Jiangnan

Jiangnan is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of its delta.

The most important cities in the area include Anqing, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Wenzhou, Yangzhou and Zhenjiang.

[3] In older and non-standard romanization systems, Jiangnan was historically written as Chiang-nan,[4] Kiangnan,[5] and Keang-nan[6] in English and other European languages.

During the Zhou dynasty, the Wu and Baiyue peoples inhabited the area with heavy aquaculture and stilt houses, but became increasingly sinicized through contact with northern Chinese states.

It was not until the fall of the Western Jin dynasty during the early 4th century AD that northern Chinese moved to Jiangnan in significant numbers.

The Yellow River valley was becoming barren due to flooding (lack of trees after intensive logging to create farmland) and constant warfare during the upheaval of the Five Barbarians.

Many people settled in South China, where the Jiangnan area's warm and wet climate were ideal for supporting agriculture and allowed highly sophisticated cities to arise.

In the 10th century, Wuyue was a small coastal kingdom founded by Qian Liu who made a lasting cultural impact on Jiangnan and its people to this day.

Besides assisting the Southern Ming as long as possible, Jiangnan's gentry offered initial resistance to the Manchu Qing by interrupting tax collection in the area.

After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, and Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition, the Republic of China (ROC), following the wishes of Sun Yat-sen, made Nanjing the national capital.