dongping , pushpin_label_position = bottom , pushpin_map_caption = Location of the seat in Shandong , pushpin_mapsize = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name =

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, subdivision_type1 =

Province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, subdivision_name1 = Shandong , subdivision_type2 =

Prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China ...

, subdivision_name2 =

Tai'an Tai'an () is a prefecture-level city in Western Shandong Province of the People's Republic of China. Centered on Mount Tai, the city borders the provincial capital of Jinan to the north, Zibo to the east, Linyi to the southeast, Liaocheng to ...

, subdivision_type3 = , subdivision_name3 = , subdivision_type4 = , subdivision_name4 = , seat_type = , seat = , leader_title3 = , leader_name3 = , leader_title4 = , leader_name4 = , established_title = , established_date = , established_title1 = , established_date1 = , established_title2 = , established_date2 = , established_title3 = , established_date3 = , area_blank1_title = , area_blank1_km2 = , area_land_km2 = , area_total_km2 = 1339 , area_water_km2 = , area_footnotes = , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_min_m = , population_blank1_title = , population = , population_as_of = 2019 , population_density_km2 = auto , population_total =761500 , population_footnotes = , timezone = China Standard , utc_offset = +8 , postal_code_type =

Postal Code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...

, postal_code =271500 , area_code = 0538 , blank_name =

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

, blank_info = , blank1_name =GDP per capita , blank1_info = , blank2_info = , blank3_name = , blank5_info = , blank6_name = , blank6_info = , website = , footnotes = Dongping County () is a county in the southwestern part of

, in the west of Shandong Province, China. In 2007 a remarkable series of well-preserved frescoes dating to the

Western Han The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a war ...

Period (206 BC - 25 AD) was discovered in a tomb as construction workers were excavating for a planned shopping mall. The frescoes show, among other things, one of the earliest pictorial representations of

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

meeting Laozi.

Examples of the frescoes

Queen Mother of the West from a Wall-Painting in Han Dynasty Tomb

Confucius and Laozi, fresco from a Western Han tomb of Dongping County, Shandong province, China

History

This region is home to many Buddhist temples and some remarkable Buddhist inscriptions, originally texts were carved during the

Northern Qi Qi, known as the Northern Qi (), Later Qi (後齊) or Gao Qi (高齊) in historiography, was a Chinese imperial dynasty and one of the Northern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties era. It ruled the eastern part of northern China ...

, but in the eleventh century these were carved over with pictorial images of Buddhas. In 1438, migrating Hui people introduced Islam to Dongping County. During the reign of the

Wanli Emperor The Wanli Emperor (; 4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620), personal name Zhu Yijun (), was the 14th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1572 to 1620. "Wanli", the era name of his reign, literally means "ten thousand calendars". He was th ...

, the was built. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

in Dongping County, religious activities were prohibited. Mosques were destroyed, imams were expelled, and the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

was burned. The practice of Islam in the county was resumed in 1979. The Shandong provincial government and the Dongping County government allocated special funding to restore Zhoucheng Mosque in 1997, and again in 2001.

Administration

As 2020, this county is divided to 3

subdistricts A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, Indon ...

, 9

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and 2

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

. ;Subdistricts * () * () *

Pengji Subdistrict ''Pingji'' Subdistrict () is a subdistrict in the southeastern part of Dongping County , other_name = , nickname = , settlement_type = , total_type = , motto = , image_skyline ...

() ;Towns ;Townships *

Shanglaozhuang Township Shanglaozhuang Township () is a rural township in Dongping County, Shandong, China. As of the 2016 census it had a population of 34,700 and an area of . It borders Yinshan Town in the north, the towns of Xinhu and Laohu in the east, Xiao'anshan T ...

() * Jiuxian Township ()

Demographics

In 2016, Dongping County had a permanent population of about 762,100 people, of which, 41.35% lived in urban areas.

Vital statistics

As of 2016, Dongping County had a

birth rate The birth rate for a given period is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; populati ...

of 14.9 per thousand, and a

death rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of de ...

of 5.0 per thousand, giving the county a

rate of natural increase In Demography, the rate of natural increase (RNI), also known as natural population change, is defined as the birth rate minus the death rate of a particular population, over a particular time period. It is typically expressed either as a number ...

of 9.9 per thousand.

Ethnic groups

Most of the county's population is ethnically

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctiv ...

, however, Dongping County is home to 18

ethnic minorities The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

, comprising about 4,300 people. The largest ethnic minority is the

Hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...

people, who number about 4,100 as of 2016. Other ethnic minorities in the county include the Mongolian,

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

Miao Miao may refer to: * Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China * Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages * Miao (Unicode ...

