Dingzhou, or Tingchow in Postal Map Romanization, and formerly called Ding County or Dingxian, is a county-level city in the prefecture-level city of Baoding, Hebei Province. As of 2009, Dingzhou had a population of 1.2 million. Dingzhou has 3 subdistricts, 13 towns, 8 townships, and 1 ethnic township.定州市-行政区网
/ref> Dingzhou is about halfway between Baoding and

Shijiazhuang Shijiazhuang (; ; Mandarin: ), formerly known as Shimen and romanized as Shihkiachwang, is the capital and most populous city of China’s North China's Hebei Province. Administratively a prefecture-level city, it is about southwest of Beijin ...

, southwest of Beijing, and northeast of Shijiazhuang.

History

Dingzhou was originally known as Lunu in early

imperial China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapte ...

. A tomb about southwest of Dingzhou from 55BCE was discovered and excavated in 1973. It contained several fragments of Han literature, including manuscripts of Confucius's ''

Analects The ''Analects'' (; ; Old Chinese: '' ŋ(r)aʔ''; meaning "Selected Sayings"), also known as the ''Analects of Confucius'', the ''Sayings of Confucius'', or the ''Lun Yu'', is an ancient Chinese book composed of a large collection of sayings a ...

'', the Taoist '' Wenzi'', and the ''

Six Secret Teachings The ''Six Secret Teachings'' (), is a treatise on civil and military strategy traditionally attributed to Lü Shang (aka Jiang Ziya), a top general of King Wen of Zhou, founder of the Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *' ...

'', a military treatise. The identity of the tomb's occupant is unknown, but Chinese archaeologists have speculated that it belonged to Liu Xiu or Xu Xing. Dingzhou took its present name around 400CE when it became the seat of

Ding Prefecture Ding may refer to: Bronze and ceramics * Ding (vessel), a bronze or ceramic cauldron used in ancient and early imperial China * Ding ware, ceramics produced in Dingzhou in medieval China People * Ding (surname) (丁), a Chinese surname and lis ...

under the

Northern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei (), Tuoba Wei (), Yuan Wei () and Later Wei (), was founded by the Tuoba (Tabgach) clan of the Xianbei. The first of the Northern and Southern dynasties#Northern dynasties, Northern dynasties ...

, displacing the earlier

An Prefecture Anzhou or An Prefecture was a '' zhou'' (prefecture) in imperial China, centering on modern Anlu, Hubei, China. It existed (intermittently) from 550 until 1119, when the Song dynasty renamed it De'an Prefecture. Geography The administrative regio ...

.. In the mid-6th century, its territory held 834,211 people living in 177,500

households A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is impo ...

. Under the Sui, the seat of

Boling Commandery Boling may refer to: People with the surname *Zhang Boling * Alexis Boling (born 1979), American filmmaker and musician * Bodine Boling (born 1982), American writer and filmmaker * Clint Boling (born 1989), American football player * Dulcie Boling ...

at present-day Anping was renamed "Gaoyang". In 607, Dingzhou then became the eponymous seat of a new Boling commandery and retained that name and status under the

Tang Tang or TANG most often refers to: * Tang dynasty * Tang (drink mix) Tang or TANG may also refer to: Chinese states and dynasties * Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...

. until it returned to the name Dingzhou between 621 and 742 and again after 758. Its territory held only 86,869 people in 25,637 households in 639 but recovered to 496,676 people in 78,090 households by 742. In 1055, under the Song, the city became the home of the

Liaodi Pagoda The Liaodi Pagoda () of Kaiyuan Monastery, Dingzhou, Hebei Province, China is the tallest existing pre-modern Chinese pagoda and tallest brick pagoda in the world, built in the 11th century during the Song dynasty (960–1279). The pagoda stands a ...

, which is today China's tallest surviving pre-modern pagoda. Under the

early Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdo ...

, it was known as Dingxian ( then romanized "Tingsien" or "Ting Hsien") from its status as the seat of Ding County. From 1926 to 1937, the county was the site of the

National Association of Mass Education Movement National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

Ting Hsien Experiment The Ding Xian Experiment () during the Republican period of Chinese history was a project in Rural Reconstruction sponsored by James Yen's Mass Education Movement (MEM) 中华平民教育促进会 in Ding Xian (Ding County), Hebei, some 200 mile ...

of the

Rural Reconstruction Movement The Rural Reconstruction Movement was started in China in the 1920s by Y.C. James Yen, Liang Shuming and others to revive the Chinese village. They strove for a middle way, independent of the Nationalist government but in competition with the rad ...

