Hepu Commandery ( zh, 合浦郡) was a Chinese
commandery that existed from
Han dynasty to
Tang dynasty. Hepu territory was located in the regions of modern coastal
Guangxi
Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...
, southwestern
Guangdong, and
Hainan.
History
Hepu Commandery was established in 112 BC, when the
Han dynasty annexed the
Nanyue kingdom. In late
Western Han period, it had a population of 15,398 households (78,980 individuals) in its 5 counties, namely
Xuwen
Xuwen County ( postal: Tsuimen or Suwen; ) is a county in the southwest of Guangdong Province, China. It is under the administration of Zhanjiang city.
Geography
Xuwen County is the southernmost county of Guangdong Province, at the southern end ...
(徐聞), Gaoliang (高涼),
Hepu (合浦), Linyun (臨允), Zhulu (朱盧). During the
Eastern Han period, Zhulu was abolished while the former
Zhuya Commandery in
Hainan was merged into Hepu as the Zhuya County. The population in 140 AD was 23,121 households (86,617 individuals).
During the
Three Kingdoms, Hepu was part of
Eastern Wu
Wu ( Chinese: 吳; pinyin: ''Wú''; Middle Chinese *''ŋuo'' < : ''*ŋuɑ''), known in h ...
. The commandery was renamed to Zhuguan (珠官) in 228, while in the reign of
Sun Liang the name was changed back. When
Jin dynasty unified China in 280, Cangwu consisted of 6 counties and recorded a population of 2,000 households.
['']Book of Song
The ''Book of Song'' (''Sòng Shū'') is a historical text of the Liu Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties of China. It covers history from 420 to 479, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories, a traditional collection of historical records. I ...
'', Chapter 38. The commandery was abolished when the
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 ...
conquered the
Chen dynasty.
In
Tang dynasty, Hepu Commandery was an alternative name of Yue Prefecture (越州), later renamed
Lian Prefecture in 634. The commandery consisted of 4 counties, and had a population of 3,312 households (13,029 individuals).
['']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 43.
References
{{Han dynasty provinces
Commanderies of the Han dynasty
Commanderies of the Jin dynasty (266–420)
Commanderies of the Southern dynasties
Commanderies of the Sui dynasty