Guangling Commandery ( zh, 廣陵郡) was a historical

commandery In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...

of China from

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 ...

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

, located in present-day central

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

province in central coastal China. It was named after Guangling, a historical name of

Yangzhou Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yan ...

. In early Han dynasty, the commandery was known as Dongyang (東陽), and successively constituted part of the Wu Kingdom (195–154 BC) and the Jiangdu Kingdom (154–121 BC). In 121 BC, Jiangdu was abolished, and Guangling became a commandery. In 117 BC, Guangling was granted to Liu Xu (劉胥), a son of the reigning Emperor Wu, as a kingdom. Xu and his descendants ruled Guangling until the usurpation of

Wang Mang Wang Mang () (c. 45 – 6 October 23 CE), courtesy name Jujun (), was the founder and the only Emperor of China, emperor of the short-lived Chinese Xin dynasty. He was originally an official and consort kin of the Han dynasty and later ...

. The commandery was restored when

Eastern 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 warr ...

was founded. In 37 AD, it absorbed the Sishui Kingdom. In 58, it was granted to Liu Jing (劉荊), a son of the

Emperor Guangwu Emperor Guangwu of Han (; 15 January 5 BC – 29 March AD 57), born Liu Xiu (), courtesy name Wenshu (), was a Chinese monarch. He served as an emperor of the Han dynasty by restoring the dynasty in AD 25, thus founding the Eastern Han (Later ...

, but was revoked when Jing was involved in a conspiracy in 67. In 140, the commandery administered 11 counties: Guangling, Jiangdu (江都),

Gaoyou Gaoyou (), is a county-level city under the administration of Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, China, located in the Yangtze River Delta on the north side of the Yangtze River. History Recent archaeological finds at the Longqiuzhuang site in Gaoyou has ...

(高郵), Ping'an (平安), Ling (淩), Dongyang (東陽), Sheyang (射陽),

Yandu Yandu District () is one of three districts of Yancheng, Jiangsu province, China. (The other two are Tinghu District and Dafeng District Dafeng () is a coastal district under the administration of Yancheng, Jiangsu province, China. Located on ...

(鹽瀆), Yu (舆), Tangyi (堂邑) and Haixi (海西). The population was 410,190 individuals or 83,970 households. From the

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms () from 220 to 280 AD was the tripartite division of China among the dynastic states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The Three Kingdoms period was preceded by the Han dynasty#Eastern Han, Eastern Han dynasty and wa ...

period to the

Liu Song Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern Dynasty (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. ...

dynasty, a number of counties were transferred to neighboring Xiapi (下邳) and Linhuai (臨淮) commanderies. In 464, four counties – Guangling, Hailing (海陵), Gaoyou and Jiangdu – remained in the commandery. The total population was 45,613 individuals, or 7,744 households. The commandery was abolished in early

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty (, ) was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China that lasted from 581 to 618. The Sui unified the Northern and Southern dynasties, thus ending the long period of division following the fall of the Western Jin dynasty, and layi ...

. In the Tang dynasty, Guangling Commandery was the alternative name of the Yang Prefecture. In 741, it administered 7 counties, namely Jiangdu, Jiangyang (江陽), Luhe (六合), Hailing, Yangzi (揚子) and Tianchang (天長). The population was 467,857 individuals or 77,105 households.''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

'', Chapter 41.

References

{{Han dynasty provinces Commanderies of the Han dynasty Commanderies of the Jin dynasty (266–420) Commanderies of the Southern dynasties