Li County or Lixian is an administrative division of the prefecture-level city of Longnan in southeastern Gansu, a northwestern province of China.

Commanding a valley connecting the Yellow and Yangtze river systems, it was an important outpost of the Shang and Zhou dynasties and was the initial seat of the Ying family who later established the kingdom and empire of Qin.

The bare loess hills of Central Kan-su with their waterless valleys give way to jungle-covered mountains with abundance of water, and coolie transport takes the place of camels, carts, and mules.

[6] Scientists from Lanzhou University have established that widespread agriculture began in Li County around 6,400 years ago as part of the Banpo phase of the Yangshao culture of the Wei River valley.

He proved so successful that, when the Marquis of Shen blocked his inheritance of Daluo's estate, King Xiao created him lord of nearby Qin (present-day Zhangjiachuan, Gansu).

[8] During the 842 BC Compatriots Rebellion, the Zhou king Li was overthrown at Hao and forced into a prolonged exile;[14] the Rong took the occasion to attack and massacre Cheng's clan at Xichui.

[8] When Zhuang died in 778 BC, his eldest son Shifu (世父) refused to inherit official duties but chose instead to live a life on his chariot, fighting the Rong in revenge for his grandfather's death.

[11][12] His younger brother Xiang opted to marry his sister Mu Ying to King Feng of the Rong (豐王) and, the next year in 776 BC, he moved his capital from Quanqiu to Qian (汧, present-day Longxian in Shaanxi).

[11] When the Quanrong overcame Hao in 771 and ended the Western period of the Zhou, Xiang was granted a promotion by King Ping and no longer suffered subordinate status.

Amid the increasing collectivization of agriculture from 1964 to 1978, just seven flows damaged 22,000 hectares (85 sq mi) of farmland, destroyed 17,544 homes, and killed 1,142 people.

This provoked official action, which denounced the complaints as "sabotage" and "poison", in the period between the fall of the Gang of Four and the rise of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms.