Place:Sichuan, People's Republic of China

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'Szechwan or Szechuan) is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the southwest of the country. The current name of the province, "四川", is an abbreviation of "四川路" (Sì Chuānlù), or "Four circuits of rivers", which is itself abbreviated from "川峡四路" (Chuānxiá Sìlù), or "Four circuits of rivers and gorges", named after the division of the existing circuit into four during the Northern Song Dynasty. The capital is Chengdu, a key economic centre of Western China.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Throughout its prehistory and early history, the region and its vicinity in the Yangtze River region was the cradle of unique local civilizations which can be dated back to at least the 15th century BC and coinciding with the later years of the Shang Dynasty and Zhou Dynasty in north China. Sichuan was referred to in ancient Chinese sources as Ba-Shu (巴蜀) by combining the names two independent states within the Sichuan Basin — the kingdoms of Ba and Shu. Ba included Chongqing and the land in eastern Sichuan along the Yangtze and some tributary streams, while Shu included today's Chengdu, its surrounding plain and adjacent territories in western Sichuan.

The existence of the early Kingdom of Shu was poorly recorded in the main historical records of China, it was however referred to in Shujing as an ally of the Zhou who defeated the Shang. Accounts of Shu exist mainly as a mixture of mythological stories and historical legends recorded in local annals such as the Chronicles of Huayang compiled in the Jin Dynasty (265–420), with folk stories such as that of Emperor Duyu (杜宇) who taught the people agriculture and transformed himself into a cuckoo after his death. The existence of a highly developed civilization with an independent bronze industry in Sichuan eventually came to light with an archaeological discovery in 1986 at a small village named Sanxingdui in Guanghan County, Sichuan. This site, believed to be an ancient city of the Shu Kingdom, was initially discovered by a local farmer in 1929 who found jade and stone artefacts. Excavations by archaeologists in the area yielded few significant finds until 1986 when two major sacrificial pits were found with spectacular bronze items as well as artefacts in jade, gold, earthenware, and stone. This and other discoveries in Sichuan contest the conventional historiography that the local culture and technology of Sichuan were undeveloped in comparison to the technologically and culturally "advanced" China Proper in the Yellow River valley.

The region had its own distinct religious beliefs and worldview. Various ores were abundant. Adding to its significance, the area was also on the trade route from the Huang He Valley to foreign countries of the southwest, especially India.

Qin Dynasty

Sometime during the 2nd century BC, the kingdoms of Shu and Ba were conquered by the Qin Dynasty from China Proper, so any written records and civil achievement of the kingdoms were destroyed. The Qin government seemed to have introduced some agricultural engineerings to the region, making it comparable to that of the Huang He (Yellow River) Valley. The Dujiangyan Irrigation System, built in the 3rd century BC under the inspection of Li Bing, was the symbol of agricultural engineering of that period. Composed of a series of dams, it redirected the flow of the Min Jiang, a major tributary of the Yangtze River, to fields, relieving the potential damage of seasonal floods. The construction and various other projects greatly increased the agrarian output of the area, which thus became the main source of provisions and men for Qin's unification of China.

Throughout the history of Chinese Empires, the area's military importance matches its commercial and agricultural significance. As a basin surrounded by the Himalayas to the west, the Qinling Range to the north, and mountainous areas of Yunnan to the south, Sichuan is prone to fog. Since the Yangtze River flows through the basin and is thus upstream of eastern and southern China, navies could easily sail downstream. Therefore Sichuan was the base for numerous amphibious military forces and also served as the ideal hiding frontier for political refugees of Chinese governments throughout history.

Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms

Sichuan was subjected to the autonomous control of kings named by the imperial family of Han Dynasty. Following the declining central government of the Empire of Han Dynasty in the 2nd century, the region saw the establishment of a few independent regimes.

In 221, during the partition following the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty, i.e. the era of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei founded the southwest kingdom of Shu-Han (; 221-263) in the region with Chengdu as its capital

In 263, the Jin Dynasty from north China conquered the Kingdom of Shu-Han as its first step on the path to unify China again, under their rule.

Tang Dynasty

During the Tang Dynasty, the independent Sichuan was conquered and subjected to the military control of the Empire from north China. The region remained as the frontier of the empire, its previous political and cultural status during the Empire of Han Dynasty. The region was distraught by constant warfare and economic distraught as a battlefront upon which the expanding Tang Empire fought with those from the neighbouring Kingdom of Tibet.

