Qin Province, Qín Prefecture or Qinzhou () was a

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

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

that existed from the

Jin dynasty (266–420) The Jin dynasty or Jin Empire, sometimes distinguished as the or the , was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty in China that existed from 266 to 420. It was founded by Emperor Wu of Jin, Sima Yan, eldest son of Sima Zhao, who had previou ...

to the Tang and Five Dynasties period. It was named for the former

state of Qin Qin (, , or ''Ch'in'') was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. It is traditionally dated to 897 BC. The state of Qin originated from a reconquest of western lands that had previously been lost to the Xirong. Its location at ...

and occupied the southeastern area of present-day

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

. It was variously centered at Shanggui (modern

Tianshui Tianshui is a prefecture-level city in Gansu province, China, and is the province's second-largest city (behind the provincial capital Lanzhou). Located in the southeast of the province, the city strides along the upper reaches of the Wei River a ...

, whose Qinzhou District bears its name) and Changji (modern Qin'an).Dudbridge, Glen. ''A Portrait of Five Dynasties China: From the Memoirs of Wang Renyu (880–956)''
pp. 8 ff.
Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Accessed 14 Dec 2013.

References

* Prefectures of Former Shu Prefectures of Later Shu Prefectures of the Sui dynasty Prefectures of the Tang dynasty Prefectures of Later Tang Prefectures of Later Jin (Five Dynasties) Prefectures of Later Zhou Prefectures of the Song dynasty Prefectures of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) Prefectures of the Yuan dynasty Prefectures of the Ming dynasty Prefectures of the Qing dynasty Former prefectures in Gansu {{PRChina-geo-stub