, Dong, Bai, Tujia, Hani, Dai,

Lisu Lisu may refer to: *Lisu people, an ethnic group of Southeast Asia *Lisu language, spoken by the Lisu people * Old Lisu Alphabet or Fraser Alphabet *Lisu syllabary * Lisu (Unicode block), the block of Unicode characters for the Lisu language. *Lisu ...

, Li, Jingpo, Yi, Zhuang,

Buyi The Bouyei (also spelled ''Puyi'', ''Buyei'' and ''Buyi''; self called: Buxqyaix, or "Puzhong", "Burao", "Puman"; ; vi, người Bố Y), otherwise known as the Zhongjia, are an ethnic group living in Southern Mainland China. Numbering 2.5 mi ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, Manchu, and Wa peoples. With the exception of the Hui people, many of Dongping County's ethnic minorities recently moved to the county for work, marriage, or other regions, and are not concentrated in any particular place within the county. The county has four designated ethnic villages: () in , Xiwangzhuang Village () in , Zhanzhuang Village () in , and Beimen Village () in .

Hui people

Unlike the other minorities in Dongping County, the Hui people are concentrated within certain areas within the county. Large concentrations of Hui people can be found in Laohu, Zhoucheng Subdistrict, and Dongping Subdistrict. Smaller concentrations can be found within , Xinhu, , , and

Culture

Language

The Dongping dialect, a dialect of

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

, is spoken widely throughout the county. In some southern portions of the county, as well as regions surrounding Dongping Lake, retroflexes are dropped, resulting in certain characters with different pronunciations in Standard Mandarin (such as and ) being pronounced similarly. Some areas in the southeast and north of the county also employ

erhua Erhua ( ); also called erization or rhotacization of syllable finals) is a phonological process that adds r-coloring or the "er" (注音：, common words: 、、) sound (transcribed in IPA as ) to syllables in spoken Mandarin Chinese. Erhuayin () i ...

Religion

As of 2021, Dongping County is home to 19 religious venues approved by the county government, representing 5 different faith groups:

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, Islam,

Daoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...

, and

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

. These venues include the and the Daoist site of .

Climate

Notable people

* Zhongli Chun, Qi consort from * ,

Red Eyebrows The Red Eyebrows () was one of the two major peasant rebellion movements against Wang Mang's short-lived Xin dynasty, the other being Lülin. It was so named because the rebels painted their eyebrows red. The rebellion, initially active in the ...

commander * ,

Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

scholar and writer * ,

monk and

calligrapher Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

Cheng Yaojin Cheng Zhijie (589 – 26 February 665), courtesy name Yizhen, better known by his original name Cheng Yaojin, was a Chinese general who served under the emperors Gaozu, Taizong and Gaozong in the early Tang dynasty. His portrait was on display ...

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

general *

He Ning He Ning (和凝) (898''Old History of the Five Dynasties'', vol. 127. – July 23, 955''Old History of the Five Dynasties'', vol. 115.Academia Sinicabr>Chinese-Western Calendar Converter), courtesy name Chengji (成績), formally the Duke of ...

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen conc ...

official * and ,

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

father and son

zhuangyuan ''Zhuangyuan'', or ''trạng nguyên'' in Vietnamese, variously translated into English as principal graduate, primus, or optimus, was the title given to the scholar who achieved the highest score on highest level of the Imperial examination, (i ...

Liang Kai Liang Kai (; ''c''. 1140 - ''c''. 1210) was a Chinese painter of the Southern Song Dynasty. He was also known as Madman Liang because of his very informal pictures. He was born in Shandong and worked in Lin An (later Hangzhou). He is known to have ...

, Song dynasty painter * , Song dynasty pediatrician * Wang Zhen,

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...

inventor, engineer, writer, and politician * , Yuan dynasty

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

* Luo Guanzhong (disputed), Yuan dynasty writer * ,

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

politician * , Ming dynasty scholar

References

* Ha, Jungmin. (2016) ''Shaping Religious and Cultural Aspiration: Engraved Sutras in Southwestern Shandong Province from the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577 CE), China.'' Phd Dissertation. Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Duke University. https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/12216/Ha_duke_0066D_13425.pdf * Wang, Yongbo and Ledderose, Lothar. (2014) ''Buddhist Stone Sutras in China. (Vol.1) Shandong Sheng = Shandong Province.'' edited by Wang Yongbo and Lothar Ledderose.Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz ; Hangzhou : China Academy of Art Press, 2014. {{authority control Counties of Shandong Tai'an