The initial territory ran from the south bank of the Yangtze through most of modern Zhejiang[1] to an indeterminate border among the free people of Minyue.
It was a site long important to the area's native Yue people and connected in Chinese legend with Yu the Great, whose putative gravesite was visited by Shi Huangdi in his tours of the Qin Empire.
The commandery was first formed by Shi Huangdi of the Qin to consolidate control over the lands of miscellaneous Baiyue peoples southeast of Chu captured in 222 BC.
They employed Kuaiji as a base for their own rebellion, which restored a puppet king to Chu before Xiang Yu's defeat by Han.
During the period, Yuyao suffered a plague outbreak but its administrator Zhu Huan's deft handling of the situation was credited with an influx of immigrants.
[10] During the Southern Dynasties period, Kuaiji Commandery was the scene of an abortive rebellion by the retired general Wang Jingze (王敬則) against Emperor Ming of Qi in 498.
In the case of the Jin dynasty, it was a status beneath that of the Prince of Langya but the 6-year-old Sima Yu requested a demotion to it when the greater title precluded him from mourning for his mother.