Song Dynasty

Sichuan was again incorporated into the expanding Chinese Empire of Song in the middle of the 10th century as the frontier.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the diaspora Southern Song Dynasty established coordinated defenses against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in Sichuan and Xiangyang.

The Southern Song state monopolized Sichuan tea industry to pay for warhorses, but this state intervention brought immediate devastation to local economy and commerce.

The line of defense was finally broken through after the first use of firearms in history during the six-year siege of Xiangyang, which ended in 1273.

Ming Dynasty

During the Ming Dynasty major architectural works were created in Sichuan. Buddhism remained influential in the region. Bao'en Temple is a well-preserved 15th century monastery complex built between 1440 and 1446 during Emperor Yingzong's reign (1427–64) in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Dabei Hall enshrines a thousand-armed wooden image of Guanyin and Huayan Hall is a repository with a revolving sutra cabinet. The wall paintings, sculptures and other ornamental details are masterpieces of the Ming period.

In the middle of the 17th century, the peasant rebel leader Zhang Xianzhong(1606–1646) from Yan'an, Shanxi Province, nicknamed Yellow Tiger, led his peasant troop from north China to the south, and conquered Sichuan. Upon capturing it, he declared himself emperor of the Daxi Dynasty (大西王朝). In response to the resistance from local elites, he massacred a large native population. As a result of the massacre as well as the years of turmoil after the Manchu invasion, the population of Sichuan fell sharply, requiring a massive resettlement of people from other provinces.

Qing Dynasty

A massive resettlement of southern Chinese from neighbouring provinces to the depopulated Sichuan called "Huguang filling Sichuan (湖廣填四川)" lasted more than a century during the Qing Dynasty.

In 1701 the Qing fought a war against the Tibetans in western Sichuan, the Qing secured victory at the Battle of Dartsedo.

A landslide dam on the Dadu River caused by an earthquake gave way on 10 June 1786. The resulting flood killed 100,000 people.

The current borders of Sichuan (which then included Chongqing) were established in the early 18th century.

Republic of China

In the early 20th century, the newly founded Republic of China established Chuanbian Special Administrative District (川邊特別行政區), which acknowledged the unique culture and economy of the region largely differing from that of mainstream northern China in the Yellow River region. The Special District later became the province of Xikang, incorporating the areas inhabited by Yi, Tibetan and Qiang ethnic minorities to its west, and eastern part of today's Tibet Autonomous Region.

In the 20th century, as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan had all been lost to the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the capital of the diaspora Republic of China had been temporary relocated to Chongqing, then a major city in Sichuan. The difficulty of accessing the region overland from the eastern part of China and the foggy climate hindering the accuracy of Japanese bombing of the Sichuan Basin, made the region the stronghold of Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang government during 1938-45, and led to the Bombing of Chongqing.

The Second Sino-Japanese War was soon followed by the resumed Chinese Civil War, and the cities of East China fell to the Communists one after another, the Kuomintang government again tried to make Sichuan its stronghold on the mainland. Chiang Kai-Shek himself flew to Chongqing from Taiwan in November 1949 to lead the defense. But the same month Chongqing fell to the Communists, followed by Chengdu on 10 December. The Kuomintang general Wang Sheng wanted to stay behind with his troops to continue anticommunist guerilla war in Sichuan, but was recalled to Taiwan. Many of his soldiers making their way there as well, via Burma.

People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China, founded in 1949, abolished Xikang province of the Republic of China and merged western part of that province into Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965 while the rest of Xikang was made Sichuan province in 1955.

The province was deeply affected by the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961, during which period some 9.4 million people (13.07% of the population at the time) died.

In 1978, when Deng Xiaoping took power, Sichuan was one of the first provinces to undergo limited experimentation with market economic enterprise.

From 1955 until 1997 Sichuan had been China's most populous province, hitting 100 million mark shortly after the 1982 census figure of 99,730,000. This changed in 1997 when the city of Chongqing as well as the surrounding counties of Fuling and Wanxian were split off into the new Chongqing Municipality. The new municipality was formed to spearhead China's effort to economically develop its western provinces, as well as to coordinate the resettlement of residents from the reservoir areas of the Three Gorges Dam project.

In 1997 when Sichuan split, the sum of the two parts was recorded to be 114,720,000 people. As of 2010, Sichuan ranks as both the 3rd largest and 4th most populous province in China.

In May 2008, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9/8.0 hit just northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu. Official figures recorded a death toll of nearly 70,000 people, and millions of people were left homeless.

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