. In the 1990s, the

New Rural Reconstruction Movement New Rural Reconstruction (NRR, ) is an intellectual current and social movement initiated by Wen Tiejun and other activists to address the crisis they saw in the Chinese countryside at the start of the 21st century. As of 2009, at its core there ar ...

maintained a training and outreach center.

Administrative divisions

Towns: *

Qingfengdian Qingfengdian () is a town under the administration of Dingzhou City in western Hebei province, China, located about northeast of downtown Dingzhou and just off of China National Highway 107. It has an area of and a reported population of 49,000 ...

(),

Dongting Dongting Lake () is a large, shallow lake in northeastern Hunan Province, China. It is a flood basin of the Yangtze River, so its volume depends on the season. The provinces of Hubei and Hunan are named after their location relative to the la ...

(), Liqingu (), Mingyuedian (), Daxinzhuang (), Xingyi (), Zhuanlu (), Liuzao (), Pangcun (),

Gaopeng This is a list of township-level divisions of the province of Hebei, People's Republic of China (PRC). After province, prefecture, and county-level divisions, township-level divisions constitute the formal fourth-level administrative divisions of ...

(), Ziwei (), Dingningdian (), Dongwang (), Kaiyuan () Townships: * Dongliuchun Township (),

Zhoucun Township Zhoucun district () is a town and district of agricultural land inside Zibo city. The city covers and had an estimated population of 288,440 in 2013. Its main industry is textiles and furniture manufacture. The center of the commercial district ...

(), Daluzhuang Township (), Yangjiazhuang Township (), Zhaocun Township (), Xicheng Township (),

Xizhong Township Xizhong Township () is a township-level division situated in Baoding, Hebei, China. See also *List of township-level divisions of Hebei This is a list of township-level divisions of the province of Hebei, People's Republic of China (PRC). Aft ...

(),

Haotouzhuang Hui Ethnic Township Haotouzhuang Hui Ethnic Township (; Xiao'erjing: هَوْتِوْتُوْا خُوِذُو سِیْا) is an ethnic township under the administration of Dingzhou City in Hebei province, China, located about southeast of downtown Dingzhou in th ...

()

Climate

Transportation

Dingzhou is one of the transportation hubs in

North China North China, or Huabei () is a List of regions of China, geographical region of China, consisting of the provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Part of the larger region of Northern China (''Beifang''), it lies north ...

Railroads

* Jingguang railway: Dingzhou Railway Station *

Jingshi Passenger Railway "Beijing" is from pinyin ''Běijīng,'' which is romanized from , the Chinese name for this city. The pinyin system of transliteration was approved by the Chinese government in 1958, but little used until 1979. It was gradually adopted by various ...

: Dingzhou East Railway Station * Shuohuang Railway: Dingzhou South Railway Station

Highways

* Jingshi Expressway * China National Highway 107

Places of interest

Dingzhou, Baoding, Hebei, China - panoramio (9)

: The tallest existing pre-modern Chinese pagoda *

Dingzhou Confucius Temple Dingzhou, or Tingchow in Postal Map Romanization, and formerly called Ding County or Dingxian, is a county-level city in the prefecture-level city of Baoding, Hebei Province. As of 2009, Dingzhou had a population of 1.2 million. Dingzhou has 3 ...

: A well-preserved Confucius temple in Hebei

References

Citations

Bibliography

Sidney D. Gamble Sidney D. Gamble (July 12, 1890 – 1968) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to David Berry and Mary Huggins Gamble; grandson of James Gamble, who, with William Procter, founded Procter & Gamble in 1837. in 1912 he graduated magna cum laude from Pr ...

, Foreword by Y.C. James Yen. Field work directed by Franklin Ching-han Lee. ''Ting Hsien, a North China Rural Community'' (New York: International Secretariat Institute of Pacific Relations, 1954; rpr Stanford University Press, 1968). xxv, 472p. 54009009. Sociological survey conducted in the 1920s and early 1930s.

External links

Dingzhou City Government Website

Report on excavation of Dingzhou tombs
{{Authority control Geography of Baoding County-level cities in Hebei